Gareth Southgate Has Three Non-Negotiables for Players if He Gets Man Utd Job

Manchester United’s players may have to follow Gareth Southgate’s three non-negotiables if he replaces Ruben Amorim at Old Trafford.

On Saturday, United face Sunderland in the Premier League and will be looking to improve on last week’s 3-1 defeat away at Brentford, which put more pressure on head coach Amorim.

Since the loss at the Gtech Community Stadium, there have been several reports suggesting that Southgate, Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner and Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola are the frontrunners to replace the Portuguese if he were to be sacked.

However, BBC Sport’s Simon Stone claimed that minority stakeholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe was “backing” Amorim and “feels only fair to judge him on a full season”.

It must be noted that there’s nothing to suggest Amorim’s departure is imminent.

Nonetheless, the results the Red Devils have managed since Amorim’s arrival in the winter of 2024 are far from what’s expected of a United side with the Portuguese yet to guide the team to consecutive victories.

Ruben Amorim is under pressure (Credit:Getty)

Some have accused the players of not believing in Amorim’s favoured 3-4-3 formation, with the former Sporting CP boss seemingly refusing to move away from his favoured style despite the poor results.

So, if the 40-year-old were to leave and former England boss Southgate were to arrive at Old Trafford, what would he change and what should the players expect?

Southgate has been without a managerial role since stepping down as Three Lions head coach following the Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain.

Since then, by his own accord, the 55-year-old has been “busy” due to having “several business interests” on the go alongside writing a book.

Speaking at the PFA awards in August, he was pressed about a potential return to Premier League management, having previously managed Middlesbrough in the English top-flight between 2006 and 2009.

“You can’t say never to anything because 15 years ago I left Middlesbrough and I wasn’t certain I would manage then,” Southgate replied.

“Then I ended up on a strange path into managing the national team. But it’s not something I’m actively looking at at the moment.”

Gareth Southgate is a rumoured target for Man Utd (Image: Getty)

So, it is still unclear whether Southgate would be willing to take over from Amorim, but if he did, he would likely implement his three non-negotiables – respect, trust and authenticity - with the players.

Speaking of the non-negotiables during the High Performance Podcast back in 2021, Southgate explained: “Respect is huge and probably covers a lot of the areas really because it's not just respect for me, it's respect for everybody, the team ethos, the lady on reception, your teammate.

“If you're coming off the pitch, respect for the teammate that's coming on, that encapsulates timekeeping, encapsulates preparing professionally for a game. So I think it's sort of the bedrock of everything really.”