It’s not a so-called ‘grass-roots’ problem either. For that to be true would suggest a long-term malaise. In fact, this current generation of players is dubbed England’s ‘golden generation’ because so many of them are considered world class. Liverpool could not have won the Champions League without the inspirational Stevie Gerrard. Wayne Rooney was a revelation at Euro 2004 and remains one of the best young attackers in the world. Chelsea’s billionaire owner Roman Abramovich can’t find a foreign player remotely suitable to displace John Terry or Frank Lampard from the team, despite his cavernous wealth and fancy for using it. These players are all among the top handful in their position in the world, and with youngsters like Micah Richards and Theo Walcott coming through, the conveyor belt of talent isn’t showing too many signs of slowing.
It’s tempting to agree with Keane that the problem is with the players’ egos. It’s tempting because fans have grown to resent top footballers in many ways: they’re paid vast amounts of money and sometimes look incapable of basic skills, and they lack the sense of devout loyalty to their club that the fans feel. Ashley Cole is a prime example of a footballer the fans love to hate, after he described a wage offer from Arsenal of £35,000 a week as a “piss-take”, and promptly left the club that raised him to join London rivals Chelsea. Players like Cole, Beckham, Lampard, and Owen have such a media presence outwith football that it’s tempting to imagine they practice pouting more than penalty kicks. But to give in to such assumptions is to forget that other countries do well enough with perceived egotists too. Footballers have been top celebrities in Europe for many years now – and it didn’t stop England getting to the World Cup Quarter-Finals just last year.
Has everybody suddenly forgotten that achievement? England played poorly but still got to the last eight, before losing to Portugal in a penalty shoot-out and sacking Sven-Goran Eriksson because that wasn’t good enough! The squad then and the squad now is virtually the same, but in 17 months England have managed to drop from a place among the best eight in the world to a position where they failed to prove themselves to be among the 16 best in Europe. This is no pirates/global warming correlation – this is cause and effect in action - this is exactly what happens when you replace a competent manager with an incompetent manager, and there are dozens of examples to show this throughout football.
Article comments
1 - alessandro
Mourinho is reported to be the big banana now. We'll see if it's about coaching. I suspect the problem runs a little deeper.
2 - Christopher Rose
McClaren was seriously lacking in managerial experience, having only managed one club, and it was simply a poor decision by the FA to give him the job.
Evidence of McClaren's lack of experience can be found everywhere, not least in his poor tactics and his failure to resolve England's midfield issues.
It will be evidence that the FA executive committee have learned nothing at all unless they come up with someone with deep experience and a sharp understanding of the English game as the new manager.
Despite Mourinho's track record, I think he is simply too young to manage England and will wisely make the decision to remain in club football.
3 - STM
I saw a TV report today where the British media doorstepped Mourinho outside his place in Portugal.
When asked whether he'd be prepared to coach England, he grinned and said "Why not?" before speeding off in an expensive car.
The FA obviously want him.
4 - troll
...I thought that 'doorstepping' had been banned under the Geneva Conventions as torture
5 - Christopher Rose
Stan, well, he's not going to say no outright is he? Wouldn't want to upset people in case he either manages another English club or, in the fullness of time, even the national team. The FA are buffoons!
6 - alessandro
So then who's "old" enough? Capello? From what I have read from British soccer mags it doesn't sound like England is healthy on the managerial side of the equation. I think it was World Soccer mag who predicted that Mclaren was going to end in disaster.
7 - Christopher Rose
Capello is certainly a possibility. Other countries have done well using a foreigner to manage their national team so why not England?
A "young" manager is at an automatic disadvantage as the manager of England because with the current busybody structure of the FA, it's completely different to managing a club, where the manager can do things their own way.
It takes a lot of compromise and negotiation with both the FA committees and individual club managers to manage England and I just can't see Mourinho having the patience to put up with that. To say nothing of the long periods of inactivity between international fixtures as opposed to working closely with a group of players on a day to day basis.
8 - alessandro
I definitely agree that it matters not where a manager comes from but for a soccer nation like England one would have to wonder why England can't find a homer to coach the team. Sure in a nation of 59 million and with a soccer tradition like England they should find someone?
Well, to me, Mourinho was not going to just "manage." He would, like Capello I suppose, have to revolutionize the present prevailing ethos that exists in England. Maybe he would have to change how players are developed (tactics etc.) and the FA as you just explained. He strikes me as the type to do that - like Wenger at Arsenal.
Yeah, he sure is a firecracker. He doesn't seem to tolerate complications.
I just hope England gets its act together. They need to find goalkeeping too!
Love their jersey.
9 - Dr Jetlagful
The fact that England, the birthplace of soccer, needed Sven the Swede in the first place - whatever his credentials as a coach - was downright embarrassing. It's at the point now where there's no-one you would really even consider.
Just as telling is that as far as I know, there isn't one single solitary Englishman coaching in any of the top European leagues either. It's not like we can go and lure a Venables away from some trophy-laden megaclub.
I say let the Special One do it. Then we can blame him for being Portuguese (failed Brazilian) and mental when he becomes the latest in a long line of fuck-ups.
Bah humbug.