Do you think the England manager should be English?

[Chindie]

I'd struggle to care less.

[Shoody]

Next you'll be saying I'm racist because I want all the players to be English...

Mikel Arteta could play for England and is 0% English. If he scored the winning goal for England in the World Cup Final... would you celebrate?

[TRS-T]

Next you'll be saying I'm racist because I want all the players to be English...

Mikel Arteta could play for England and is 0% English. If he scored the winning goal for England in the World Cup Final... would you celebrate?

I'm 100% against Arteta playing for England.

I don't mind if you come to England as a kid (e.g. Muamba) so you go to school in England, feel English etc etc.

But if you come here as an adult to play football (Arteta, Almunia) then you shouldn't be playing for England.

In that situation I'd celebrate but I wouldn't want Arteta to go down as some sort of England legend when he's not even English.

[GarethRDR]

What if you just pretended his name was Michael Atherton?

[The_Rev]

I think you just picked the only England cricketer from the last 25 years who was actually born in England as your example.

[Shoody]

Today. I feel particularly English.

?

[jonno_2004]

I would rather he actually spoke English.

Besides that I couldn't give a shit.

[TRS-T]

For those of you who don't mind having a foreign manager:

Do you think that Capello should have been appointed considering that he can't speak English fluently.

Should that be a pre-requisite of the job.

Must be fluent in English?

Personally, I'd prefer must be English.

But at the very least it should be must be fluent in English.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

He speaks good Enough English. Shame about his managerial skills.

[jimbojames]

I think we should give an English or dare I say it Scottish manager a try. We've experimented with foreign managers now and for the money forked out they haven't delivered. We need a manager in there who understands the English support, media, expectations and isn't just there to enjoy their salary.

[Rino8]

We should try Phil Brown, or Ian Holloway.

[TRS-T]

We should try Harry Redknapp.

[foreveryoung]

No manager could make this Engliand team quality. Capello is a quality manager and I believe if he cant do nothing with this team no one will. The team is a utter disgrace to us English. The only players putting out yesterday were Ashley come and get me young and Wiltshire who Believes in the England Badge. The likes of Rio, Terry, Lampard, Walcott to name a few have zero passion for the team. They are happy enough selfishly going back to there 100k salaries. The current England set up cannot play Cappelo's continental football and never will able to. It was like Houllier trying to train our lot, it was'nt working cause we have not been brought up with this style of football. Premiership football is not as good as Europeam style football this has been proved. Untill our team learn how to play quality "Barca esk" football, we are unfortunately gonna win fook all!!!

Redknapp is a quality manager, but as with all English Premership managers there style of football in European or International matches will not get us to a winning pedigree.

Rant over!!!

[Palmdog18]

Anybody who gets paid 6 million a year should be able to beat any team on the planet!

[norton65ca]

get a bunch of the most promising 17 year olds, send them to Barca's academy for two or three years, keep them well away from the prima donnas currently incumbent in the England squad and see what happens. Better than what's currently on offer anyways. Gawd if I never see Terry, Lumpard and Ferdinand in an England shirt again I'll be happy.

Out with the old, including Cappello. Harry for England.

[ml1dch]

F365

The only thing more depressing than watching a poor England game is the reaction to it. It's deja vu all over again.

Out of the woodwork come the same bunch of post-match idiots, generation after generation of them, spouting the same rubbish as the last lot. Game after game - as though it's original thought.

For some the team's failure is all down to the boss. His failure to speak fluent English is apparently the cause of England's 'failur'' now. He is called 'pathetic'. Contempt for him is total.

The more clear-eyed amongst us know that Fabio Capello has a win ratio of over 64% - the highest of any England manager.

Any England manager ever.

Under Capello we have lost just one qualifying game, drawn two and won 12 across two campaigns. Just how good do these witless freaks expect England to be?

Boo. We need an English manager to inspire the lads, they say. Yeah because that always works. And they say it like it's an original and unique thought.

Because these people seem to have no recollection of the past. Here's a reminder;

We've had England managers who spoke perfect English; they didn't win anything and played badly occasionally.

We've had England managers full of passion and patriotism; they didn't win anything and played badly occasionally. The most passionate tub-thumper of all, Kevin Keegan, was statistically the worst manager in our history.

We've had cool and calm managers; they didn't win anything and played badly occasionally.

We've had strict disciplinarian managers; they didn't win anything and played badly occasionally.

We've had laissez-faire, mates-of-the-players managers; they didn't win anything and played badly occasionally.

Capello has merely inherited this condition - he has neither created nor caused this situation. Can't they see this? It's pretty bloody obvious, isn't it?

Every England manager tends to be a reaction against the previous. Any knowledge at all of history shows this but the England blowhards can't seem to remember anything. They have selective or total amnesia.

They scream for Capello to be sacked and they want Harry Redknapp to do the job instead. Of course they do. He'd be a proper England manager, you know. A man who will go red in the face and shout in English at the players. A man who will invest a sense of olde Albion in them. Henry the bloody fifth and all that.

Because that's just what is lacking - it's the missing ingredient that will make England always play well and beat everyone all the time. It's nothing at all to do with the players' technical ability and football brains and temperament is it? No. All you need is someone to recite Kipling at them, tell them how good Bobby Moore was and they'll 'ave more facking passion!

Passion is a favourite word with the loudest gobshites. Here comes the fan who proclaims he would do anything to play for England...'anything'...(shouting now) but these lazy millionaires couldn't give a toss. Why can't the players be more like the fans? It's like listening to an infant crying.

It is never clear from anything said how passion should show itself on the pitch - it is only clear to them that it is not shown.

After listening to this type of criticism for 40 years, I still don't know how they expect a player to show his passion. Should he weep? Should he sink to his knees and beat the pitch with his fists? Should he tackle harder? Should he just run faster for longer? Should he be shouting and bleeding more?

Yes, shouting and bleeding, that shows passion. They disgust me! I'd shout and bleed if I was playing for England. Tony Adams used to shout. Terry Butcher used to bleed.

Did we win anything? No. Did we play badly a lot of the time? Oh yes and were slated for it year in, year out. Turns out shouting and bleeding does not equate to success. Don't you remember that?

And look...here he comes the inevitable joker saying that England fans would accept getting beaten if the players played with passion and thus, his impeccable logic suggests, a Championship side should be selected instead (because they care more....and play as a team..or something....as though 5k a week doesn't dilute your passion as much as 50k does).

Let me tell you that an England side that ran around a lot more, puffed out its chest, shed tears and kicked a couple of kneecaps off and got beat 5-0 in the process would be hated and ridiculed by these very same people and more. They would be called a national disgrace. Obviously. They would not be lauded as glorious losers, not even if they were all suffering from a gaping head wound.

But those who can't bring themselves to hate the players for being rich and passionless return to another old favourite to explain England's failures.

The unselected players and the unused tactical system.

When we play 4-4-2 and lose or play poorly, it is old-fashioned and out of date. We need to play 4-3-3. But when we play 4-3-3 and lose or play poorly it is because they lack passion or don't know how to play the system properly.

The more obvious truth seems to escape the blow-hards and that is this; England players are not consistently good enough to deliver quality performances game after game regardless of tactics and personnel. They never have been.

It is always the manager's fault for leaving out the player in favour at the time. Leave out Jack Wilshere and you're an idiot, Capello. But then when he plays and we're still rubbish, it's not Jack's fault, it's Capello's for either playing him out of position or - failing that - for not inspiring him, or more likely, it's all because Capello left out Ashley Young. There's always someone who hasn't been picked who is the would-be saviour. They never are.

The missing hero of one game, when included, often turns out to have feet of clay. But by then, the verbal diarrhoea merchants have moved on to blame the manager for another omission. And so it goes.

Worse of all is the fact that all of these frankly moronic viewpoints are predicated on the idea that England should be better than any display they have just given. They should beat Switzerland easily. This is an assumption based on the square root of sod all.

The sane man points to the plethora of results over the years where we have failed to beat, or played poorly against a supposedly inferior country.

The sane man might also point to other results achieved by 'big' countries which are less than stellar and might want to say that this is how football goes sometimes. There are few gimmes in international football. Sometimes even poor sides play really well, sometimes good sides play poorly. It is not a national disgrace to draw with Switzerland, a side who beat everyone's darlings, Spain. It's exactly the sort of result England produce from time to time.

English football at its roots, at its core, has not really changed in 40 years, not in its culture nor in its technicality, which is surely why the results remain broadly the same, regardless of manager and players. There are less Englishmen to choose from because of foreign imports (another favourite phone-in beef) but it matters not. We didn't do any better when the opposite was true. The quality has always been lacking even when quantity was high.

The anger directed at the current incumbents on the bench and on the pitch is, as ever, witless, especially when its conducted in such extreme, apocalyptic tones. Rather, it is part of the problem; part of the culture of easy hate and fickle worship; part of a culture which assigns England an international football entitlement that simply has not earned and does not deserve but which simultanously somehow manages to under-appreciate what England have actually achieved.

It's an insane paradox. It's no wonder the shirt is worn so heavily by so many.

[rosenthal]

Gawd if I never see Terry, Lumpard and Ferdinand in an England shirt again I'll be happy.

Out with the old, including Cappello. Harry for England.

I fear Harry more than anyone would hold onto the experienced players and build the team around them, especially his nephew Lampard

Oh yea, In my opinion it's an embarrasment that England have foreign manager. That's something only nations without history and infrastructure should employ.

[MrDuck]

I think we should give an English or dare I say it Scottish manager a try. We've experimented with foreign managers now and for the money forked out they haven't delivered. We need a manager in there who understands the English support, media, expectations and isn't just there to enjoy their salary.

Yes. What we need is Kevin Keegan.

[TRS-T]

Jamie Carragher insists the next manager of England should be English – and believes it’s a form of cheating to have a foreign boss in charge.

Fabio Capello is set to stand down after next summer’s Euro 2012 finals, assuming England qualify and, Harry Redknapp aside, there are not numerous home-grown candidates to replace him.

But the Liverpool ace believes the FA should appoint someone from these shores and not look overseas once more to replace the Italian.

He told the Keys and Gray Show: “The next manager of England should be English. I’ve got nothing against Capello, I went to the World Cup and got to know him, but that’s not what international football is.

“It’s like saying if our keeper’s not good enough, we’ll go and get Buffon from Italy. It’s a form of cheating in international football and it’s a bit embarrassing.

“It’s different for developing countries in Africa and elsewhere, who are trying to build the game up but, for England, such a big football nation, I don’t think we should have a foreign manager. Just because it didn’t work out with Steve McClaren, it didn’t mean we had to go for a foreign manager. We should have gone for the next best Englishman.”

Carragher admits, however, that overseas managers have an aura about them their English counterparts don’t have, because bosses in this country are not getting the opportunities to test themselves with the biggest clubs.

He added: “If every club had an English manager, someone would have to win the league! Someone would have to win the FA Cup! And then they’d accumulate these trophies.

“Capello had an aura and presence that maybe McClaren didn’t have. And it was the same with the likes of Benitez and Houllier at Liverpool, and Mourinho at Chelsea.

“With their CVs, they’ve all got something about them and have won big trophies. So does that mean English managers need to go abroad?

“Chelsea have appointed a 33-year-old manager, Andre Villas-Boas, this summer. Years ago someone like David Moyes would have got that job.

“That still happens in Italy and Spain - Rafa Benitez went from Tenerife to Valencia - but that doesn’t happen in England anymore.”

Carragher: Having a foreigner in charge of England is a form of cheating

[Wainy316]

Jamie Carragher insists the next manager of England should be English – and believes it’s a form of cheating to have a foreign boss in charge.

Fabio Capello is set to stand down after next summer’s Euro 2012 finals, assuming England qualify and, Harry Redknapp aside, there are not numerous home-grown candidates to replace him.

But the Liverpool ace believes the FA should appoint someone from these shores and not look overseas once more to replace the Italian.

He told the Keys and Gray Show: “The next manager of England should be English. I’ve got nothing against Capello, I went to the World Cup and got to know him, but that’s not what international football is.

“It’s like saying if our keeper’s not good enough, we’ll go and get Buffon from Italy. It’s a form of cheating in international football and it’s a bit embarrassing.

“It’s different for developing countries in Africa and elsewhere, who are trying to build the game up but, for England, such a big football nation, I don’t think we should have a foreign manager. Just because it didn’t work out with Steve McClaren, it didn’t mean we had to go for a foreign manager. We should have gone for the next best Englishman.”

Carragher admits, however, that overseas managers have an aura about them their English counterparts don’t have, because bosses in this country are not getting the opportunities to test themselves with the biggest clubs.

He added: “If every club had an English manager, someone would have to win the league! Someone would have to win the FA Cup! And then they’d accumulate these trophies.

“Capello had an aura and presence that maybe McClaren didn’t have. And it was the same with the likes of Benitez and Houllier at Liverpool, and Mourinho at Chelsea.

“With their CVs, they’ve all got something about them and have won big trophies. So does that mean English managers need to go abroad?

“Chelsea have appointed a 33-year-old manager, Andre Villas-Boas, this summer. Years ago someone like David Moyes would have got that job.

“That still happens in Italy and Spain - Rafa Benitez went from Tenerife to Valencia - but that doesn’t happen in England anymore.”

Carragher: Having a foreigner in charge of England is a form of cheating

I thought cheating was meant to help you win!?