Build em up and knock em down (Football in General)

Member Name: kca101

Product:	Football in General
Date:	10/10/00 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A chance to make us great again

Disadvantages: Stress, life-wrecking media coverage, job from hell

The media – the downfall of 3 of the last 4 managers – does it yet again. Don’t get me wrong, Keegan wasn’t the man for the job and that should have been seen early on by the FA. BUT, remember the media coverage when Keegan was asked to take over as England manager? Every, and I mean every, newspaper supported the move.

I read the Daily Mail on Monday (unfortunately those big *important peoples* papers are difficult to read on the train) and they were trying to make out that they never supported him. Not true. However, they were one of the first to start criticising him.

So, what did he do wrong?

In my humble opinion he was swayed by public and media pressure to take a job he knew he wasn’t up to. The early (and lucky, if I remember rightly) win over Poland got people talking about his motivational skills and Keegan was tempted to go full time. I have no doubts that if a more reserved opinion was expressed by the media at that time Keegan would have seen that the job was not for him. We can’t blame him for that.

What we *can* blame him for is not owning up at the right time. Resigning BEFORE Euro 2000 would probably have been best so that a tactically-minded manager could take over. I hate to say it, but everyone in the country could see the flaws in Keegan’s tactics on Saturday – Rudi Voller must have been dancing a jig when he saw England’s formation. Poor Voller – let’s hope the German media don’t put pressure on him to go fulltime. Surely most average First Division managers could have arranged the Germans to beat England on Saturday.

So what now?

It’s clear we need the right person in the job. The foreigners mentioned (Wenger, Jacquet and Lippi) are unlikely to take the worst football job in the world. Remember how even our “successful” managers Robson and Venables were treated terribly by the media.
So it looks like we are down to what little home-grown (UK rather than just England) coaching talent there is:

Alex Ferguson – would be a total fool to even consider it. Doesn’t need the hassle or the money.

Bobby Robson – considered by most to be too old which is a shame seeing how he turned Newcastle into a half-decent team following the Gullit debacle.

Brian Robson – consistently fails to bring anything like the best out of his multi-million pound array of foreign mercenaries. Why do people think he could succeed with England’s prima donnas?

Glen Hoddle – er, no thanks.

John Gregory – the man who can’t control his own players? Who turns seasoned professionals like Southgate and Ehiogu into transfer requesters? Not a chance.

David O’Leary – has done well, but had George Graham to thank for the ground-work. Shows great promise but is too inexperienced. If he messed up with England he may never get another job!

Terry Venables – the people’s choice, and rightly so. But will Noel White (FA jerk) ever let him be considered? The best choice for the role, and hey, here’s a good point, he wants the job!

Sorry for such a long review, I just had to get it all out. I feel better now. Anyone still reading this? Oh okay, just to finish up ...

The FA need to carefully consider what they do. Hiring a high-profile under achiever is not an option. Neither is pandering to their own egos (Noel White take note). Venables is the only option and whilst the squad of players is hardly world-class (Becks, Scholes and Owen excepted), he would be sure to get the very best out of them. He can also handle the press well, which must surely be a quality the FA are looking for.

I live in hope.

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