Former England defender Gareth Southgate believes his club boss Steve McClaren is not yet ready for the England job.

Middlesbrough manager McClaren is one of the leading candidates to replace Sven-Goran Eriksson when the Swede steps down as England boss after this summer's World Cup in Germany. But Southgate feels McClaren, Sam Allardyce and Alan Curbishley are not ready for such a role.

"It should be much easier next time with this group of young managers who are coming through," Southgate told the Sunday Times. "If you had them four years on you would have the ideal scenario because they would all have had much more experience and would probably have worked at bigger clubs. I'm not sure that they are ready now."