Sun, 11/20/2011
The Football Association's head of elite development Gareth Southgate is keen that the next England coach should be English.
"It's all on record what I said when Fabio (Capello) was appointed - that the England manager should be English," he told The People.
"My view was based on the idea that international football should be the best of our country against the best of other countries.
"Now I'm involved in coach development, I'd also make the argument that you have to give hope and ambition to English coaches.
"The ultimate job for an Englishman is to manage England and that career pathway should ultimately be open.
"We've got to develop as many people as we can so that in 10 or 15 years' time, there will be such a pool of talent in place that we won't need to look elsewhere."
One of Southgate's key roles is to try and improve the relationship between club and country.
"One thing Spain and Barcelona have proved is that you can have success for club and country," he continued.
"Lots of big clubs realise there is a commercial value involved in their players being internationals. For every England schoolboy, it is still the be-all and end-all to be a full international.
"We have players with 80 or 90 caps and that takes commitment. They get all the criticism for supposedly having a lack of passion but I've never seen that.
"We have to accept players belong to the clubs and that we borrow them but, up to the Under-21 age group, we should be part of a player's development."
Southgate also insists that clubs should not be obsessed with appointing ex-players - something which he himself benefited from when landing the Middlesbrough job.
"We are slightly obsessed with the ex-player who has just finished playing going into management," he said.
"I had it myself. I went into a job when really I should have started at the bottom and worked up.
"I took my first job in the Premier League, without having coached any sort of team.
"Now I'm doing it in reverse. I've had three years managing in the Premier League and now one of the beauties of this job is seeing how people work at grass-roots level. I help coach an under-nines team, too.
"I'm glad I managed Middlesbrough but it was not the way to do it. Really, it was remarkable that I survived so long, especially with what was going on at the club at that time.
"There are guys in certain academies and in the grass-roots game, who have not played professionally and who are very forward-thinking - but we can't tell clubs who to employ as managers.
"I'm a firm believer that you don't have to have had a top playing career to be a great coach or manager because it's two completely different skill sets.
"It can help to relay your own experiences as a player but when you go into coaching you start all over again.
"But people like Villas-Boas and Mourinho have gone out there and done it, they have gone in as a translator or they have gone and pestered people.
"It's easy to say, 'There are no opportunities at the top of our game' but, if we are good enough and hungry enough, I think those chances will come.
"English coaches have to prove ourselves to be better than people from all over the world rather than just the British Isles."
The Football Association's head of elite development Gareth Southgate is keen that the next England coach should be English.
"It's all on record what I said when Fabio (Capello) was appointed - that the England manager should be English," he told The People.
"My view was based on the idea that international football should be the best of our country against the best of other countries.
"Now I'm involved in coach development, I'd also make the argument that you have to give hope and ambition to English coaches.
"The ultimate job for an Englishman is to manage England and that career pathway should ultimately be open.
"We've got to develop as many people as we can so that in 10 or 15 years' time, there will be such a pool of talent in place that we won't need to look elsewhere."
One of Southgate's key roles is to try and improve the relationship between club and country.
"One thing Spain and Barcelona have proved is that you can have success for club and country," he continued.
"Lots of big clubs realise there is a commercial value involved in their players being internationals. For every England schoolboy, it is still the be-all and end-all to be a full international.
"We have players with 80 or 90 caps and that takes commitment. They get all the criticism for supposedly having a lack of passion but I've never seen that.
"We have to accept players belong to the clubs and that we borrow them but, up to the Under-21 age group, we should be part of a player's development."
Southgate also insists that clubs should not be obsessed with appointing ex-players - something which he himself benefited from when landing the Middlesbrough job.
"We are slightly obsessed with the ex-player who has just finished playing going into management," he said.
"I had it myself. I went into a job when really I should have started at the bottom and worked up.
"I took my first job in the Premier League, without having coached any sort of team.
"Now I'm doing it in reverse. I've had three years managing in the Premier League and now one of the beauties of this job is seeing how people work at grass-roots level. I help coach an under-nines team, too.
"I'm glad I managed Middlesbrough but it was not the way to do it. Really, it was remarkable that I survived so long, especially with what was going on at the club at that time.
"There are guys in certain academies and in the grass-roots game, who have not played professionally and who are very forward-thinking - but we can't tell clubs who to employ as managers.
"I'm a firm believer that you don't have to have had a top playing career to be a great coach or manager because it's two completely different skill sets.
"It can help to relay your own experiences as a player but when you go into coaching you start all over again.
"But people like Villas-Boas and Mourinho have gone out there and done it, they have gone in as a translator or they have gone and pestered people.
"It's easy to say, 'There are no opportunities at the top of our game' but, if we are good enough and hungry enough, I think those chances will come.
"English coaches have to prove ourselves to be better than people from all over the world rather than just the British Isles."
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