Why The Next Boss Doesn't Have To Be English

Sam Allardyce or Stuart Pearce could be the next England manager, not for anything so trivial as their tactical acumen or man-management skills, but because they’re the exact opposite of the current man. Sven is foreign and reserved, while Allardyce is English and outspoken. Sven sits inanimate in the dugout, while Pearce gesticulates like an epileptic at a strobe-lit disco.

45eachway believes this because The FA has a depressing history of reactionary appointments. Each inbound manager is chosen as a reaction against the outbound man:


Terry Venables did a great job, missing out on the Euro ’96 final on penalties. Certain players of that era (Shearer, Sherringham etc) still call him ‘gaffer’, but the FA weren’t keen to offer him a new contract because of his shady business dealings. So, the man they perceived to be of questionable moral fibre was replaced with a God-fearing Christian.


Glenn Hoddle’s version of Christianity turned out to be a little extreme, and he was fired for insulting the disabled. But his key football failing was his unpopularity with the players. Remember Eileen Drewery, the claims that Owen “wasn’t a natural finisher” (how mental does that sounds now?), players being told to feign injuries and, worst of all, the tell all World Cup diary? No one wanted to play for him, so Hoddle was replaced by the man all the players wanted to play for.


Kevin Keegan remained popular on a personal level, but lost everyone’s respect (players, fans, media) with his tactical ineptness. England failed to produce Keegan’s trademark brand of attacking football because he was consistently outmanoeuvred by superior tacticians. Keegan coached with his heart, not with his head, and the result was we lost our last ever game at Wembley 1-0 to our fiercest rivals (what? no, Scotland don’t count any more). The emotional, tactically naïve Keegan left, taking his Ladybird Big Book Of Tactics with him. His replacement was a tactically astute (we thought) ice-cool Swede.


Now’s not the time to continue the pattern of bouncing back and forth between opposites. Now's the time to forget what’s gone before and appoint the new man based entirely on his qualifications. The next England manager should get the job because of what he is, not because of what he isn’t.