The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / England’s new manager

England’s new manager

by 53 Comments

Gareth Southgate appears to be front runner .

Doesn’t do it for me I have to say and I can’t see any outstanding candidates.

Any thoughts?

0

Comments

  2. Only a fool or a desperate man would take this rankest of poisoned chalices.
    A bunch of spoilt, lazy primadonna players, cynical hostile fans and a baying pack of sports correspondents out for blood at the merest sniff of it?
    Best of luck…

  3. I find the man bumptious beyond belief, but England might as well go for Allardyce. If he succeeds (i.e: England get to a semi final, cue: hysterical street parties, OBEs all round for the squad and their families), fair enough. If not, then we can finally shut him up about being the lost managerial genius of our times.

  4. Gareth Southgate has “friends” in the FA – competent at what he does, but can’t see him stepping up (see also Stuart Pearce in recent years).
    Which means he’ll probably get the job.
    Doubtless the name Gary Neville has been mentioned in dispatches – another No to that one. His brief reign in Spain showed he is not ready.

    “The England Manager should be English” – well, we’re a bit short of candidates at the moments.
    Sam Allardyce? Eddie Howe? Alan Pardew?
    And in the Championship, probably only Steve Bruce could be considered (unless of course Neil Warnock fancies a crack at it)
    Mark Warburton at Rangers – although has he really been tested at the highest level?

    Ignoring the English requirement, Mauricio Pochettino or Slaven Bilic could be interesting choices. And Brendan Rogers hasn’t yet got his feet under the table at Celtic, but could prove expensive.

    Manuel Pellegrini – has he got another job yet? Maybe he was waiting for this opportunity to come along.

  6. I think if Hoddle invested in some Basildon Bond, an envelope and a (fantastically expensive) first class stamp, and wrote nicely to the F.A., he might get a second chance at it.

  7. Let Allardyce sort the defending out.
    Give him a contract to the end of the next World Cup.
    Quarter final minimum, we have to raise the standard. If his job is on the line, the defence will be Italian like.

    • I believe Hoddle was the last decent Manager England had.
      (The Sven years were competnet (mostly) but pretty dull)
      OK, despite the Eileen Drewery thing and the not taking a fit and fired up Gascoigne to France, I really believe he was onto something and success would’ve followed

  11. Venables best post – Ramsey IMHO,
    Hoddle talks tactics in the most straight forward way, based on my seeing him at The Spurs Show, but seems to forget how to when punditting and may be considered a busted flush – also managed Gascoigne in a questionable way.
    Redknapp seems tainted
    Pardiola / Allardyce / Pulis – landfill mid table merchants.

    As a Spurs fan I need to put my fingers into my ears and say ” Go and get Wenger.Stick Carrick next to him.”

  16. This sad bi-annual ritual. The latest humiliation. The latest downbeat and dismal departure. There will be another in two years time. Assuming we qualify for Russia. And by the way, what a great place to have it! And then Qatar. Even better!

    I digress. We are not good because we don’t place enough value on coaching. Or on being coached. Or on becoming coaches.

    Our players are fit enough, skilful enough. Just not tactically acute enough. Or positionally aware enough. Or disciplined enough. Coached enough. In other words.

    Iceland has more qualified coaches than England.

    • Are they also a bit overplayed as well as overpaid ?

      The team seems to shrink from occasions to which other rise…from our dirge of a national anthem to the match perormances, it all seems to lack a bit of belief.

      I felt a bit sorry for Hodgson as he blustered his way thru’ his farewell, it’s hardly his fault that he fits the dreary middle manager template which seems to work for blazer world.( Although I’d feel slightly less sympathetic if, after moaning that he didn’t feel that he had anything to say, he unleashed a book or a series of columns in the Daily Moron detailing his England hell.)

      I think that after – or possibly before – the Prime Minister it’s the most discussed / debated job in the country which makes it Aunt Sally writ large.
      I just wish – WISH – that I’d seen more of the kind of exuberant football which I see on MOTD each week – given that much of that is delivered via non-English players – but which outplayed / outthought France and Germany earlier this season, at tournaments, but I fear as my Bus Pass beckons that I’ll be reduced to reminiscing Nobby Stiles et al. and the demolition of the Dutch in 1996.

      ANYWAY
      When does the new season start and how quickly can we start to jeer at the amount of money which Mourinho will waste ?

  17. http://i1060.photobucket.com/albums/t449/GCU_Grey_Area/ronmanager_zps4l1jjdm5.jpg

    Or perhaps a one-nation, unity manager?

    Ha-ha. Mmm? Cometh the hour hour, cometh the Manager? Me? Oh my, no, Ron’s in semi-retirement now, mmm? Tie and cardie on by 8.30, eggs at the Manager’s breakfast bar, before seeing my accountant to get the story straight. Little knitted cosies? Toast cut into flat back four, jam pots for goalposts, mmm? Salt cellar crosses it to pepper pot? Pretending the egg is Mr Abramovich whilst slicing the top off it? Those little revealing details making it into the next profile of Ron in the Sundays? Possibly, don’t quote me on that. Ha-ha, no really don’t quote me on that. Former manager’s words? Taken out of context? Messrs Sue, Grabbit and Run become involved? Are we live, darling? Ask Mrs Ron if she can freshen up that teapot.

    Largeish boys, in the stadia, no idea of the words of the National Anthem, but word-perfect on the latest Bentley catalogue? Ha-ha. Thinking back to their school nativity plays, daring to say ‘Chriiiiii-i-st I’m bored’ at the end of O Come All Ye Faithful? Wayne Rooney? Fifth angel of the Lord, or third donkey? Marvellous.

    Goalposts for goalposts, goal-line technology? Back in the day, the fat wheezy kid in goal told you it was in or out, and that was good enough for us. No bad decisions, or its Chinese burns behind the bike shed for you, laddie. Possibly, don’t quote me on that.

    Gloves! Players wearing gloves who aren’t goalies. Madness, even if their mum’s knitted them. Why aren’t they laughed out of town, mm? And their foreign names. What’s wrong with Banks, Charlton, Hurst and Peters? Teams nowadays are all JayZ, Beyonce, Ciccione, Goldfrapp. Possibly, errr. ‘Sea-lions on the shirt, must have smelled the fish there?’ What a journey we’ve been on since ‘Back Home’, song-wise, isn’t it? ‘World in Motion’? Another tune ruined by someone talking over it.

    Brown leather balls, sopping wet with water. No thought of heath and safety gone mad in my days. Whiplash, concussion and trauma only apparent in later life? Where was I? Marvellous. Oh, Mrs Ron wants me to take the grass cuttings to the tip. Freshly mown grass? School playing field? Small bottles of milk, rendered undrinkable by heat, frost or Blue Tits? Janet and John? Janet and Janet nowadays. Or John and John. Enduring images. . .

  19. I’ve given this some thought and when we re-evaluate our expectations (mid-table at best) there is only one candidate, it has to be Allardyce. As Ali alluded to we would instantly become hard to beat, no Joe Hart and a couple of decent centre backs from the lower leagues if necessary, a holding midfielder two wingers and 100 caps for Andy Carroll. Actually big Sam is better than that but the principle remains. Give him the job, it cannot be any worse

    • Up!

      Big Sam is a great shout. He’d bring our ‘British’ style back, so fabulously displayed by Iceland. My only worry is will his health stand up to it.

      Actually, Andy Carroll would have shook things up for us against Slovakia and Iceland. He’s well used to coming on as a sub and can cause mayhem in the penalty, an attacker who can actually head the ball well.

      • “Big” Sam? manager whose claim to fame is that he is a perennial escape artist and avoids relegation.

        Shooting high there!

        As I flippantly(-ish) mentioned in another thread – Clive Woodward and Glenn Hoddle. Would address the key areas the players need – psychology/operating under pressure, and football nous and tactics.

        Won’t happen, but that would be the best shot.

  20. On a more serious note than my previous posts, if Arsene Wenger and Brendon Rodgers are under consideration, then why not look at Claudio Ranieri. Just won the title with a team of relatively modest talents, which is more than the other two have managed for over a decade in Arsene’s case, or ever, in Rodgers case.

Leave a Reply