So the sweet F.A. are now the proud owners of a top notch Italian coach, or six. OK, I don’t have a problem with that, just who do you want, Sam Allerdyce, Harry Redknapp, Paul Jewell, Steve Bruce? I rest my case. That there should be more capable and deserving Englishmen coming into consideration is a fact I don’t deny and some blame that there aren’t may well rest with the F.A. to some degree but the fact remains that there aren’t and the F.A. have to deal with the situation as they find it right now, do we really want Stuart Pearce or Steve Copell learning on the job; I don’t think so. Putting aside the extent to which the F.A. is culpable for the limited credentials of prospective Englishmen for the job, where is the ambition to broaden their experience and CV amongst the names above? The last two successful English managers were Terry Venables and Bobby Robson, both were successful here and then extended their horizons and coached abroad and then came back to be successful in the role of an international manager. It looks to me that that all those above are comfortable in their present Premiership positions, taking their wedge of the Premiership cake, fighting off relegation or bumbling around mid-table and that’s fair enough if that’s the extent of ambition but don’t be disappointed when no one mentions you as credible candidates for the England job. It could well be that Capello’s commitment is to a pay cheque and not the badge on the shirt but he still looks like he brings more to the table on his way to his next monthly chunk of change than any of the time servers mentioned above who may have more passion for the three lions but significantly less managerial nous.
Capello seems to be his own man and has little time for egos and fools, so it should prove an interesting relationship with the players and press, and would manage in the way I would set out my stall, i.e. I’m going to be the first in the firing line so you’ll play My Way or I’ll find someone else who will and only time will tell if ‘My Way’ is successful. I’ll worry about conflict of interest when we are lining up against Italy in a championship final and as we know that’s not going to be coming about before 2010, thanks again for that Mr Minardi.
From an english point of view id have gone for big sam or harry. However, ill live with capello.
At the end of the day we are now 12 years into the foreign invasion of english football and we are very much reaping what we have sewn over those years both in managerial terms and player terms.
England is an average team with 1 or 2 world class players in it. The rest flatter to deceive because week in and week out they play with foreign imports who make them look better than they are.