Jordan Henderson, Arsene Wenger think Gareth Southgate should keep the England job

When Sam Allardyce was sacked by England and Gareth Southgate stepped in, most assumed the Under-21 boss would only be the senior team’s interim boss for four games. A disappointing 0-0 draw away to Slovenia didn’t exactly help his case for the permanent job. But despite that poor result, Southgate’s got some big backing.

Jordan Henderson, who captained England in Slovenia, said that Southgate is “brilliant” and hopes he stays England manager for a long time. The FA’s assumed top candidate, Arsene Wenger, also says he thinks Southgate is the right man for the England job.

Given the reputation of the English national team at the moment, Southgate might be the best the FA can do. The job pays well, but media criticism is fierce and the players haven’t performed up to their potential since ... 1990? Yep, 1990. Wow, that’s grim.

This Zinedine Zidane control and assist is so gorgeous. (r/soccer)

Chelsea’s getting £60 million ($73.31 million U.S.) a year from Nike now. (Guardian)

Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud are still out this week. (ESPN FC)

Argentina fans: Messi, if you come back you can pick the team! Messi: *Picks the team* Argentina fans: This is outrageous! (AS)

Here are a bunch of Diego Maradona’s extremely bad opinions. (Marca)

Mousa Dembele got hurt on Belgium duty and is expected to be out for this weekend. (Mirror)

Liverpool thinks kids’ careers are getting derailed by money, so they have a new youth wage cap. (Telegraph)

Paul Murphy on Cameroon’s 1990 team and African teams’ struggles to match them since. (These Football Times)

Dave Fox on the problem with Wayne Rooney being bad. (Just Football)

Louise Taylor on Steve Bruce trying to revive Aston Villa. (Guardian)

MLS: Two games (from 8:30 p.m.) -- Both games have playoff implications.