Roy Keane and Gary Neville explain why Gareth Southgate could be next Manchester United boss

Dan Ashworth ally may be top of Man Utd’s shortlist to replace Erik ten Hag
Marc Mayo21 March 2024

England manager Gareth Southgate could be the prime candidate to take over at Manchester United.

That is according to Old Trafford legends Roy Keane and Gary Neville, who believe the eventual appointment of Dan Ashworth as sporting director will heighten the chances of Southgate arriving.

The Three Lions boss is keen not to discuss his future with the national team until after Euro 2024 and has previously been open about a return to club football.

Ashworth is on gardening leave from Newcastle ahead of an expected switch to Manchester and worked with Southgate at the FA.

When asked about Southgate becoming the next United manager on Sky Bet's Stick to Football podcast, Keane said: “I could see that happening.

“Well, obviously everyone's thinking he's probably going to be with England this summer if he has a good Euros, thinking if they could win it. And if they don't, then maybe they're thinking you've ran your race with him.

“His connection with Dan Ashworth, who he has worked with previously. Yeah, I'm not that surprised with it.”

Erik ten Hag’s future remains up in their air with United appearing set to miss out on qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

Neville admitted to struggling to picture Southgate in the Old Trafford dugout until the recent overhaul put in place by new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

The former right-back said: “I never saw Gareth Southgate as a Manchester United manager, psychologically, I never saw that.

“I can see it now, now Dan Ashworth has come in.

“I just think, what does Erik ten Hag need to do to stay as Manchester United manager? So, for instance, is the FA Cup enough, or does he need to get top four, or top five, Champions League?”

The speculation over Southgate’s future will continue to bubble away as the Euros approaches and Neville made the case for United signing the England boss up before the tournament, which he believes could also help the Three Lions.

He continued: "I think if Gareth is leaving, I think to be honest with you, you'll have seen this in tournaments, but it's never been easy.

"England will have qualifiers starting up again a couple of months after the tournament, so they'll have to have a new manager in. And 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 in terms of Gareth.

"Forget Manchester United, England would need to appoint a new manager. So, they are going to have to appoint a new manager pre-tournament, probably.

"And say Gareth is going to be leaving after the tournament, unless he's just going to leave on the last day and do it quietly, I don't know."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in