Pochettino favourite to replace Southgate as England boss
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Next England manager odds: Tuchel second favourite
England head coach Gareth Southgate revealed he will take time to decide on his future after a heartbreaking World Cup quarter-final exit to reigning champions France.
Having reached the semi-finals four years ago and lost last year’s European Championship final at Wembley on penalties, their winter quest for glory in Qatar was ended in Saturday’s blockbuster showdown when Harry Kane missed the second of his two penalties which would have taken the game into extra time.
The 52-year-old is contracted until after the European Championship in 2024 but was non-committal on his future after losing to France.
He said: “I think whenever I finish these tournaments, I’ve needed time to make correct decisions. Emotionally you go through so many different feelings. The energy it takes through these tournaments is enormous. I want to make the right decision, whatever that is for the team, for England, for the FA. I’ve got to be sure whatever decision I make is the right one.”
With Southgate’s future up in the air, we’re looking at potential candidates to replace him and the next England manager odds.
Mauricio Pochettino
The popular Argentinian was the 8/1 fourth favourite to land the England job in October, but has jumped to the top of the pile.
Pochettino has been out of work since being sacked by PSG in July, but he knows the Premier League well after more than five years with Tottenham, the team he took to the Champions League final three years ago.
The former Tottenham boss replaced Thomas Tuchel as PSG manager in January 2021, but failed to win the Ligue 1 title despite having the likes of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar in his squad, although that was rectified in the following season.
Thomas Tuchel
The German, 14/1 less than three months ago, has a similar profile to Pochettino having also been shown the door by PSG and coached a top London club.
Tuchel won Ligue 1 twice in back-to-back seasons and led Chelsea to a second Champions League title last year, although they lost twice to Liverpool in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup finals.
He has experience of dealing with big-name players, but also has a reputation for falling out with the hierarchy, something that will not have gone unnoticed by the FA.
Steve Cooper
Cooper was thought to be on the brink of the sack after Nottingham Forest succumbed to a fifth successive defeat in a 4-0 drubbing at Leicester, but his star remains undiminished at the club who offered him a new contract instead to put a lid on speculation about his future.
The Welshman steered Forest to the top flight for the first time in 23 years with a Championship play-off final victory over Huddersfield, but brought in 22 new players during the summer to compete at the top table.
The experiment has yet to pay dividends as Forest find themselves in the bottom three, unlike fellow promoted clubs Bournemouth and Fulham who are ninth and 14th respectively.
Cooper got a taste for international football during a five-year coaching spell with England youngsters between 2014-19, leading his team to the Euro U17 final in 2017, the same year they won the World Cup by defeating Spain in the title decider.
Eddie Howe
Howe was the 11/2 favourite for the England role in October, but a successful spell with money bags Newcastle has seen his odds drift.
The Magpies signed off for the World Cup by strengthening their grip on third spot with a 1-0 victory over Chelsea to make it five successive wins in a 10-game unbeaten run.
With Champions League football next season a possibility, the FA may find it difficult to prise Howe away from St James’ Park.
Howe famously took Bournemouth from the fourth tier to the dizzy heights of the Premier League over two spells interrupted by a two-year stint with Burnley, but is now proving himself at a high-profile club and with established internationals.
Graham Potter
Potter was just behind Howe in the betting market a few months ago but has hit a rough patch as Chelsea manager with three successive Premier League defeats and a Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Manchester City
The former Brighton manager has five England internationals under his wing, including Raheem Sterling, Reece James and Mason Mount, so he has first-hand knowledge of some of the senior players in the international set-up.
Potter has not been helped by injuries but James and Wesley Fofana are close to making returns, while Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ben Chilwell are improving, so results may start to improve in the next few weeks which could see his odds shorten.
Best of the rest
Brendan Rodgers’ star is in the ascendancy again having pulled Leicester out of the relegation zone with four wins in their last five outings which lifted them to within two points of the top half of the table.
Rodgers is 12/1 in the next England manager odds, the same price as Everton boss Frank Lampard who is the 4/7 favourite to be the next Premier League manager to leave his job.
Former England midfielder Steven Gerrard, sacked by Aston Villa in October after 11 months in charge, is also 12/1.
All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication
