The FA’s predicament

The Editor — Fri, April 21st 2006

Not who to choose, but when to choose

If current media reports are to be believed, the English FA are currently wrapping up its interviews for Eriksson’s successor as England coach.

There were good reasons for England to announce earlier in the year that Sven would be leaving his post after this summer’s World Cup, but the affair of naming his replacement has dragged on to the extent that it has led to a new problems.

Some of these problems require a quick solution:

Premiership teams without a manager want to know who they can approach ie, Newcastle and Martin O’Neill, and Premiership managers being mooted for the job (and their clubs) want to know so they can start planning for next season.

However, the primary requirement for the English FA is to get the best man possible. If this man is not available until after the World Cup - and I’m talking about Scolari here, undoubtedly the coach with the best CV - then the FA must delay its decision.

The bookies favourite is Steve McClaren, which leads to another dilemma. If England were to name him as the next manager now (as Middlesborough would like to know), the FA could find themselves on the back foot almost immediately if England have a poor World Cup, as Eriksson’s assistant McClaren would be certain to be labelled a failure by association.

Choosing O’Neill now would be the easy solution for England, but the option of waiting for a former World Cup winning coach in Scolari should be strongly considered.

Listed in: Competitions, World Cup, Teams, Newcastle Utd, Countries, England

Comments

Sack McClaren (who is the “spectre” of Graham Taylor!), and if Martin O’neil is no longer interested, and who could blame him, and Sam Allardyce is pre-occupied, GO FOREIGN!! Swallow your pride FA, and try again with Phil Scolari, Arsene Wenger, and ... Who knows, Jose Mourinho. We taught the World how to play the Beautiful Game. Ghana, as representative of the future, play it beautifully, as do many others, established and emerging. Lets join them, and leave the tired old long ball game in the history books.

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at 8:20 AM on Friday, October 13, 2006

The Fan