Gareth Southgate responds to being Man Utd favourite to replace Erik ten Hag

Over the summer, Gareth Southgate has been strongly linked to replace Erik ten Hag at Manchester United.

Though there has been conjecture about Southgate’s future for the upcoming season, he has stated that he is still intent on leading England to victory in the European Championship this summer. The Three Lions manager has been strongly linked to a summer transfer to Manchester United, where Sir Jim Ratcliffe is expected to put Erik ten Hag on the firing list.

Over the weekend, Arsenal easily defeated the Red Devils 1-0 at Old Trafford, resulting in another setback for the team. In an easy victory over their bitter rivals, the Gunners on Sunday never let up and still managed to restrict United to just two shots on goal.

Ten Hag has faced additional criticism due to the nature of the loss, and as INEOS looks to begin their rebuilding of the club, it has been suggested that changing the dugout’s face over the summer would be the most likely course of action.

Though Southgate is still the bookies’ favorite to leave for the Theatre of Dreams at the end of the season, other candidates to succeed Ten Hag include Graham Potter, the former manager of Chelsea, Roberto De Zerbi of Brighton, and Thomas Tuchel, the manager of Bayern Munich.

The 53-year-old, however, is perplexed as to why he leads the market, saying to ITV News: “Well, I’m not a big gambler, and bookies, they can make their odds, but it’s not like we’ve had conversations.”

“I have only one thing on my mind. That is playing England in a tournament that is as successful as it can be. I find everything beyond that to be completely irrelevant.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is expected to make several significant changes at Old Trafford this summer (Image: Getty)

After that, Southgate declined to even address the question of whether a return to club football was imminent, claiming that doing so would imply that he was not entirely focused on England. He clarified, saying, “I’m already distracted from what I’m doing if I start talking about that. Thus, I believe that the nation would reasonably assume that my attention would be on England.

We’ve taken the audience on an incredible journey in three of our tournaments, so I think we know that, and you know that you want to take it a step further, and this is a fantastic chance for us to do so.