Southgate reflects on his job and England's Wembley win
Wayne Rooney says Gareth Southgate is in "pole position" to become the England boss on a permanent basis.
Southgate was in a typically calm and satisfied mood on Friday night at Wembley having overseen a 3-0 win over Scotland and racking up seven points from his three World Cup Qualifiers in charge.
The FA will now begin to formally assess their options for a new boss after the friendly with Spain at Wembley on Tuesday and it seems the current squad are in no rush to have a new face at the helm.
England skipper Rooney, who Southgate has stuck by despite mounting criticism of the Manchester United striker, told Sky Sports: "Southgate has done brilliant with the U21s and he's come in and done a really good job.
"He's got two wins from three and a good point from the last game in Slovenia. It's down to the FA now and he's put himself in pole position and I'm sure the right decision will be made."
Southgate, who took over from Sam Allardyce in September, revealed he has "loved" taking the reins of the England team, but his future was "out of his hands".
The former Middlesbrough boss said: "It's a unique situation. I'm not sure anybody else has had this many games for everybody to assess what you're doing.
"I just wanted to win this game because I know what it means to this country. It was a big night for our players to come through this pressure environment given the recent history."
It was down to three headers from Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana and Gary Cahill securing the spoils against the wasteful Scots on Friday night to cement the team's advantage at the top of Group F by two points.
Two of the scorers echoed their captain's opinions on the interim boss.
Gary Cahill gives his reaction after the 3-0 victory over Scotland
Liverpool forward Sturridge, whose clever header opened the scoring at Wembley to calm the early nerves, added: "He's relaxed the camp and stamped his authority on the tactics and with his backroom staff.
"I think he's got a good chance to get the job. All the lads are very relaxed with him and we like the way things are going."
While Chelsea defender Cahill said: "It's out of our hands and all we can do is give our very best for him and I think we did that tonight [against Scotland]. Everyone's boosted by a victory like that."
No comments:
Post a Comment