Dual role for Southgate would concern Boateng
George Boateng has urged Gareth Southgate to put his ambitions to go into management on hold – for the sake of the former England defender’s playing career.
Dutch midfielder Boateng fears Southgate’s game would suffer if he was to take up a role involving both coaching and managing.
The 35-year-old is reportedly among the contenders to become Boro’s new manager, after a failed attempt by chairman Steve Gibson to persuade Terry Venables he should accept the post. Martin O'Neill also appears unlikely to be won over by Gibson.
But Boateng said of Southgate in The Sun: “If he was player-manager his priorities would change – and he might struggle to do both jobs at such a young age.
“Either he would do well as a manager and it would be a waste of his talent as a player, or he’d focus on playing and maybe not manage so well.”
Boateng, who ended speculation about his own future by signing a new three-year contract yesterday, added: “There’s plenty of time for him to be a manager.”
Gibson has not given up hope of persuading Martin O’Neill that his future lies on Teesside, although the obstacles which stood in his way when he first spoke to the Northern Irishman remain in place.
Alan Curbishley, who had talks with the club several weeks ago, is another alternative.
Boateng, 30, would support the appointment of a British boss, and explained: “We’ve a great youth set-up here – a whole team of youngsters capable of playing in the first team – and we wouldn’t want a foreign manager coming in and not using them.”
