Gary Neville’s Gareth Southgate prediction could prove true despite Dan Ashworth links

Gary Nevile’s prediction surrounding Gareth Southgate could prove to be true despite Dan Ashworth’s close links to the potential Manchester United manager.

Manchester United have been closely linked to Gareth Southgate in the last few weeks as INEOS continue to deliberate if it is best to get rid of Erik ten Hag or not at the end of this season.

It is not hard to understand why Southgate is being linked with the Old Trafford club once you consider that Dan Ashworth, who has worked with the England manager, is likely to be appointed as football director at the club.

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However, there may be a big problem with hiring Southgate. As England have EURO 2024 coming up this summer, Southgate would not be able to join the club until the tournament has finished, which is well into pre-season, and England would have to find a new manager before the next set of internationals in September – something that Gary Neville predicts could cause problems.

“If Gareth is leaving, England has qualifiers after the tournament, so they will have to have a new manager in,” Neville said on the Stick to Football podcast.

“Gareth will need to sort his future out to get a club for potentially the start of next season, so I think if it’s done maturely, I can see how it would be brought forward…

“England are going to have to appoint a new manager, so they will have to appoint one pre-tournament, probably, and say: ‘Look, Gareth is leaving after the tournament’ unless Gareth leaves on the last day quietly. I don’t know.”

As the Manchester Evening News explain, any route to appointing Southgate this summer would be very difficult for INEOS to navigate.

Of course, Southgate is committed to England until the conclusion of the European Championships in Germany, culminating in the final on July 14. Southgate is unlikely to tolerate any disruptions to the team’s preparations for the tournament, especially considering England’s strong prospects of winning the entire competition.

This means that INEOS may need to postpone their decision until mid-July, a timeline they will find unsatisfactory. With Ashworth joining as sporting director and Omar Berrada as chief executive, they will likely seek to finalise the organisational structure as soon as possible this summer, and Southgate’s potential appointment would significantly delay this.

The report explains that no decision has been made on Erik ten Hag’s future, with Sir Jim Ratcliffe recently providing a hint that he may choose to show the Dutch manager faith.

Ratcliffe explained that Arsenal winning the league this season would be good for Mikel Arteta and praised the London club for sticking by him.

“It’d be good for Arteta, actually. I think it would be good for him because he’s done really well there, and Arsenal have been patient with him, which is nice as well.”

Only time will tell whether or not the new co-owner makes the same decision.