Twist, don’t stick – why England should go for Pep Guardiola and not Graham Potter

Some 49 years ago in Kuala Lumpur, Joe Bugner took on Muhammad Ali for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.

Bugner had the ability to beat an already ageing Ali, but aside from the first minute of the 15-round fight barely broke a sweat, and produced one of the most disappointing performances in British boxing history.

Fast forward to the present day and there’s a clear comparison between Bugner and Southgate.

But while it was one fight for the much maligned Bugner, Southgate has had three opportunities, Croatia in the World Cup semi-final in Moscow in 2018, and two successive European Championship finals against Italy (and at Wembley as well) and Spain respectively.

On all three occasions England had not only the players but the opportunity to win all three matches, but fell short every time – I know, I was there every time. For me as the dust has settled from last week, Spain is perhaps still a maybe, if we’d pushed on after we equalised, who knows? But the other two, both times we definitely snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Ultimately as the manager the buck stops with Southgate, so unfortunately that will be his legacy. So what now?

With Newcastle’s Eddie Howe immediately ruling himself out, my normally reliable source informs me that former Albion and Chelsea manager Graham Potter is virtually a shoo-in – he apparently ticks all the boxes at the FA despite his ignominious exit from Stamford Bridge just over a year ago.

So Southgate replaced by Potter. If this was blackjack in Vegas, the FA would certainly being sticking. But what if they twisted instead?

Xenophobia is worth 24 points in Scrabble, but does it really have any place in modern day football? Why does the England football manager have to be English?

No one batted an eyelid 19 years ago when Zimbabwe’s Duncan Fletcher led the England cricket team to regain the Ashes from the Aussies.

I make no excuses or hide the fact that I’m not a Potter fan, but replacing Southgate with him is like moving the deckchairs around on the Titanic.

Unfortunately at a time when we need forward-thinking from the FA, the organisation has some people in positions of power with no apparent footballing background.

Come on, FA, throw down the gauntlet to the rest of the football world, put this mouthwatering proposal in place: get an experienced interim manager in for 12 months then get Pep Guardiola in when he leaves City next May?

...