Tuesday 27 September 2016 21:35, UK
Gareth Southgate will slot into the England job "seamlessly" following Sam Allardyce's departure, Football Association chairman Greg Clarke says.
England Under-21 boss Southgate has been put in charge of the senior side for the next four games after a day of discussions on Tuesday ended with the FA and Allardyce mutually agreeing to terminate his contract after just 67 days.
Clarke told Sky Sports News HQ the decision was not "pre-judged" and was taken only after Tuesday's talks, when Allardyce agreed his comments in a meeting with undercover Daily Telegraph journalists had left his position "untenable".
His departure leaves England without a permanent manager five days before the scheduled squad announcement for next month's World Cup Qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia.
But Clarke said: "Gareth Southgate will do a good job. He knows the people, he knows the team, he knows the set-up at St George's Park. He'll take over pretty seamlessly and he'll get them organised for Malta in 10 days time.
"It wasn't the plan we had but we've now got to make the new plan work."
The chairman praised Allardyce's contribution during a short tenure which took in just one game, a 1-0 win at Slovakia earlier this month, and stressed the 61-year-old had not yet been charged or found guilty of breaching any FA rules over his comments.
But despite insisting he went into talks "with an open mind", Clarke said: "The reality was, after the revelations of yesterday and today, his position was untenable. We discussed that.
"He admitted some of the things he said were foolish. I won't prejudge any of the allegations because that would be inappropriate. Some of the things he said were foolish and we jointly decided it was time for him to move on.
"For a guy who's given so much to English football and has really put his back into (being) England manager, he deserved a fair hearing. He didn't deserve prejudging.
"We looked at all the facts we could get, we're still waiting for some of the transcripts but we've seen the television interview which was aired. We asked Sam how he felt and he said he'd been foolish and used unwise words."
Clarke and FA chief executive Martin Glenn were both in Tuesday's talks, and Glenn spoke of "a very difficult 24 hours".
In an interview with FATV, he said: "In the light of the media allegations that we have seen, we've concluded, and Sam has agreed, that his behaviour has been inappropriate and frankly not what is expected of an England manager.
"Discussing a range of issues from potential contraventions of FA rules through to personal comments that frankly just don't work when you are the manager of England."
