Why pang for an Englishman to lead England?
The assertion that England needs an English (or British Manager) must be examined in the calm light of day. I don’t think where you come from is relevant, and the examples of Guus Hiddink as the international coach for hire have shown that foreigners are capable of transforming a team. So why obsess for an Englishman?
As I recall, the furore over Capello in South Africa and some of the nonsense faced by Sven (outside of his domestic circumstance!) in a previous tournament centred around their desire to deploy tactics, formations and styles of play that were viewed as, simply not British.
Within the confines of the British Isles, we have espoused the greatness of out of date systems. In the 1880′s, England preferred dribbling, bravery and directness, while Scotland preferred passing (Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics – Wilson/orion) and struggled completely with foreign obsession with defending and guile. Different systems flourished in South America, Austria and Spain, and crystallised in November 1953 when Ferenc Puskas and the Hungary side of legend humiliated (home and away) an overrated and over esteemed England. The response to that shock took 13 years to mature and yielded England’s only major tournament win, at home, but playing a 4-1-3-2 with tactics and pragmatism.
Since then England have won nothing, and returned to an obsession with “straightforward” 4-4-2 direct play, English style. Meanwhile, the world has continued turning.
So if you want to continue for another thirty years of hurt, stick by the assertion that an Englishman knows better. Stick to 4-4-2, distrust foreigners, expect immediate results and persist in translating tactics that work in your domestic league to a World Cup stage where you will continue to be embarrassed by lesser nations, with lesser players and lesser funds, but greater tactics and no sacred-cows.
Alternatively, drop your obsessions and prove how good you really can be, and accept that the child Britain gave birth to has left home, travelled the world and returns with a lot more knowledge that you yourself have.
So you would not object to a foreigner leading Scotland, would you? How about an Englishman leading Scotland then? And as we are at it, why not an Englishman as the First Minister of an independent Scotland? Now that would be worth seeing!!
;-p
Well, a Scotsman founded the Bank of England and an Englishman founded the Bank of Scotland, so we can work well together. We already have an Englishman in charge of the Scotland Rugby team, and he is doing an excellent job, despite some poor results. The key for me Luca, is that the right man gets the job. As far as the role of First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond has been doing an excellent job and this has been reflected in the May 2011 election results, so I don’t think there’s a vacancy. I’m not sure what the preconditions of public service are for politicians in the UK and/or Scotland, but I’m not averse to appointments based on talent and ability. I do know that the American’s got in a flap about Obama’s birth certificate, and even now conspiracy theorist right-wings accuse him of being foreign.
For me, “it’s not where you’ve come from but where you’re going” that sums it up. We get too wound up with petty stereotypes that we miss out. As someone raised in the UK all my life, I grew up aware of the common British mis-conceptions and stereotypes of foreigners. The EEC/EU/EC were “Something bad” that was out to wreck “something special” that the UK had, by straightening bananas, banning link sausages and taking away our produce. However, when I travelled in Europe I realised that not every city was full of binge drinkers on Friday nights, spewing on the pavements, shouting abuse, and not everyone lived on a diet of saturated fat. In fact, I specifically remember being in Genova and wandering down to the waterside at 10pm to find families dining, drinking and relaxing, and shops open that sold ice-cream, fruit juice and coffees at midnight alongside digestivo’s of a more alcoholic content. Try finding a place in the UK that will sell you something other than alcohol after 10pm on a Friday night and your choices are service stations and Tesco. We wonder why the UK has an alcohol culture?
As far as football is concerned, Italy brought us the Catenaccio, while other “Foreign” approaches to the game have included the 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1 and more. So yes, we need to be better INTER nationalists!
Interesting. Surely that logic should extend to it not mattering who plays for an international team? Why don’t you just get the players who are best for the job? But obviously nationality does matter as it’s supposed to be a country’s players showing off their country’s talent. And the manager is in an odd hybrid position, as on the one hand it’s his job to manage a country’s players (so it shouldn’t matter where they come from) but to some extent he could be the standard bearer for the country’s management talent (so it does matter).
So that’s where the clamour for an English manager comes from. I didn’t have a problem with Sven and Fabio for being foreign, they probably were better than any English manager operating at the time, which is the rub, – why wasn’t there anyone better? Maclaren was the best English manager in the Premier League on the strength of one League Cup and a Europa League Final (arguably still is since he’s gone on to win a league elsewhere). Redknapp has surpassed him with an FA Cup and seems to be sitting pretty for a Champion’s League spot. But you have to go back to Howard Wilkinson and Howard Kendall for English managers who won the English League. Something really has to change, but ideally the best English manager should be good enough to manage England for our pride if nothing else.
As to passion – I wouldn’t see any team managed by Fergie lacking it, even if it was England……
Good points and well made! The problem with MacLaren is that he blows hot and cold, and has either failed or succeeded extremely and it has all happened post England.
I think the endemic failing is the desire to play “British style” football in a European or Global arena. I think it blinkers us (England especially) to some tactical approaches and styles less incongruous to the styles we play.