The New England Manager

Whoah whoah whoah, I think to myself on my return to these shores. That was English for stopping three horses by the way. Whilst I have been keeping tabs on most of the football news in England, particularly Southend's masterful rise to the Championship, apparently things are a lot worse when the papers are reporting them.

Before I start, I'll mention that a Southend related post is in the offing but around this time and with league matters all but settled for us, England's situation, albeit after the World Cup becomes prominent.

So candidate 'A', the choice of choices, Felipe Scolari has been approached but has turned the job down after some alleged threat and the world has turned upside down for England. Thankfully, there have been an excellent set of pundits with the usually solid Sky team to shed some light on the situation to help me out. Why has everyone suddenly declined to severe depression at the news? In his favour, on paper, Scolari has an excellent pedigree at the highest level. However, on closer examination, he's not done what Hiddink did for Korea or, indeed, what Rehhagel did for Greece. Portugal have always had some very good players and common belief in Portugal was that the team was destined to have a good tournament. Throw in some very good youngsters and a European Cup winning crop of Porto players all on home soil and suddenly the task of reaching the final of that tournament suddenly looks easier. If Rooney had stayed on the pitch, would Portugal really have got to the final? As for Brazil, that team won arguably the poorest World Cup in history. The old guard were still good enough to beat most teams and a fledgling Ronaldinho certainly helped matters. You only need look at who they played in the final to see that the 'Cup for the Unnderdogs' was maybe just a) a poor set of teams and b) Europeans struggling out of Europe. Even giving Scolari credit for all of this, the appointment of someone with such a pedigree would mean only complete success would be tolerated and he would be sacked when the proverbial Rooney at the next tournament doesn't get injured.

Still, this is all water under the bridge and no party's likely to hop in a kayak and chase it. The pendulum now seems to be swinging towards an Englishman as the FA would seem to be disgracing the English game if English managers were overlooked twice or even, very possibly, they get rebuffed. In my opinion, that leaves us with the middle class of the English game's managerial hierarchy. Sam Allardyce, Steve McClaren and Alan Curbishley.

Allardyce, to me seems like the best choice. If, a year ago, I had seen myself writing this, I would have probably sat myself down and had a long chat. "Bolton's footballing approach is brash and direct", I would have said. To an extent, this is true. However, I don't think that Allardyce is a bad manager, he is a pragmatic one. Allardyce inherited a fairly average, unglamorous football team in the second tier of the football league. Staying in the Premiership isn't easy (damn this year's crop for disproving this) but staying in the Premiership for several years is much harder. Allardyce saw this and brought in experienced Pros that he quickly moulded in to a team with a direct style of football. This style earned results. I have no doubt that Allardyce would love to play flowing total football and Bolton aren't shabby at knocking the ball around in midfield but their Blitzkrieg approach to attacking earns them a lot of points. I genuinely believe that rather than being ingrained with the belief that football should be played directly, Sam wants to win games and his open minded approach to training methods and playing approaches may reap huge rewards for England. If that isn't enough, name me one player who would give him mouth.

McClaren seems the obvious second choice and depending on the value of experience at international level, could be ahead on points. Having been with the team for so long, he has seen it all with England. The only worry with this is that if Eriksson's methods are to be questioned then what hope does McClaren have, having spent so much time learning off him? Coupled with this, he has created a very patchwork Middlesboro team that, whislt having had cash spent on it, still looks far from being the real deal. I'm not going to let the UEFA success blind me cos I've seen them play in that competition before. Still, I think he would be a sound choice as head coach but Big Sam first for me as manager thanks.

Last but not.... well....actually, he probably is least in this list: Alan Curbishley. In Alan's favour are his complete availability and his proven track record at excellent man management. You feel that with Charlton, there are no fancy training techniques, dieticians or sports psychologists but simply Alan, a couple of coaches and a few plastic cones. His record at keeping Charlton Premiership is astounding given his transfer budget and squads but with not even a game of European experience under his belt, you do wonder. Besides his qualifications, he looks wearied and comments about a break from football, while cliched, look to be the man's intent.

End of the day, it won't matter a jot who I think the FA should appoint because they don't consult me on anything these days. Judging by Allardyce's caginess and McClaren's "I've-got-a-secret-but-won't-tell" grin, Steve may be getting the golden call. Then again, he'd just taken a point at Old Trafford while Sam lost to Spurs. No-one can really know but at least it looks like we may have a chance to bring some national pride back with managers as well as players. Keegan for manager anyone???