England U21 boss Gareth Southgate rules himself out of Aston Villa job

England Under-21 boss Gareth Southgate has revealed that he is not prepared to "step away" from his role to take on the Aston Villa managerial job.

The 44-year-old, who spent six years at Villa during his playing career, has been touted as a possible candidate to replace recently-sacked Paul Lambert.

However, Southgate has insisted that he is focused on taking England's Young Lions to the European Championships this summer.

"[Villa] is a fantastic football club and I had a brilliant time there, but I'm really enjoying what I'm doing," Southgate told talkSPORT. "We have the European Championships this summer and we have a realistic chance of doing extremely well in that.

"You don't get many opportunities to try and win something in your career so the summer is an opportunity for me to do that, and I'm not going to step away from what I am doing at this moment in time."

Ghana boss Avram Grant has also ruled himself out of taking the position.