‘He’d do a good job’ – McGrath backs Southgate for Man Utd hot seat
They won major silverware as part of a three-man Aston Villa defence all of 28 years ago and Paul McGrath has now backed Gareth Southgate as a potential candidate for one of the biggest jobs in club football.
Lining up alongside the now sadly-deceased Ugo Ehiogu, then Republic of Ireland international McGrath and future England boss Southgate played their part when Villa defeated Leeds United in the 1996 English League Cup final. Before spending seven years at the Birmingham-based side, McGrath had a similar stint at Manchester United.
Although Erik ten Hag remains in charge of the latter for the time being, his future as Red Devils manager is the source of constant speculation. In the event that a vacancy does arise at Old Trafford, McGrath believes Southgate would be a more than suitable replacement for the Dutch man.
“I think Erik is doing the best he can, but I honestly don’t know whether he’s good enough to be manager of Manchester United. I think Gareth is out of a job now, so maybe that might be a good shout,” McGrath said.
“I played with Gareth for Villa just for a short while. Whether he’d want it after having the England job, whether he’d want our job [Man United], I don’t know. It’s a big choice, but I think he’d do a good job. I think he’d be a great candidate.
“People think, for some reason, that I dislike Manchester United. They gave me my first chance in England. It didn’t end well for me when Alex [Ferguson] popped up and stuff like that, but I still love Manchester United.”
After McGrath departed Villa in the summer of 1996, he went on to play for the newly-promoted Derby County in the English Premier League. During his single season with The Rams, he played alongside Lee Carsley – who was on the verge of making a breakthrough into the Republic of Ireland senior set-up.
Set to lead out England as interim head coach for the third time this evening at home to Greece, Carsley is seen as a more than viable option as Southgate’s permanent replacement in the Three Lions dugout. As fate would have it, his first game in charge of England was against Ireland in the Aviva Stadium at the beginning of last month – a fixture that McGrath attended in person.
While he was hoping his former club-mate would end up on the wrong side of the result on that occasion, McGrath does have fond memories of Carsley and is thrilled to see his current rate of progress in the coaching world.
“I’m delighted for him, but obviously not when he’s playing against us! I don’t know if I got to say hello to him at the Irish game, but a really nice lad and I think it’s great what he’s doing,” McGrath remarked.
“He was only a kid when I met him, but he was a really nice kid. I wanted to wish him well. I didn’t want him to beat us obviously, but turned out he did.”