When Tottenham decided to part ways with Jose Mourinho earlier this month, a whole host of names were brought up as potential replacements for him.
One name that came up surprised many though, and that was current England manager Gareth Southgate.
The former Aston Villa defender was appointed England manager back in 2016 after the dismissal of Sam Allardyce, promoted from the role as Under-21 manager which he had held for three years. Prior to that, he was manager of Middlesbrough for three seasons too, but that is as far as his managerial prowess extends.
He did a great job with England at the 2018 World Cup, leading them to a semi-final before getting them to the last four of the inaugural UEFA Nations League the following year. But since when has doing an okay job with the national team earned you a chance with the top clubs?
Southgate has come under criticism from fans of the national team for his defensive approach to fixtures, with a pragmatic mindset quite often at the forefront of any big games they play.
He's currently the man leading one of the most exciting England squads since the golden generation that included the likes of David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney, and yet he tends to set his teams up with more defensive minded players and play on the back foot.
He's not won any trophies yet at any level and has a relegation under his belt from his time with Middlesbrough, so I'm not sure what big clubs are seeing in him to be interested.
This job isn't the first time he's been linked to a top job, with Manchester United reportedly interested in him when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's position was under threat last season. But other than a decent World Cup run, he's not got a lot going for him.
He's got plenty of time to develop as a coach, he's still young. At just 50, he has plenty of learning to do and he does have experience with top players - but international football is so different.
Southgate only deals with players two weeks at a time, and has a huge pool of players to select from. When a key player gets injured or is unavailable, he has the ability to just draft someone else in to continue, but the evidence suggests from his time as a club manager that having a set squad to work with doesn't go so well with him.
With Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup on the horizon, Southgate has a chance to further enhance his reputation. He can start playing forward-thinking football with some top attacking talent at his disposal and show that he can take the game to the best of the rest.
Until he develops that and shows he can do it, he has no place at one of the top clubs in the country. Spurs in particular should be pushing for trophies, regular Champions League football and dominating against teams. That's what they want in their new manager and Southgate is not the answer for that. At least not yet, anyway.
Source : 90min