I suspect that the two, who must both be referred to as Sir, know each other well because they use the same tailor. Sir Jim Ratcliffe had several on his list of possible successors to Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford at the very top, Gareth Southgate, who is now knighted for his time as England national team manager.
After leading the Three Lions to four major tournaments and overseeing two EURO finals and one World Cup semi-final, Southgate has been awarded a knighthood after being made an OBE in 2019.
Southgate is knighted: “One of our greatest” now he will be titled Sir Gareth Southgate.
Well, Gareth Southgate will still live up to the name he was born with, but now the former England captain is called Sir Gareth Southgate after he was knighted.
“On behalf of the FA, I congratulate Sir Gareth on this well-deserved honour,” FA president Debbie Hewitt said in a statement.
– One of our greatest coaches. Sir Gareth’s outstanding coaching record across four championships took us to two straight European Championship finals, equalled our best ever World Cup result outside England and we were ranked as one of the world’s top five national teams for more than five years.
The 54-year-old retired as coach of the “Three Lions” after the final loss to Spain in the European Championship last summer. A championship that Sir Gareth Southgate was heavily criticised for despite its successes.
After he retired, Sir Gareth Southgate was considered for a number of clubs, at least they thought so, but the 54-year-old, who wants to manage a club one day, will have a year’s break before deciding anything.
We are reasonably certain that Sir Gareth Southgate will be in charge of Manchester United from next summer, unless owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe manages to tempt him over sooner.
This season is already a disaster for Manchester United, it is questionable whether they can afford to bring in a replacement for Ruben Amorim to save a season that cannot be saved.
Incidentally, I still think we should have knighted Norway’s former national team manager Lars Lagerbäck after beating Malta 2-0 in the European Championship qualifiers in September 2019.
