The next England manager

Redknapp all the way for me. He is a tremendous man manager, canny (some might even say vaguely crooked in that intrinsically Cockney way) and a great motivator. He's tactically sound and really wants the job. He also doesn't strike me as someone who would wilt under pressure and who would probably not respond defensively if challenged by the bigger egos in the squad.

Plus he has a history of making a lot out of a little, which judging by the media's fear that the next generation of English footballers are not as talented as this bunch, is likely to be an important attribute. He's also someone who has done well at creating teams as opposed to groups of individuals, which again is key, and his more intuitive style with the players should mean he can get to grips with them quickly - an important facet of international management.

The aborted criminal inquiry is just noise. Implied or possible naughtiness didn't stop them appointing Venables - who was the last successful England manager in my view - or Capello. Although it smacks a little of xenophobia, I also think you get more than the sum of your parts if you choose a manager of the same nationality as the team. Especially in the English culture, where unrequited national greatness and the forging of the national spirit through adversity are mainstays of the national psyche.

Also as an aside, I think it's probably unfair to blame the FA's lawyers for negotiating out the break clause. They'll only do what their clients tell them, and if they have advised, even strongly, of the potential consequences, it would still have been the FA management who commercially decided that keeping Capello was worth the price. Remember that at the time the extension was announced, no-one batted an eyelid since the qualifying campaign had gone so well. Also, the break clause was mutual so one of the analyses may have been a concern that if the actual WC campaign were to have gone as well as qualifying, Capello's team could have held the FA even more to ransom. As with everywhere else in the country, the mood in FA HQ was probably one of jet fuelled, unreasonable optimism.

Either way, I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Capello will go, if nothing else because the FA are beginning to get a reputation for this sort of expensive chopping and changing and as you pointed out the cost is enormous.

Huh. I saw Becks mentioned in the Evening Standard yesterday and had to scratch my head.

Redknapp is a tremendous cheque book manager. And possible naughtiness is exactly why they got rid of Venebles in the first place (thou I imagine his closet is filled with a helluva more stuff than 'Arry's). I think it's foolish to get rid of Capello for £12M, I mean can the FA afford that?

Why would Becks even want this at this stage of his career. I think a lot of the media is focusing on the manager and not so much on the fact the players FLOPPED, to keep in their good books for the EPL season ahead. Terry, Barry, Rooney, Johnson were every bit as bad as Upson or Heskey who are getting the flack.

Hang on, he hasn't been sacked yet and nor should he. He's the best qualified coach they've ever had and getting rid now would be the worst kind of kneejerk reaction. I’m not sure how the next coach being from England would make any difference, it’s the typical English football mentality of skill and talent don’t matter as long you put loads of effort in. That usual load of bollocks from The Scum is hardly worthy of a reaction it’s so absurd.
I’m sure the FA will go for it though to appease the raging Ing-er-lund fans and it will nicely paper over the huge cracks at the very core of English football and the real reason why the national team disappoint at every opportunity. That’s what the debate should be, both at the FA and in the media. The English games’ four decades of arrogantly disregarding any of that ‘fancy football’ from the continent and South America (pointless stuff really, like retaining possession, passing the ball well and intelligently and technical ability) is really biting us back now. Of course, correcting this will take huge effort and tons of money but thanks to the New Wembley debacle this isn’t going to happen soon.

I’m no fan of Redknapp either, what is it, one trophy in three decades of management? Is he more likely to get England to a final? Dodgy track record he’s ever been at, and just about every club he’s been at has turned into a financial shambles just after he left…maybe he’s the manager England fans deserve. It’ll take a lot more than an arm around the shoulder of our current players to get them to play well.

I've noticed the papers are beginning to fill with post mortem accounts of the specific quarrels and disruptions in the England camp during the campaign. In particular there seems to be some focus on falling out between Gerrard and Terry with the team factionalising along a north-south divide. Capello's lack of grasp of the English language is also being shadowed as a contributing factor, as are his man management skills and hypocrisy when it came to permitted commercial sidelines, in his not being able to resolve the differences quickly and constructively.

A more salacious version I heard at a party last night from a deputy editor of a sports desk at one of the big UK newspapers is that the source of conflict between Gerrard and Terry was not so much an academic argument about who should be captain, but allegedly Terry after finding out that Gerrard had allegedly knocked up a 16 year old and was conducting an affair with his sister in law. Terry apparently felt that this rather undermined the reasons for stripping him, a self-defined natural leader, of the captaincy and giving it, in particular, to an equally naughty Gerrard. They fell out, Terry fell out with Capello and then the factions developed.

Pinch of salt obviously, but I understood that a load of injunction proceedings are currently under way which, if they turn out in the newspapers' favour, could lead to the story breaking in a week or two.

Oh, and allegedly Rooney was up to his old tricks, though no word yet on whether she was an OAP this time.

All of which beg the questions, if true, whether the right thing to do is to simply start over with an almost new eleven and a new manager, or whether changing one but not the other is really going to work. Clearly the FA think keeping Capello is on balance the right answer - though it would be interesting to see what interest they felt was the most important to protect or promote with that decision. The question is, can he grasp the nettle and rid the squad of these kinds of divisive influences whilst retaining something of the experience and talent that these players can undoubtedly still provide.

<jaw drops> I... why? Just for fun? Coleen not putting out?

'Cos he's an unrefined pillock with no impulse control...allegedly.

Or you know, it could be a load of salicious bollocks from the worst fucking newspaper in world that is well known for pulling stories out of thin air. Why do people lap it up when it's based on nothing other than the shitty tabloids desperately looking for a scapegoat now Capello is staying.

The best thing about this story? The fact that Gerrard doesn't even HAVE a sister in law, his wife has two brothers. But who cares about facts when you've got some juicy gossip, right?

These same rumours surfaced a couple of months ago and nothing ever came of it, now here it is again just when someone needs to be blamed for England shitting the bed again. Until I see Gerrard on the front of the paper with his arm around a pregnant teenager/his imaginary sister in law I'll take it with a boulder of salt.

For some reason, liverpool seems strangely susceptible to rumours like this - Fowler is a cokehead, Dan Agger is a cokehead/alcy, Torres is an alcy, Gerrard's kids aren't his and so on, none of them true. Perhaps it's got something to do with the incredibly bitter, pathetic fans of the other club who love nothing better than making up any old shit up about our players so they can have some small victory over us.

Well, yeah. I've seen him play.

Fair enough about Gerrard not having a sister in law, but there's no way whichever paper it is that breaks a story that is close to what I heard last night - and the person I heard it from wasn't working at the Current Bun - if indeed they do, is going to do so without having gone through the mill on it. It's too big to be caught fibbing, though there's always room for error. Just ask Tony Blair.

Also, just as a matter of definition, a sister in law could also be a brother in law's wife, or even at a stretch said wife's sister.

The team played as a group who didn't like each other. There are many reasons that could have been the case, from their Premiership rivalries, to simmering resentment on Terry's part that he lost the armband to Ferdinand/Gerrard. Maybe the Germans and Spanish interviewed over the last week or so are also right, that it's a preponderance of individualism and ego over the ability to work for each other as a team. I don't think I'm on the wrong side of the cut made by Occam's razor if I don't discount the more fevered possible reasons just yet.

Fair point. Spike told me the other day (it was mentioned in one of my journalism classes too) that the Sun is written at an eight-year old's reading level. Clearly they have to find stories that match.

I've had to listen to Liverpool and Man U (and Charlton, sorry Russell) fans argue for 10 months. I thought NFL fans had bitter and pathetic nailed down, English fans take the cake. (Not saying you in particular, Dan. Two classmates are devout fans.)

I'm not going to comment on who should be the coach, but England need to mimic Germays current youth training programme and I'd argue they put someone like Terry Venables in charge of it. An old English coaching veteran that can start building from the ground up.

Yeah an eight year olds level sounds like giving it too much credit. Just click the link in my sig to see why I wouldn't give the rag any sort of consideration, especially when talking about Liverpool.

I was actually talking about Everton fans originally rather than the mancs. I think most of those rumours I mentioned originate with them. So many times I've been in a taxi in Liverpool where the driver "swears down, my uncles mates brothers window cleaner has saw player x doing y".The proximity and unique sort of rivalry that exists between us has led to some horrible stuff, from both sides admittedly. But I've sat in Anfield during the derby and listened to them sing songs about our Captain's children along with horrible Hillsborough chants so I wouldn't put it past them to make up rumours, and they always spread like wildfire.

I looked up some of rumours and the main one across the forums seems to be Gerrard is banging his wifes sister...yes that non-exisistant sister. Like I said, I'm not saying Gerrard hasn't been up to something, but I until
I see some actual evidence/truth, it's nonsense to me.

Yeah, a complete overhaul of the youth system is really needed. The germans, french and Spanish have all done it within the last decade or two and the results speak for themselves.

However, someone like Venebales is part of the problem not the solution. He's part of the old school, particularly English 'kick and rush' style of football which no-one else in the world plays and is what England needs to move away from. I read recently that the Uk has about 1,000 Fifa qualified coaches that train the kids in continental, possession based, technical football whereas Germany and Spain have around 15,000 (can't recall the exact figure but it seriously dwarfed the English number) and have done so for a number of years.

Trevor Brooking has been saying this for years now but nothing has been done and the England Youth Football Centre was scrapped a few years ago to pay for that carbuncle in Wembley.

Even if this was slightly tongue in cheek, Jim, it's being very harsh to Young Wayne. Despite what The Rags like to perpetuate about him, he's not nearly as volatile as he used to be. For example, his World Cup jibe at the English fans was likely because he underperformed and frustrated (at himself and them) not because he's the rash, totally undisciplined brat some corners would have you believe.

"England Team Manager" is, literally, as close to a poison chalice as you can get. The very thought of taking the job sickens me.

Yeah... mostly tongue in cheek. Since I didn't see him play night-in, night-out, you tend to go by what the media percieves him as (even discounting the tabloids bleating).

Oh, I know about the Sun shitting on Liverpool fans. Our final class project was a football magazine, and one of the stories was a piece on Heysel where a lot of the aftermath was discussed.

I may have posted this before the World Cup, but here's an article about the growth of elite football academies in Europe.

Ok, cool. I only said because it genuinely seemed quite scathing.

I was reading this interesting article on the English coaching yesterday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/8785895.stm

personally, I'd like Hodgson - he's got the international record and he's got an inspirational quality. However, he hates dealing with the press and i doubt he'd be able to control the massive egos the england idiots.

I'm also not aversed to Venables coming back, he was a good man for the job and only quit so that he could sort out his legal "troubles". theoretically it's now time for an English half-wit to take over so... Mick McCarthy? Stuart Pearce? Beckham?