Cosying up to his future boss?! Gareth Southgate spotted at dinner party thrown by Manchester United supremo Sir Dave Brailsford as links grow between England manager and Red Devils

The Telegraph reports Southgate attended Brailsford's 60th birthday bash at a venue in London, alongside the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Roy Hodgson, Mauricio Pochettino, and more. INEOS' director of sport, who holds a key role under Sir Jim Ratcliffe at United, also invited Red Devils target and Newcastle United's sporting director Dan Ashworth to the event, where football matters were informally talked about among attendees.

Southgate rubbished the "completely disrespectful" rumours linking him with the Old Trafford job earlier this month but speculation about him replacing Erik ten Hag in the United hotseat are likely to continue as minority owner Ratcliffe reportedly admires the Three Lions manager. If he leads England to Euro 2024 success and the Red Devils struggle under Ten Hag, these links are only likely to grow.

Brailsford - who celebrated his leap year birthday - has repeatedly been seen in the directors' box at United's matches since Ratcliffe and INEOS' investment was confirmed late last year. The former cycling guru at Team Sky and INEOS now sits on a three-person committee running the football operations at United.

While the off the field rumours around Southgate may continue, Ten Hag's United side return to Premier League action on Saturday night away to lowly Brentford, before travelling to Chelsea on Thursday, April 4.