Thursday 1 December 2016 08:08, UK
After Gareth Southgate was confirmed as England's new manager, we got the verdict from Sky Sports' pundits.
The 46-year-old had four games in interim charge, winning two and drawing two of his games, but has now been handed the permanent job after the sacking of Sam Allardyce in September.
Safe appointment? The right man for the job? Or should England have looked deeper at the pool? The pundits have their say...
I think he will do well. He should know the squad well, he has been around the FA and St George's Park for a long time now, he will know the young players coming through.
Let's give it to one of our own and someone who knows how the FA works and has a great relationship with and Dan Ashworth there. Let's try something different. We have tried every other avenue, so hopefully this one will work and it has started well with the decisions he has made, the teams he has picked and the results he has had.
So I think that was his job interview in the four games he has had.
I do not really know why they have taken so long to do it, it just pretty much sums up the FA that it has taken this long. The audition went well, he won some important games, we played pretty well, I am not sure who else is out there to be honest.
I like Gareth, he is a good guy, I remember playing alongside him for England and he always struck me as the sort of guy who would go on and manage, but you just worry sometimes with what the FA are doing.
He should have been appointed a long time ago and then we can all get on with it. They have met him enough times as he has been managing the Under-21s for a while.
He is the man for the job, he has the experience with the Under-21s, we do make a big song and dance about our England managers and you look at the Italian manager Giampiero Ventura, and the Spanish coach Julen Lopetegui, the Brazilian manager Tite, and they are not household names.
So he has done his time, he knows the inner workings of the FA and I wish him well. It is a slightly different direction we are going in in terms of promoting from within, but in an extremely small pool of candidates, I would not want to see us go beyond these shores to get a manager. I think he is definitely the right man for it.
I couldn't believe how good a player he was until I went and played with him at Aston Villa. He knows his football and loves it. People ask if he's got enough experience, but what English manager would for international football?
He's been with the Under-21s and has won a tournament. He has played in World Cups and European Championships.
It's all about the players. Have we got the players? I'm not sure. That's the problem. I don't think it's the manager. As long as he makes the right decisions for the right reasons, I think he will be successful. We still need to get a couple of youngsters in who have done well.
Really, it's a a thankless task. I don't feel that we've got the players to compete at the very top level of international football. It's tough because everyone in this country expects England to be challenging the top teams in the world when realistically we don't have the depth of squad or players at our disposal.
It's a tough job for Gareth but I hope he does well.
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