#1 Gareth Southgate – England
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England football and controversy seem to go hand in hand. After a group stage exit at the 2014 World Cup and a round of 16 exit in the EURO 2016 against minnows Iceland, fans had hoped that things would take a turn for the better under new manager Sam Allardyce.
‘Big Sam’ is highly thought of in footballing circles and was expected to leave a mark in the biggest job of his managerial career.
And he began with a 1-0 victory against Slovakia thanks to an injury-time winner by Adam Lallana. But soon enough, things started unravelling for the former West Ham manager. He was exposed in playing a major role in a corruption scandal, just one match into his international management career and had to hand in his resignation.
England U-21 manager Gareth Southgate has been named the interim manager and he will be hoping to divert all the negative attention that English football is garnering with some good, positive performances on the field against Malta and Slovenia.
The former England player has a great record with U-21 side, with a win record of 79.4% in his 34 games in charge. He will be hoping to get support from the senior players as he takes charge of the Three-Lions team for the first time.
It will be interesting to see how he utilises captain Wayne Rooney. The Manchester United man has been deployed in various roles for both club and country over the past year and everyone will be watching to see how the new boss handles his captain.
It is also likely that Southgate may hand a start to teen prodigy Marcus Rashford who scored a hat-trick on his U-21 debut, which turned out to be the 46-year old’s last match as the U-21 manager.
