Who do you want to replace Capello as England manager?

[NibblyPig]

Why isn't Steve Kean on this list?

Because he's foreign.

Er or because he is shite, I don't think his nationality comes into it.

Nibble

Yes?

[VILLAFC2000]

Where do I start? I guess the beginning is always a good place. As we all know the last time England reached a Tournament final was the infamous 1966 world cup final. Since then England have competed in 15 international tournaments with little success. Just why is it that we fail on the big scene and could Euro 2012 be the one…?

Perhaps Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrence could unlock a deep and meaningful question. Just why do the England team fail when it comes to a large Tournament? Alan Hansen, Lee Dixon and Mark Lawrenson have won just about every trophy on the domestic front that is worth winning and have over 40 years of playing experience between them. Add to that 20 years of footballing punditry on the BBC, charisma, personality and wit that Ricky Gervais would be proud off – wait a minute scrap that last point…!

Time after time through my football generation England have played and failed in Tournaments, the best view point of footballing philosophical punditry that Alan and Mark can offer is “England just aren’t good enough”. Well, well, well no SHIT, thanks guys for an outstanding contribution to English football. What a wonderful use of the planet’s fast-depleting oxygen resources. Now that’s been dealt with can we move on to more important footballing matters such as did United’s grey kit really cause them defeat against the saints all those moons ago and was Bruce Grobbelaar really jealous of Lawrenson’s moustache?

The Premier League was introduced in 1992 with many arguing that not only would this create one of the most exciting leagues in the world but it would immensely benefit our national team. Just how wrong they were on the later. Evidence clearly states this. England in 92 & 94 under Graham Taylor failed to qualify and GOSH “Did I Not like that”. There is always an exception to the rule and at Euro 96 they reached the semi final although we did not have to qualify. We had one massive factor in our favour – Not penalties, but home advantage.

France 98 saw another famous quote from one of our English managers Glenn Hoddle stating that Michael Owen was not a natural goal scorer (Owen did not start the group games). Needless to say we did not win our group and we were knocked out in the last 16. Fast forward 12 years and not much has changed, England failed to qualify under another English manager Mclaren for Euro 2008 June 27th 2010 in South Africa, England V Germany

Before the match there was clearly going to be one winner according to Alan Hansen “England have got the better players and if they play they will win, the Germans are an average team and are eminently beatable”. 90 minutes later England could not escape the Brutal reality; Germany had torn apart England without even breaking sweat. “Average and eminently beatable”. Alan do the BBC actually pay you….?

If you compare our League to the Spanish league it’s not overwhelmingly difficult to see why we fail so easily. Premier League there, 270 players, 33% English (one player in every 4 of our big clubs are English._ La Liga 279 players = 71% Spanish

There just isn’t the Talent to choose from in the Premier league. This was no more evident than when England took Emile Heskey to the South African World cup and played him up front, this is coming from a beloved Aston villa fan and take it from me you will not even finish in the PL top 4 with Emile playing up front let alone winning a World cup with him up front. The top Goalkeepers from the top Spanish leagues Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia they are all Spanish. Take the top Goal keepers from Manchester United, City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arseanal and only one of those is English.

The story is similar when you look at the number 9 strikers.

For United their Number 9 striker is Berbatov, City – Tevez., Arsenal -

Park chu Yeung, Liverpool Andy Carol, and Chelsea – Torres.

So out of our top 5 clubs we only have one English number 9 and I am sure any

Liverpool fan will be able to tell you

although Carroll has a distinct physical presence he lacks the technical

grace that Messi, Villa and Suarez and have demonstrated time and time again. Carroll

hardly has an attitude and starting record for Liverpool that the previous

players would be proud off. There would be many that would be quick to point

out that Wayne Rooney is a World class striker and number 9. I would argue that

Rooney is more of a number 10, he plays far deeper that a number 9 for England.

- The actual number that he plays in at old Trafford is 10…!

Let’s look at the numbers.

Spain Uefa qualified coaches = 24 000

Germany Uefa qualified coaches = 28 000

Holland Uefa qualified coaches = 16 000

UK Uefa qualified coaches = 3 000

From a grass roots level it obvious again to see where we fall short. There are over 24 000 qualified UEFA coaches in Germany and Spain there are just over 3 000 in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. As a youngster playing football I was bought up playing 11 –a side on a full size water logged pitch where the emphasis was based on winning the game. Hardly the foundations to improve your technical skills.

The 24 000 + Uefa qualified coaches in Spain are teaching their youth to concentrate less on winning and more on technical ability. It was reported that Fabio Capello was amazed at one of the first England training sessions that he had to physically show David James how to throw a football out of his hands to another defender. On the previous 8 attempts James had kicked the ball out of his hands 50-60 metres down the full size pitch straight to the opponents every single time, giving away possession. Everybody knows you can do little in Football without the ball – just ask the Spanish, Dutch and Brazilians.

The point is that these are not stats that the Premier League and the FA should be proud of. The PL has show a complete reluctance to help our national team by reducing season fixtures. Indeed, it is seen as prohibiting revenue streams and a winter break can simply not be fitted into such a chaotic structure – That old chestnut…! The Germans (and most of the big nations) have adopted a winter break and look at how their national teams plays. I am sure they suffer less Metatarsal injuries then England do when it comes to World Cups and the Euros.

The Premier League fixtures calendar is brutal and relentless. The games are played with an abundance of pace. Accordingly, the physical strain much more so than in Seria A, Bundlasliga, La Liga and other leagues across the world. Injuries and tiredness are inevitable especially at the end of a long season. We set ourselves up for a fall, do we really expect our players to come through 38 competitive league games played at a ferociously high intensity, with a run of probable champion’s league and FA cup games without injury or any fatigue. A few weeks later we then expect our top players to peak their performance for their national team at the Euros or World cup. Not a single English or foreign premier league player looked at their best at last year’s world cup – Drogba, Torres, Rooney, Ferdinand. Gerrard the list goes on….!

The pressure and expectancy that we put upon our self as a nation does not help matters. Time and time again. All I seem to hear is Harry Redknapp, Terry Venables and Ant & Dec saying that this is the year we are going to win it…! Along with the bookmakers we are always favourites or there about. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to putting pressure on selves and I am sure it does not help us. At every tournament we are genuinely expected to win it, which evidently means if we do not win it we are failures. There is so much room for failure and yet little room for success. We need to change this mentality.

The Manager

Over and over I hear that the next England manager should be English and this is one of the main reasons for our underachievement.A number of highly regarded pundits have tipped the next manager to be English: Alan Curbishley, Steve Bruce, Harry Redknapp, Paul Jewell or Stuart Pearce. Between them they have only won one FA cup not even a PL title..! Are we really forgetting Graham Taylor, Kevin Keegan, Howard Wilkinson and Steve McLaren so soon? Are we really saying we would stand a better chance of winning a world cup, or Euros with Alan Curbishley or Stuart Pearce just because he can speak English than we would do with Jose Mourinho. I simply do not believe that this is the case. Until we admit the problem is far deeper than the manager then we will fail to knock down the barriers that are in front of us.

All in all English football is living in the ruins of a castle build on sand, until we address the basic fundamentals of grass roots football, the Premier League, media and expectancy levels we can stand little chance of success.

The Future

Despite all of this cynicism from a long suffering England fan, I believe that there is a chance that we can achieve a Semi Final spot at this year’s Euros. Fabio Capello made some surprising decisions at last year’s world cup. Most notably his team selection decreed that Shaun Wright Phillips now of QPR would be more fitting than Ashley young down the flanks and that Rob Green or David James (now struggling to hold on to his place at the mighty Bristol City) would both be better first team choice than Joe Hart.

Of course hindsight is a wonderful and it’s very easy to say what decisions should have been made after the world cup. I am hoping Capello will have learnt from these past mistakes. England’s midfield and defence against Germany looked embarrassingly immobile. I Believe that Wiltshire, Millner and Gerrard if fully fit can offer us more speed, technical ability creative chances and goals. With width being provide by Young and Johnson, just maybe after all the previous year’s hurt through failing to qualify through, penalties, metatarsals, red cards, freak goals, disallowed goals and tabloid scandals the team can pull together and rally performances that will make the English fan proud of. Keep the faith.

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

I vote McLeish did a good job as scotland manager and delivered rangers to a 3rd place finish also won the carling cup

Come on FA take him off our hands you will not even have to pay compensation

Don't forget his proven Premier League pedigree.

^^^

This.

Hes won more league cups in England than Capello.

Come on the FA just think what McLeish could do with England.

[CastleBromVilla]

Capello had the highest win percentage of any England manager ever and only lost 6 games in charge of the team.

I think England will struggle to get a replacement as good. Lucky he already qualified the team for the Euros before he left!

Yet we were terrible when it come to the crunch and we got to the WC finals, and he was lucky to keep his job.

Our qualifying group for the euros wasnt difficult either, any half decent manager would have got us out of that group.

The only way he's done us a favour, is by leaving.

[Demitri_C]

i reckon the FA will do a randy lerner and complete cock up their recruitment process and england end up with southgate or pearce

for me best two are candleface or hiddink

[VILLAFC2000]

Scrap the last paragraph thats now history...!?

[CastleBromVilla]

i reckon the FA will doa randy lerner and complete cock up their recruitment process and england end up with southgate or pearce

for me ebst two are candleface or hiddink

Pearce is busy with team GB, and Southgate would only be on short term as someone has said, whilst we wait for a permanent manager.

[MrDuck]

Glad Capello has gone, he should have been sacked after the travesty that was the world cup. Although if Terry had done the decent thing and resigned the captaincy himself, then Capello would still be in a job. Oh wait... Terry do the decent thing... sorry, ridiculous suggestion.

I look forward to a new manager coming in and picking Lampard and Gerrard together in the belief that they never perform only because previous managers didn't know how to get the best out of them.

[ml1dch]

If you compare our League to the Spanish league it’s not overwhelmingly difficult to see why we fail so easily. Premier League there, 270 players, 33% English (one player in every 4 of our big clubs are English._ La Liga 279 players = 71% Spanish

While I broadly agree with most of your essay, I just don't see this point so much.

Until 2008 Spain had won as many major tournaments as England with a similar ratio as above. It's not like with scores of Spanish players they have a much better record until very recently.

Add to that, prior to (let's say) 1990 it's not as if England were doing any better than they are now when more or less every player in the top league was British.

[flamingsombrero]

[TRS-T]

On a serious note, they should be:

English

not older than 50

contracted to World Cup 2014, with the contract expiring upon our exit from the tournament (or qualifying)

Thereafter all England manager contracts should expire on the exit from a WC tournament.

First job for the new manager is to kick out the 'golden generation', identify young players for WC2014, and give them tournament experience in 2012. So no Terry, Ferdinand, Gerrard on the plane to Ukraine.

I don't see why we should write off Euro 2012.

Let's take our strongest possible squad and try and win the damn thing.

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

Maybe Spurs , England and Redknapp might come to some sort of deal were he stays at Spurs but takes the England just for the summer of something?

Or The FA will appoint Neil Warnock

[atalbot01]

Rumours are circulating in Manchester that Beckham is in the frame.... I don't believe it either, but then again I never thought that we would get McLeish... And the FA record of picking good managers is on a par with Randy's....

50-1 at sporting bet.. Worth a tenner

[villa_shere]

horrible list of English managers.

My vote would be for Rafa!

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

Rumours are circulating in Manchester that Beckham is in the frame.... I don't believe it either, but then again I never thought that we would get McLeish... And the FA record of picking good managers is on a par with Randy's....

50-1 at sporting bet.. Worth a tenner

No its not

[islingtonclaret]

Come on England, the best man for the job is clearly McLeish. We'll give him to you.

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

Come on England, the best man for the job is clearly McLeish. We'll give him to you.

Indeed - He has got better 'Premiership experience' than Capello.

What more could you want?

[JulieB]

Best tweets of the day off @anfieldcat made me laugh...

AnfieldCat

I have set up my Monaco bank account, just waiting for the call from the FA now #AnfieldCatForEngland

AnfieldCat

if hired as england manager, I promise to not only start Emile Heskey, but make him captain as well #AnfieldCatForEngland

[VILLAFC2000]

If you compare our League to the Spanish league it’s not overwhelmingly difficult to see why we fail so easily. Premier League there, 270 players, 33% English (one player in every 4 of our big clubs are English._ La Liga 279 players = 71% Spanish

While I broadly agree with most of your essay, I just don't see this point so much.

Until 2008 Spain had won as many major tournaments as England with a similar ratio as above. It's not like with scores of Spanish players they have a much better record until very recently.

Add to that, prior to (let's say) 1990 it's not as if England were doing any better than they are now when more or less every player in the top league was British.

To some extent I know the point you trying to make. I am trying to make the point that Englands lack of success is NOT just down to the manger.

Dont forget we won the World Cup in 1996 and for to the Semi Finals in 1990 . The PL was introduced in 92 - coincidence then that we have had little success since the intro of it..? ( Euro 96 we have home advantage - just look at South Korea and we did not have to qualify)

the question should not be which manager do we need next..! It should be what can we else do to improve our chances of success

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

The PL was introduced in 92 - coincidence then that we have had little success since the intro of it..?

Well England did not qualify for the world cup in 1974 or 1978 long before any Sky Premiership.

Also England did not qualify the Euros in 1972 , 1976 , 1984