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Next England Manager

February 12, 2012 by · Comments Off on Next England Manager 

Next England Manager, So as we bid goodbye (or ciao) to another England manager, the question is being asked: Who do the Nation want as the next manager to succeed Fabio Capello?

The FA chairman David Bernstein yesterday rather worryingly asserted that whilst the next manager to take charge of England may “not definitely be English”, he did admit that “clearly there is a preference for an English or British person.” Whether or not he was referring to public opinion or whether they are his and his fellow FA heads’ opinions is not clear. What is clear is that since the news of Capello’s shock resignation broke out on Wednesday evening there have been definite signs of latent xenophobia creeping into the media opinion. Barry Fry, the current director of football at Peterborough, is a clear example of this as he condemned the possibility of another foreign manager taking the helm. On Sky Sports, Fry said “I can’t believe any Englishman would want another foreigner as manager of our country we’ve had enough of these foreigners; they have no passion, they have no commitment. All they want is the money.” Imagine such a comment in any other sort of job sector. It would instantly be leapt upon as prejudice and ignorance.

There is no doubting, if the right manager for the job happened to be English then great; The Spanish have a Spanish manager, the Germans have a German manager and so forth. But this shouldn’t be the fundamental requirement. Harry Redknapp has been largely tipped as the natural successor and the fans’ choice and yes, he has done a remarkable job at Tottenham this season, but has he won enough in his career or have enough top level experience as manager to be given this role? International football is a different arena to the club stage; the stakes are higher, the pressure of the whole Nation is on you. Redknapp boasts an FA Cup, won in his time at Portsmouth, an Intertoto Cup in 1999 and a few lower league division wins. It doesn’t exactly spell out brilliance to me. It’s the same with Roy Hodgson; another manager whose name has been bandied around for the job. To me, it’s ludicrous that he would even be considered – a spectacular failure at Liverpool in which he misunderstood the traditions of the club and tried to enforce a small-minded mentality upon a club that prides itself on large ambitions. Again, he’s won very little in his career and his success is doing well with smaller clubs, not massive Nations.

There have been instances in England over the last decade where, time and time again, foreign managers have been the objects of ridicule where British managers are let off. When Rafa Benitez stood up to Sir Alex Ferguson in 2009 he was ‘cracking up.’ Roy Hodgson bangs his head against the dug-out wall several times in a paroxysm of anger and he’s just showing how much he cares. Fabio Capello tells a media swarm in close proximity to an England training session to go away and he’s a tyrant. Sir Alex Ferguson bans journalists from attending his interviews and he’s teaching them a lesson. Arsene Wenger and Andres Villas-Boas this season have come under intense criticism where Owen Coyle, for instance, has slipped under the media radar. Of course, British managers do get their share of the slack as well but there is an unsettling notion pervading this country that English managers are passionate and foreign managers simply don’t care at times.

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