England Coach Candidates
Comment and analysis round up
Its day three in the search for a new England boss, but the likely candidates are all dropping like flies.
Martin O’Neill has ruled himself out of the running, saying “It is a straightforward decision for me to make. I want to be at Villa. I love the job and this is where I want to be. I have spoken to Randy Lerner. He wanted to clear up what he thought he had said last time about a hypothetical situation. But he can look after himself. He is a more intelligent man than me and he knows what he said. I have got a contract. They are not meaningless. The commitment is there. The moment I lose a game, Aston Villa people will be asking if I am committed, and I am committed to the cause. The last time I was not in that situation and I was flattered to be asked for an interview. Obviously I did not do very well. I was not expecting the same again this time around.”
Momentum seems to be building for Fabio Capello to take over the reins. Sid Lowe explains why this marriage of convenience could benefit both sides. “Capello does not speak English and, at 61, is not going to learn, his football lacks flowing style, and he dislikes the press. But he admires English football, believes that he can achieve something with the current squad and has nowhere else to go. He contemplated the USA job but remains unconvinced and has a dreadful relationship with Inter, the one big Italian club he is yet to manage. Calderon’s decision was one for which the FA, desperately seeking its own iron surgeon, could yet be grateful.”
Neil Ashston also speaks up for Capello. “The Italian is a football man through and through. He is not the type to sit in his office at Soho Square shuffling scouting reports, analysing ProZone statistics and casting half an eye up the secretary’s skirt. Who says? His right-hand man Franco Baldini, that’s who. ‘I have never understood why the England manager only watches matches in England,’ said Baldini yesterday. ‘He must see those players all the time — why don’t they travel to Europe to watch the best players playing for the best teams? It would help them build up a profile of the way teams are playing in Europe. International football is an extension of club football. It is very introspective.’”
Football Italia’s Antonio Labbate also offers his support for Capello. “Capello, perhaps the closest thing in the coaching world to Jose Mourinho, also has the character which the England team need right now. With Steve McClaren’s confused ideas no longer relevant, Don Fabio would be more than just a manager for the Three Lions, he would be a leader with clear ideas. A man who opts against stroking egos, results would be all that mattered.”
Doing his best Brutus impression, Franz Beckenbauer offered his thoughts on the future of English football whilst taking the opportunity to stick the knife in against the old enemy. “Who can carry the boys with the three lions on their shirt out of their coma? One name comes to my mind immediately: Jurgen Klinsmann. For him the England job would be ideal, and also for England… One has to ask oneself what the team with the big names such as Lampard, Gerrard or Beckham has achieved in the last year. Since their 5-1 triumph in Munich, the answer is nothing much really and that was back in 2001. In the next three tournaments they were always quickly back home on their island. The team appeared to be lifeless for me. Even against an injury-ridden Germany team, England lost three months ago at Wembley in embarrassing fashion… What’s going wrong? Is the Premier League only booming because there are so many foreign players?”
Steven Howard wants his fellow pundit at The Sun, Harry Redknapp, to be offered the job. “Personally, I think he is the best candidate to succeed the unlamented Steve McClaren as England boss. With either Tony Adams or Alan Shearer as his No 2. Redknapp is not ideal, of course, but as we have discovered to our cost, who is?”
Paul Parker wants Alan Shearer as the England coach. “Alan Shearer may be a 16-1outsider, but he certainly gets my vote. I appreciate that he is inexperienced in terms of managing a team, but the players he will be working with do not need any more coaching - they are already good enough. What the current crop need is someone to inspire them, to believe in them and to motivate them. Shearer has been there and done it as a player and will be able to relate to the players, and vice versa.”
Outgoing number 2, Terry Venables, believes England need to employ a foreigner. “Which brings me to my first thought — maybe it is time for a foreign manager once again. I’ve always believed an Englishman should manage England — if possible. But the job is getting more difficult. It’s always been high profile but the dissection of your every move and decision has become unbeleivably intense. It’s more relentless and ruthless now than ever before. In some ways, it’s almost easier being abroad — a manager working in a foreign country can ultimately choose the moment when he’s had enough and go home. An Englishman faces the aftermath day in day out which means you are never really able to live an ordinary life. An English manager has to think of his family’s security and well-being here, his kids at school and what their experience might be. They can be taunted simply because of what their dad does and says.”
Jimmy Greaves releases his frustration, and names & shames England’s flops. “Poor Scott Carson. Just two more hands and another chest and he would have saved it. Then there’s Wayne Bridge. Just another 10 years and he might know how to play someone offside. Stevie G, we hail thee. Few can play so many dummies, shaping to pass to a team-mate and then completely outwitting him by giving it to the opposition. What a scare we gave Croatia with that fightback. How nobly we hung on to a 3-2 defeat. It could easily have been six but we are more resolute than that. To think the minnows from Israel had given us this chance by beating Russia. Those same minnows who finished on exactly the same number of points as us. Can we, too, not call ourselves real world minnows now?”
The Guardian asks 10 leading Premier League managers, where do England go from here. According to Gareth Southgate, “When I started playing we all went on the lash together and it was more enjoyable but less professional. It’s easy to say they don’t care but I think they do care, it’s just that fear takes over. A lot of players couldn’t pass properly on Wednesday because of tension and anxiety.”
With the 2010 World Cup draw happening tomorrow in Durban, Martin Samuels notes how England’s failures to qualify have potential disastrous knock-on effects as England are now only considered a second seed. “A worst-case scenario could find England as good as reuniting the old Yugoslavia, drawing Italy, Serbia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, enduring a seven-hour flight to Kazakhstan and lining up against the unknown quantity, Montenegro, playing its first tournament as an independent republic. (For the optimists out there, it could also produce a group comprising Greece, Belgium, Cyprus, Armenia and San Marino, but what are the chances? We used up all our luck in Tel Aviv a week ago.)”
Jack Bell, writing for the New York Times, tells America to stop worshiping all things British. “When will Americans realize that there is little today to emulate in the English game? When will Americans realize that a British accent is no guarantee a coach knows what he’s doing? When will we stop importing British players to M.L.S.?… England most certainly gave the game to the world. But the game and the world have changed and England is not the power it once was. Of course, we have a language in common, but the lesson for the game in the United States, which has begun to emerge in exciting ways, is that we need to look beyond England before being seduced by those charming accents.”
The Scotsman interview UEFA’s David Taylor who admits “there will be changes [to the Champions League]. I don’t want to go into detail, because it would be wrong of me to do so… We want more champions in the Champions League. We don’t want it to be an absolutely closed, elite competition - we must spread the benefits across Europe.”
Ian Herbert investigates the growing rift at Anfield. “Sources close to the Americans admit there is real concern about relations with Benitez, which will do little to disabuse some Liverpool fans of the growing notion that the investors –– who will saddle Liverpool with £500m of debt next month by a planned refinancing of their loan to buy the club – are not the knights in white armour they initially seemed. That said, views from the club’s chatrooms yesterday suggested that there is some sympathy for Hicks, too. ‘Rafa can’t moan before every transfer window opens that we needs money when he has been backed so far,’ stated one fan.”
Brian Glanville tries to draw a line under the foreign quota debate. “There is no debate. The battle with the European Union was long lost, however gallantly fought for years at UEFA by the late Artemio Franchi. The EU rules, alas, clearly state that there be freedom of movement for all workers across the countries of the Union. And footballers, whatever some fans may think of a weekend, are classified as workers. I only wish Gerrard and company had a valid legal case.”