New England manager: FA ready to splash the cash to attract big name

Football Association are prepared to pay an annual salary equivalent to the £4m as they seek a successor to Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson resigned after England's defeat to Iceland in the last sixteen last Monday (Getty)

The Football Association are prepared to pay an annual salary equivalent to the £4m earned by top-end Premier League managers when they appoint Roy Hodgson’s successor, though they will avoid the costly “naivety” of past appointments by incentivising the contract.

FA chief executive Martin Glenn said he is willing to make the package attractive to managers who might otherwise take a big Premier League role, in a sign that the governing body is prepared to make itself attractive to Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger. That could mean England paying over £1m more than the £3m Hodgson earned and returning closer to the £4.5m Sven-Goran Eriksson commanded in 2001, which rose to £5m three years later.

It is understood that Gareth Southgate, the under-21s manager, could still take control of the squad for one game, despite ruling himself out of the running. The FA’s position has been complicated by Southgate’s decision, which surprised them and removed the breathing space they might have had to embark on a global recruitment effort. But in his current role, it would be quite conceivable for the FA to ask Southgate to manage the team in their opening World Cup qualifier in Slovakia on 4 September, while not officially interim manager. If Southgate could be persuaded to look after the side for the opening three qualifiers, with Malta and Slovenia in October, the FA would have four months to find their man.

The fact they are willing to pay a competitive Premier League salary seems to confirm that Wenger is more appealing to them than English choices Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce or Glenn Hoddle, who has not managed for ten years. Jurgen Klinnsman, running the United States team, and Laurent Blanc, who recently stepped down from Paris Saint-Germain, appear more likely successors. Glenn said he would ideally prefer an English manager but “there aren’t that many at the top level”. Wenger has one year left on his contract but may be offered a new one if the club start the 2016/17 season well.

The chief executive will consult senior players on what they think went wrong in France, with captain Wayne Rooney definitely one who will contribute and possibly James Milner, who did not participate, and Joe Hart, whose tournament was disastrous as he was at fault for two of the four goals England conceded.

The former British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford and ex-England rugby union coach Stuart Lancaster are not contributing to the analysis of England’s tournament. Both men are part of an informal advisory group set up before the European Championships by FA board member David Sheepshanks.

Glenn, whose organisation sees this English squad as much better than the one Sven-Goran Eriksson took on 15 years ago, insists the new manager’s salary will be performance related.

“It has to be results orientated. The argument against Sven and Fabio in the past was that it wasn’t benchmarked. We were just naive. [But] my view on [how much we pay] is – take the emotion out of it. What are benchmark earnings for top quality football management? I think you have to look at it in that way. We need to be in the zone of what the world champions are paying and competitively how to make it attractive to someone.”

He is not prepared to go to the kind of £8m figure that Jose Mourinho will command at Manchester United, where he will be presented on Tuesday, but insisted: “We are going into the market and you’ve got to pay a market attractive rate, but no one wants to be naïve.”

Arsene Wenger has emerged as one of the FA's prime targets to take over the English national side (Getty)

Though England have controversially paid more than other top international managers in the past, Glenn believes that their rewards are more lucrative than is generally believed because they also take a cut of the team’s sponsorship rights.

“I know a little bit about what Joachim Low gets, etc. It’s a little bit confused by sponsorship rights,” Glenn said. “There’s other things in there that we don’t have in ours. Certainly in the case of Germany there’s a percentage of the sponsorship figure that goes direct to them. So when you look at the total package it’s little bit different.”

Glenn feels that his refusal to offer Hodgson a contract extension during the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign was been vindicated, despite being accused of showing Hodgson a lack of respect by stating publicly that he must deliver in France first. “I am old fashioned like that, in that this is a results-orientated business more than any,” he said.

FA board member David Gill, who was unexpectedly announced as a third member of a triumvirate including Glenn and FA director Dan Ashworth on the recruitment panel, will be asked to assess the shortlist drawn up by Ashworth, rather than lean on contacts such as his ex-Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to help produce the list.

“Of course you would listen to what Fergie would say but that’s not going to be David’s job,” Glenn said. “He is going to be assessing what recommendations get brought in from his broader canvas and play more of that type of role.

“It’s down to the fact that he’s a great track record in football and when you look at the rest of the FA board there’s no one to match him. He’s an interesting foil to Dan who’s got great contacts and is very strategic.”