I have known Gareth Southgate for a long time, if I was giving him advice the one thing I would say is that you have to live by the sword, if he has to make a decision – let it be your decision, you are going to get the sack in the end anyway that is just how football works – so be yourself and do what you think is right, if someone is banging in goals – then pick him.

I remember when he was young he looked like CID – I thought he was a plain clothes Police man!  I didn’t know then he was going into management, but he has always talked the right way.

Did he get this job on merit? Not really I think there were managers with better CVs but he has got the job and I really wish him all the best.

He must have ticked all the boxes to get the job, his CV was not jumping out to become England manager – there is no baggage with him, he is not going to kick a fuss up – but if a spade is a spade, you have to call it that. At the end of the day, he is the man at the helm of English football so he doesn’t care if he is a yes man or if someone calls him that – everyone will have thoughts on him but he has to get on with that.

Gut instinct

If he really wants to make history he needs to go with his gut instinct, he needs to trust himself. Don’t get dragged into this thing of picking players on reputation – something we have done tournament after tournament, based on loyalty but this I not about loyalty, he has to pick the best 18 players or so on form, who are available to him – whether that means three or four new players coming in, that is how he will get success in my opinion.

I would hope that he can bring something different but history tells you that when we get to a tournament that is hard – when it gets to the business end, that is when we are going to get judged – it’s all very well winning all these qualifiers in a row but it is tournament football where we let ourselves down.

At the end of the day, at the moment it is like sparring until we get to the main event – if we go to Germany and win there on Wednesday, that doesn’t really mean anything in the long-term. We did the same last year before the Euros.

Dele Alli is old school, he is a bit nasty and has something about him…I would give it to him

Andy Gray on next England captain

One of his first big decisions will be his captain and Wayne Rooney.

If Rooney can’t get in the Man United side then how can he be in? Every other week he is injured – they don’t class him as dropped as he is getting injured a lot, so for me it seems they are using the word injury instead of dropped – so this was the perfect opportunity for him to be left out and then if he can play his way back into the squad then brilliant.

They need to give it to someone who is guaranteed a place, so for me I would give it to Dele Alli – he is old school, he is a bit nasty and has something about him – I like the way he plays, I would give it to him and you could get another ten percent out of him which would be brilliant.

I was delighted to see Jermain Defoe recalled. It you are picking players on form he is right up there and he deserves to be in the squad, Harry Kane and Sturridge are out but even if they were fit he would deserve to be called up.

But Theo Walcott not be in was a weird one for me – I found that hard, I really don’t know why he has been left out, that is strange, he has had a half decent season. Maybe they are looking to the future or something. We do know what he can do, so I don’t think we have seen the last of him in England colours.