Southgate possible England interim solution

The English Football Association have stated they may look to install an interim successor as national team boss in the wake of Roy Hodgson’s departure.

Hodgson resigned from his post following the shock Euro 2016 defeat to Iceland in Nice on Monday. England had been expected to breeze past tournament debutants Iceland to set up a showdown with hosts France in the last-eight. Hodgson, whose contract expired at the end of Euro 2016, offered his resignation in the moments that followed and the FA are already searching for a successor.

Current under 21 boss Gareth Southgate is among the frontrunners for the job but FA Chief executive Martin Glenn has opened up the possibility that an interim appointment could be made with England due to face Slovakia in their opening qualifier for the 2018 World Cup on September 5.

Should that be the case, Glenn has hinted that Southgate is the most likely man to take charge.

“We’ll see,” he said, when asked of the time scale for a new appointment. “We’d like to get one for the first World Cup qualifier, but if we won’t, we have an interim plan in mind. “We are not talking about names today, but it would be a pretty obvious one to pick. “We just don’t know yet who the runners and riders would be. We are going to scope out, which we start at the end of this week.”

After the bitter disappointment of Euro 2016, Glenn says the FA are looking for a candidate than can inspire the current generation of England players to perform at major tournaments. “We clearly need an inspirational manager who can harness all of the big resources that the English game has got, everything we have now got at St George’s Park, to make us more resilient in tournaments,” he added.

Iceland are 41.00 to win Euro 2016 while their last-eight opponents France are 3.75.