The Football Association will make another attempt to convince Arsene Wenger to bring an end to his long Arsenal reign and become the next permanent England manager at the end of the Premier League season.
But they face a battle with Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke, who was in England last weekend and still hopes to agree a contract extension with Wenger.
As revealed by Telegraph Sport, Wenger was the first man the FA approached when they were searching for a successor to Roy Hodgson after the European Championships but the Frenchman made it clear that he would not break the final year of his Arsenal contract.
At the time, the FA did not feel they could wait an entire season for Wenger and turned to Sam Allardyce. But the country’s governing body are now prepared let the 66-year-old see out the remainder of his Arsenal deal if wants to take over the national team next summer.
Gareth Southgate, who did not want a caretaker role following the departure of Hodgson, has now agreed to take charge of the senior England team for the next four games and there is then an international break until the World Cup qualifier against Lithuania on March 26.
That means Southgate would only need to take charge of one extra qualifier if the FA managed to convince Wenger to leave the Emirates at the end of the season ahead of the Scotland game on June 10.
Wenger ticks all of the boxes for the FA as they consider their long-term options following the departure of Allardyce after just 67 days in charge, but they will face a fight from Arsenal to land him.
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