Gareth Southgate is preparing England for a pair of high-profile friendlies this week ahead of this summer's Euro 2024 tournament, but the manager is already being linked with one of the biggest jobs in club football.
Southgate is reportedly the preferred choice of Manchester United owner Jim Ratcliffe to take over for Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford, with Ratcliffe wanting to sign the England boss after the European Championship.
The link comes despite no public indication that Ten Hag will be leaving the role after this season, in which the Red Devils are still alive in the FA Cup and have an outside shot at reaching the top four in the Premier League.
For Premier League winner-turned-pundit Ian Wright, the talk of Southgate to Man United is premature and even a bit disrespectful towards Ten Hag given the amouint of time still left in the current campaign.
Speaking on Sky Bet’s Stick to Football podcast, Wright explained why he thinks the Southgate links are unfair to the current United boss.
“[T]hey’ve got a chance to maybe win the FA Cup, they’re going to have to go some to get into the top four," Wright said.
"But for them to be talking about it now – it’s a bit off-key, bringing up Gareth now like that. But the fact is, is that if he doesn’t win the FA Cup, Ten Hag, and he doesn’t get into the top four, then you can probably have that conversation.
"But he looks like he might do something. Whatever we think he might do in the future, he might do something.
“You see Gareth and yeah, stand-up guy, you can see how it could be, but shouldn’t be talking about him now, it’s out of order."
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