Five reasons why Ratcliffe is right to pick Southgate as next Man Utd manager
‘Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his gang of Manchester United revolutionaries are looking at alternative options to Erik ten Hag, who seems increasingly unlikely to last beyond the summer’ we wrote in May 2024 when we first put forward some reasons why Gareth Southgate would *actually* be good for United.
At that stage links to the England manager provoked head-shaking on mass from Red Devils fans, who refused to even consider the appointment of a man who unilaterally prevented the actual Golden Generation from winning three major tournaments on the bounce over, say, a very charming man from Portugal. What they needed was a clear philosophy and system, not good will and vibes, FFS.
There was more than a whiff of rage-bating in our last Southgate to United rationale, but the mess that’s been Ruben Amorim’s Old Trafford tenure makes Ratcliffe sticking him on the shortlist of possible replacements less ‘bemusing’ than ever.
Togetherness
Put your cynicism aside for a second, difficult though it is not to imagine Southgate as a travelling team-building consultant stood in front of half-asleep employees with this one word on a whiteboard behind him: “What does togetherness mean to you?”
Because the Manchester United players could really do with a week of inset days to hammer home what it means to pull in the same direction and support each other.
The dressing-room remains as leaky as a discount diaper and Ratcliffe should consider splashing out on name-brand nappies to failsafe against the collective sh*tting of the bed from United players at the first sign of strife.
Southgate may not be the greatest tactician, but there can be no doubting his ability to improve the ethos and dynamics of a dressing-room, having picked England up off the floor after they were thunder-clapped out of Euro 2016 and leading them to a place where each and every player enjoyed wearing the shirt which used to weigh heavy to the point of paralysis.
It’s been a long time since Manchester United players looked as though they were enjoying their football as much as the England stars did under the former Middlesbrough boss, with Ten Hag and Ruben Amorim’s teams as burdened as the pre-Southgate Three Lions.
Dan Ashworth was so right
Gareth Southgate consistently and vehemently praised the impact of Dan Ashworth on England in their time working for the FA together, crediting the 159-day United sporting director for the country’s success at youth level, which translated to the significant improvement of the senior team under Southgate’s watch. And the respect is mutual.
“Gareth is an exceptional leader,” Ashworth said ahead of the 2018 World Cup, just before he upped sticks for Brighton. “The environment that has been created is down to him. He’s got a really good understanding of getting the best out of the players and staff. So what’s ended up happening is that Gareth has brought together a way of working for the players and the staff that means it is one big group of people. He has to take the credit.”
We’re not about to suggest that United should follow the advice of a man they a) sacked after five months, and b) voted in favour of keeping Ten Hag after the 2023/2024 season, but he was so right about the ‘mass disruption’ hiring Amorim and his very specific style wholly unsuited to the United squad would cause that you’ve got to wonder if he might have been just as spot on with Southgate being the best bet to help them crawl out of the hole they continue to dig for themselves.
READ MORE: Ruben Amorim is the worst of 19 Sir Jim Ratcliffe mistakes at Manchester United
Philosophy schmilosophy
Who better to replace a man roundly criticised for his stubborn insistence on a failing system and philosophy than a man who never really had either?
Southgate’s critics claimed he failed to get the best out of one the greatest crops of attacking English talent in history and we’ll get a better sense as to whether that’s fair or not when we see what Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions produce at the 2026 World Cup. We would be surprised if they do any better.
He got them to two major tournament finals, largely by – and we know this sounds mad – looking at the players he had available to him and coming up with a formation to get the best out of those players.
Now, we know that didn’t always work and there were square pegs in round holes at times. But it’s not as though there was some sort of naturalisation window where he could bring in ‘his players’ from other nations. He had to make do with what he was given and we’re guessing that will be a very attractive quality in a new Manchester United manager for Ratcliffe and the Ineos bosses.
He won’t do anything revolutionary. He’s not about to rip up Premier League playbooks. Four at the back. Two sitting midfielders behind Bruno Fernandes in the No.10. Couple of wingers. Striker. Sorted. And Manchester United will be so much better for it.
Homegrown focus
It was claimed at the start of his tenure that Sir Jim was keen on signing homegrown talent as part of his changes to the recruitment model at United. He ‘wanted to reinforce a domestic flavour’, which sounds suspiciously Brexit-y, but is likely – just as deplorably – to be connected with a desire for more Manchester United DNA.
We don’t quite know what’s happened since as literally none of Ratcliffe’s £430m-odd outlay has been spent on homegrown players, while Mason Greenwood, Scott McTominay and Marcus Rashford have all p*ssed off and Kobbie Mainoo hasn’t yet but is certainly p*ssed. In fact, all evidence points to Ratcliffe hating British footballers. Might make that our headline.
There’s bound to be a patriotic shift under Southgate, who could prove to be quite the carrot for new signings of the correct heritage, but would also surely put Mainoo straight back into the starting lineup, as he should be anyway, having picked him for Euro 2024 after half a season of senior football, before selecting him (admittedly after some Conor Gallagher, Trent Alexander-Arnold nonsense) as Declan Rice’s midfield partner.
We know he’s a big fan of Mason Mount and it’s hard to see a manger getting less out of him than either Ten Hag or Amorim. And while there might be a slight concern as to just how enduring his love is for Harry Maguire and whether that might see him start each and every game, if Matthijs de Ligt plays as he did against Brentford then that is absolutely what should be happening.
The press conference charisma
It was supposedly an obsession with Amorim’s charisma which played no small part in Ratcliffe and Ineos plumping for him as their manager, and we can’t think of anything other than the Portuguese manager’s charm that’s keeping him in the job right now. If anything, he’s honest to a fault, but that makes him a very difficult man to dislike, and there’s no doubting his ability to hold a room.
Southgate is also excellent in a press conference. Not in the same smiley, jovial, self-deprecating way, but when he speaks, you listen and the United bosses can rest assured that they’re in the safe hands of a company man should they appoint him.
There will be plenty of Red Devils fans who couldn’t give two shiny sh*ts about how good their leader is with the media, but like it or not, the way in which a manager is perceived, spoken and written about makes a significant difference to the time they’re given to implement ideas on the pitch and, more crucially, is a fairly good indication as to how they’re dealing with the players. Southgate could soothe the Old Trafford disorder.
