Manchester United and England defender Harry Maguire has insisted that the Three Lions want head coach Gareth Southgate to continue as their manager amid reports of interest from the Red Devils.
The former Middlesbrough boss is currently due to leave the FA setup at the end of the calendar year and has apparently emerged as a candidate to replace Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford this summer.
On the back of last season's EFL Cup triumph and top-three Premier League finish, Ten Hag has overseen a mediocre 2023-24 campaign, in which his side have suffered 11 Premier League losses and a Champions League group-stage exit.
Nevertheless, the sixth-placed Red Devils are still in top-four contention - sitting nine points worse off than Aston Villa with a game in hand - and will face Coventry City for the chance to compete in the FA Cup final for the second year running.
Ten Hag is not thought to be in any danger of the sack before the campaign draws to a close, but it is unclear whether new stakeholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe - who is now in charge of football operations at the Theatre of Dreams - views him as the best long-term managerial candidate.
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Furthermore, it has been claimed that the INEOS founder would be keen on handing the Man United reins to Southgate if Ten Hag does not stay on, which would offer Maguire the chance to continue working with a manager who has always retained faith in him during his difficult spells.
However, speaking to the media ahead of England's upcoming friendly with Brazil at Wembley, Maguire affirmed that he and his international teammates want Southgate to continue in the Wembley hotseat for as long as possible.
"Yes, definitely (we want him to stay). I've had a great relationship with him. I've been a big part of the success and the progression we've shown as a country," Maguire told reporters.
"I'm sure he will say the same thing now, it's all about winning a trophy. I don't know what's going to happen after the Euros, I don't know if he knows what's going to happen.
"But I feel like what he's done, from when he first took over to where we are now, we've taken huge strides and he's a massive part of that. If Gareth's the man to make us be successful, then we want him to stay as long as possible."
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The FA are supposedly keen to extend Southgate's contract until the end of the 2026 World Cup, but the 53-year-old revealed after naming his March squad that he had put talks with the governing body on ice as preparations for Euro 2024 ramp up.
"I think we would have to sit and think about that at the end of the tournament. I'm happy to talk about it briefly now, but I'm not going to talk about for the whole summer," Southgate said, before referencing Fabio Capello's contract extension just before England's ill-fated 2010 World Cup campaign.
"We've consciously shelved any discussions internally about what might be next, because I think if we had sat and signed a new contract and done that before the tournament, everybody would have said: 'Well, you did this with Capello and you should be proving yourself before you sign.'"
Under Southgate's wing, England made the final of the European Championships for the first time in 2021 and ended a 28-year wait for another World Cup semi-final in 2018, but the Three Lions are yet to win another major senior men's trophy since 1966.
England take on Brazil on Saturday at Wembley in their first match of 2024, before hosting Belgium in the capital three days later, but Southgate must now work around a crushing attacking withdrawal for the two friendlies.
Ben Knapton
