Gary Lineker believes that England should "go all out" to secure Jurgen Klopp as the next manager, following Gareth Southgate's tenure. Southgate's future is in
question after England's defeat to Spain in the Euro 2024 final, potentially concluding his eight-year leadership of the national team.
During his time as the Three Lions boss, Southgate has led the team to two consecutive European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final over four tournaments. However, there is growing speculation that a new manager may soon take over.
On his "Rest is Football" podcast, Lineker, along with Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, discussed potential replacements for Southgate. While names like Eddie Howe were mentioned, Lineker advocated for Jurgen Klopp as the prime candidate.
“I’m fairly convinced Southgate will leave," Lineker said. "The right person to bring the nation together now is someone with a more modern, attacking style of football. The game has moved away from defensive success. Do you go English? There's only really Eddie Howe. If Gareth calls it a day, I suspect he will—it must be so tough and demanding. If you go English, maybe someone like Lampard would get respect. But wouldn’t you go all out for Jurgen Klopp?”
Richards suggested Pep Guardiola, to which Lineker replied, “We’d all love Pep, but Klopp is out of a job and would have had a bit of a rest. Club managers are paid an awful lot of money, and I can’t see the FA stumping up that sort of cash.”
As for Southgate, he has stated that now is not the time to discuss his position and that it will take time to decide his next steps. He told Radio Five Live, “Now is not the time for me to discuss that. I understand the question, of course, but I need to speak to the right people—we will go from there. It has been an amazing experience to lead a team to a final, but at the moment, to come up short is very painful.” Photo by Liton Ali, Wikimedia commons.