Martin O’Neill, a favorite to succeed Steve McLaren as England manager in the wake of Wednesday’s Euro 2008 disaster, has ruled himself out of contention, according to Sky News. One assumes he’s smart enough to recognize a poisoned chalice when he sees one.
Current William Hill odds, including MON:
M. O’Neill 5/2
F. Capello 3/1
J. Mourinho 4/1
H. Redknapp 9/1
A. Shearer 9/1
R. Benitez 14/1
L. Scolari 16/1
J. Klinsmann 20/1
M. Lippi 20/1
S. Pearce 20/1
S. Coppell 25/1
G. Hiddink 25/1
If I’d had any spare money, I would’ve laid on both him and Mourinho yesterday before people started confirming/disavowing their interest. O’Neill was pretty annoyed at the fiasco last time, and having only recently started at Villa I would’ve been astounded to see him come the first time the FA called. He’s got more pride than that. And Mourinho was never going to commit to a team three years away from any sort of important tournament at this stage of his career.
Rafa isn’t going to happen unless things go massively tits up at Liverpool, and I don’t see that happening quickly enough for the England job. Scolari is committed to Portugal through Euro '08, and the FA don’t have the balls to hire a stop-gap and then fire him - they’d need a big fuck-up to sack anyone. Redknapp I don’t see happening either, and I hope to high hell Pearce doesn’t express an interest.
At the moment, I’d say Capello is the best bet. Whether he’s the best choice is another question entirely, but I’d take him 7 days a week and twice on Sunday over Shearer. The last thing we need now is someone with no management experience whatsoever. And yes I know, Klinsmann did well with Germany, but to assume Shearer would do the same is (to nick a word from another thread) to indulge in severe apophenia.
Speaking personally, at this stage I’d take anyone who could break us out of the tiresome cycle of “selection … formation … selection … formation”, as if these were the only two things that a football coach has to consider (never mentioned, it seems, are the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition). England have looked like strangers on the pitch for two or three years now, and the utterly insipid level of punditry and media analysis hasn’t helped in the slightest.
As a final thought, I want to know what sort of dickheads are running the FA, that they’ve never heard of a contract with a performance clause. How is it that someone can so manifestly fail to do their supposed job, and yet get a £2.5m payoff for said cockup? Why are we doling out 4 year contracts to proven failures? Oh, I’m sorry; it’s because he’s a “straight-talking Englishman”.
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Rafa might be out of the door sooner rather than later - he has really pissed off the Yanks this week, and if Liverpool fail to get out of the GL group stages, I think he might be given a shove.
Well, its a big job for whoever takes it on. A lot depends on which side of the fence you come down on - do we have 11 world class players who just aren’t being coached and led properly, or do we have a collection of over-hyped pedestrians that require a root and branch culling? I’m actually more in line with the former opinion, although I suspect I’m in the minority.
The next England manager should have a proven track record of success and a character that just don’t give a fuck. Only one man completely fits the bill in that list, and I doubt Maureen would do it. England would win the world cup with him in charge. Lippi and Capello would be Sven mark II, ie fairly good - England would be competitive under them. Hiddink and Benitez are over-rated and would not be as successful. In fact, the fat Spanish waiter is doing such a good job holding the RS back that I will personally campaign to keep Rafa on Merseyside if he’s in the frame.
Pearce and Shearer are joke candidates. If MON doesn’t fancy it I wouldn’t turn my nose up at Harry Redknapp. He’d be OK I think. Not won much but good track record of making teams competitive - has character and wouldn’t be intimidated by the position, great knowledge of getting the best out of English players. He’s a bit of a villain though, so the FA might not fancy him.
Why isn’t Coachman Sam in that list? Not saying that I’d pick him, just seems strange.
I think they should try and get that German guy who turned a bunch of Greek journeymen into European champions. That’s what we have, journeymen apart from Rooney. The Greek coach did it by winning ugly and stifling more talented teams, though, and I’m not sure English fans would tolerate that.
Preach it. Will the time ever come when we aren’t paying for 2 England managers, the current one and the last one who still gets paid after they’ve sacked him. Add a damn clause saying failure to qualify for a major event means we can fire yo ass gratis. It’s not like these guys are financially insecure. You want the big bucks - lets see some damn results!
Alas it’s more the other way around - the England job is not one that the best managers clamour after, so the only way to get anyone to commit is to make even failure profitable.
Remeber that McLaren wasn’t first choice - Scolari accepted and then ran in horror after waking up one morning to find most of the English tabloids camped in his front garden. Sven could have earnt more at a top club side prior to taking the England job.
It’s a high risk job with little margin for error - I can see why managers need the deal sweetened before taking it.
Our next game is a friendly with France. Just for that one game I would like us to play a non-premiership side. Pick the best players from the lower leagues. They might not be as technically gifted but their effort and hunger should restore a little pride.
Craig Mackail-Smith up front! Hell, put the whole Peterborough team up there (they’re mostly English, heh). They’ll most likely get slaughtered but at least they’ll try.
As for a manager… Roy Keane. Heh. Let them try that shit with him in charge!
Seeing that the U.S. sucks ass, I tend to root for England in international tournaments. Just a few random thoughts:
Rafa, although maybe on his way out at Liverpool, would be a horrible fit.
The FA needs to do whatever they can to get a top flight guy this time. No more settling for 2nd choices.
Hire a foreigner. There just aren’t many good English managers.
My list would be, in this order: Lippi, Mourinho, and in distant 3rd, Capello.
I tend to think that England does have the talent (excepting goalie), but has done a poor job of developing its squad. The midfield has no chemistry. The striker position has no continuity because of injury.
On another, semi related note, I think that the UK does itself a massive disservice in international competition by playing as separate countries. We always talk about how well Germany and Italy play, but how good would they be if Bavaria or the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies fielded their own teams? Both of those entities have been independent countries a lot more recently than Wales has.
I don’t object to the idea of a unified British team, but doubt that it would help that much. I can’t think of any current Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish players who would walk into even this England side.
And that’s the attitude that makes sure the English national team is loathed by so many. Don’t you think you lot could use a decent goalkeeper, or perhaps a striker who actually scores a lot of goals? You have the most entertaining league in the world btw, but…well you lot are fucked national-team-wise until some more clubs start to go bust and the wage inflation bubble bursts.
I think you’re ascribing to me an attitude that I don’t have, since I have already described the England team as “journeymen”. But go on, name names - which non-English players would be in your Britain XI (arrogantly assuming that you follow English football closely enough to be able to offer an opinion)?
How about that guy who got England to three championships in a row…? Which hasn’t happened in England football history for a loooong time…? What’s his name…? - World Cup 2002, European Championship 2004, World Cup 2006… Got to the quarter finals… Damn…! That “chump” you used to call him… Wait, “Svensational” it was! How about him?!
Oh wait, you still pretend England is a great football nation – which should win championships? Ouch, you’ll never find that manager, will you?
We got to every championship from 1996 to 2006. And 1986, 1988, 1990 (same manager) and 1992.
I don’t know. I’ll just reproduce your stuff:
Uh-huh. Thoughts?
Greg Ryan is available.
I know you weren’t speaking to me here, but if I may butt in -
He’s a bit long in the tooth now, but don’t you think England could’ve used Ryan Giggs for the last fifteen years or so? 
You know, I did actually go to the trouble of Googling the current Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland squads before I posted that. I don’t see anybody there who would be an automatic choice for England. Are you thinking of Darren Fletcher? Craig Bellamy? Who?
Yes indeed. He grew up in England, sounds English, and actually captained the England schoolboy team, as Ryan Wilson. But he was born in Wales and considers himself Welsh, and that’s that. There may be an amount of mother/father/divorce lotyalty going on there too, but whatever it is, Ryan Giggs is for official purposes Not English.
He’s the one that I’ve always thought of. I also think that in a few years Gareth Bale would be a nice player to have. As far as goalies go, just about anybody is better than who England currently has.