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Former England boss Gareth Southgate has praised Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim for turning things around after a rocky start to the 2025/26 season. The Red Devils had a shaky start, securing only four points from their first four matches, and following a 3-1 loss to Brentford in late September, the heat was on Amorim. Southgate was among those rumoured to take over from the Portuguese manager before Ineos and Sir Jim Ratcliffe publicly backed him. It's believed that Ratcliffe holds Southgate in high regard , with Sir Dave Brailsford having previously advocated for the ex-England chief to succeed Eric ten Hag last year. The 55-year-old has been out of work since leaving his post with the Three Lions over a year ago. During his stint with England, Southgate led the team to two European Championship finals and the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup. Promoting his new book 'Dear England: Lessons in Leadership' in a series of interviews on Monday morning, Southgate confessed to the BBC that he's not in a hurry to jump back into management. When asked about the United job on The Sports Agents podcast, he said: "The first thing is they've got a manager who seems to be doing pretty well at the moment. "But yeah, I've had 37-odd years in football. It's been an amazing experience and if you told me as a 15-year-old that's what would happen, then I'd have been absolutely delighted.. "But there's other things in life. And having had the job I just had, where it was for my country, there was a bigger purpose than just the football. That's really hard to replicate. "Working with young people as part of what I do now, it doesn't mean I've got ambitions to perhaps grow a business or work on leadership and other areas as well. But definitely there's something in me to work around young people, perhaps because I've been working with that sort of age group as well recently, and I can see that there is a chance to make a difference and to give groups belief and to unite people a bit more." Speaking on BBC 5 Live Sport, Southgate added more clarity: "I haven't seen it yet," he replied when asked what job he would re-enter football for. After repeating the exact words from Amorim's work recently, it was suggested that his answer "wasn't an outright no" to the job, which he responded to with, "Well, it's not an outright yes that's for certain." Join our new MAN UTD WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Manchester United content from Mirror Football . We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
