Gareth Southgate focused on England despite Manchester United rumours - 'Complete irrelevance'

Gareth Southgate has described rumours linking him with Manchester United as a "complete irrelevance" as he gears up for England's challenge at Euro 2024.

The Three Lions boss is putting the finishing touches to his provisional squad for the tournament in Germany, which will be named next Tuesday (May 21), ahead of the competition starting on June 14.

Erik ten Hag's future in charge of United is the subject of speculation, and could be determined by their Premier League finish. His side are eighth, which would not be good enough for European qualification, with two matches left against Newcastle and Brighton. They will also face Manchester City in the final of the FA Cup.

Southgate has been among those linked if there is a change at Old Trafford, as Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford - the figureheads of Ineos' minority shareholding - continue their remoulding of the club's footballing operations.

Outgoing Bayern Munich head coach Thomas Tuchel has also been tipped, as have Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi - the former and current Brighton bosses respectively.

"Well, I'm not a big gambling man, and bookies, they can make their odds but it's not conversations that's been had with me," Southgate said to ITV News on the speculation, who would not be drawn on whether he wants to return to club management following a spell in charge of Middlesbrough between 2006-2009.

"I've got one thing to focus on. That's having as successful a tournament with England as possible. Everything else outside of that is a complete irrelevance to me.

"If I start talking about that, then I'm already distracted from what I'm doing. So, I think the country would expect that my focus is on England, and rightly so it is.

"We've had three tournaments where we've taken the public on a brilliant ride, I think we know that and I know that you've got that desire to go that one step further, and this is a brilliant opportunity for us to do that."

Southgate says they are heading to Germany with hopes of winning the tournament and going one further than their penalty shootout defeat to Italy in the final of Euro 2020.

But he has some big selection decisions to make before naming his squad, and then trying to fit talent into the starting XI.

Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Harry Kane are likely to feature heavily, but players like Cole Palmer, Ollie Watkins, Jarrod Bowen, James Maddison and Ivan Toney are competing for spots in the 26-player group.

"I think in forward areas, we've got more depth and we have players that are in excellent form," Southgate said.

"That's the area of the pitch where it's probably the toughest to make the decisions in terms of some players that are very good players are going to miss out."

England begin their Euro 2024 campaign against Serbia on June 16, before group matches against Denmark (June 20) and Slovenia (June 25).

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