with Sven.
They paid for a manger who would stick to the back pages of the papers not the front, didn’t want a repeat of Hoddle & Venables.
They paid for a technical and tactical genius after watching the self confessed disaster of the “fans favourite” Keggy Keegle – he may have been others fav he certainly wasn’t mine, remember hearing the news on the World Service and shouting out “Noooooooooooo not Keegle”, got some strange looks from my new neighbours in Phoenix.
They paid for a guy who had no baggage with the players, no affiliations with any English club and no favourites that would cloud his judgement. Bobby Robson taking an unfit Bryan Robson to WC ’86, Graham Taylor playing Carlton Palmer and successive mangers picking John Barnes when everyone else knew he would never play for England the way he would for Liverpool.
So what did they get ?
A guy whose frequently on the front page of every paper, especially the red tops, a man with a very limited plan A of action, 4-4-2 and nothing else, and no idea of the whole concept of a plan B – “I know I’ll put on Vassell” and who has probably had the biggest team of favourites well past their sell buy date since Sir Alf’s final campaign.
All for a good few million quid per year.
Of course what they also paid for was qualification and winning tournaments, he’s done the first part on 3 occasions now, will he finally do the latter. Go that bit better than previous England managers who announced their departure just before a tournament, Bobby Robson & Terry Venables losing semi-finals against the Germans at WC ’90 and Euro ’96, with the best squad any England manager has had in some time.
Who knows he may find a plan B to do so…
And now the game is on to find Sven’s successor, thankfully Boro’s decline will have dented the accession of Steve McLaren the F.A. initially wanted, god his teams are dullards especially in Europe.
Martin O’Neill, has many fans at the F.A. mainly because they didn’t have time to watch the SPL and see Lennon pass the ball back to defender who humps the ball up to big lumper up front who nods it down, yeah it won the SPL but that ain’t saying much.
Sam Allardyce, has he got it to survive a job of constant criticism when he can’t handle his team being called “ugly” by one reporter (an ugly one at that) and again has anyone watched Bolton in Europe ?
Alan Curbishley – just seems too much at a loss a lot of the time.
Stuart Pearce – I’d like to see him in the setup, a number two to Hiddink or joint boss with Peter Taylor, right combination of brain and brawn.
Obviuosly the F.A. are after what they wanted with Sven but will they get it this time ?
Haha – ‘Keggy Keegle’, lovely stuff. I tend to get funny looks when I use that reference too…
I would actually like to see Peter Taylor given a go, perhaps in alliance with a Brooking or Sir Bob. Hiddink – or at least his PR people – seem to be making the early running, but I’m not sure the FA will want to go foreign again for now. Nor whether Hiddink would want to commit to a four-year deal between now and the next World Cup.
Taylor, on the other hand and unlike the other Englishment mentioned, has experience of – and friends within – the setting, and has had close dealings with a lot of the Under-21 players he would ideally be nurturing and bringing through. Plus, has at least a little experience of playing at international level. And a fondness for more attractive football than, say, Allardyce, McLaren or O’Neill…
Well, he IS a Tottenham old boy, after all…
If only it hadn’t gone so quickly wrong for him at Leicester…
Though if he screws up with England, at least his famous Norman Wisdom impression will make it easy for Fleet Street’s headline writers and graphic artists…
Tottenham old boys do tend to make good England bosses…but he ain’t getting a mention except probably in reference to Ade Panicbye’s recent record signing for the Blades.