Monday, February 6
The Next England Manager

Right, so Sven is going. Not as soon as many would wish but he will no longer be the England manager after this summers' World Cup finals. No the question becomes "Who's next?"

Obviously speculation has been intense ever since the announcement that Sven was going was made. It will continue to fill column inches until his successor is revealed.

Football England will give it consideration here this one time and then leave it to the FA, except for a few choice words of wisdom from Norbert Wartle and Percy Piranhafish perhaps.

Obviously there has been a widespread clamour that the next man should be English from around the country. I do not go along with this view at all.

This is really just a kneejerk reaction to Sven's spectacular fall from grace in the second half of his term in office and has as much to do with non football reasons as it has with the shortcomings he has also shown in his actual job.

Everybody should also remember that his predecessor, Kevin Keegan, was not only English but a wholehearted, brave, honest, extremely patriotic Englishman. Unfortunately he was also an incompetent international manager.

With the luxury of having almost the whole world to choose from it is important that we simply get the best manager, not the best English one.

If there is little to choose between the leading candidates and one or more of them happen to be English then the choice should undoubtedly be the native. Are there any Englishmen who deserve serious consideration though?

For a long time the leading home grown contender was Steve McClaren but his hopes appear to have dwindled during a season of turmoil at Middlesbrough although you never know. He looks a smarmy type who could well have stroked a few egos at the FA in his time.

It is also still possible that his season could end in better shape than it is now. His side are still in two cup competitions and their FA Cup draw is not the worst.

Plus he will be in Germany in the summer and if things do go well it could count in his favour. Having said that the FA seem to want to make the appointment before then anyway.

Basically we do not want McClaren. His work at Middlesbrough has been fine in general but he does not come across as a tactical genius or particularly charismatic. Plus he has been too close to Sven and surely we would all prefer a clean break after the summer.

The next English candidate, and the one with most support at present it would seem, is Bolton's Sam Allardyce.

If you have read any of our Premiership coverage it will not surprise you to find out that the prospect of Sam Allardyce getting the England job scares me rigid.

A lot of comment has been made about how Eriksson's position going into these finals is the same as Bobby Robson's was going into the 1990 finals. What would be the same is if Allardyce took over from Eriksson, as Graham Taylor took over from Robson. And what a disaster that was.

Just like Taylor, Allardyce has taken a small, unfashionable club from obscurity and turned them into a hard working, physical, long ball team who are hard to beat.

Just like Watford under Taylor, Allardyce's Bolton play a relentless long ball game and look to profit from long throws, free kicks and corners. They play nothing resembling international football and Allardyce exists in a world of strapping, committed athletes who, like himself, have no pretensions to playing football.

Would this style work for England? It didn't under Taylor and I see no reason to believe it would under Allardyce. At Bolton Big Fat Sam can do what he wants and everyone's happy because they're as high in the league as they've basically ever been.

As manager of England his methods would come under far more scrutiny than they've done at club level in the media and it is doubtful the supporters, unlike at Bolton, would put up with his way of playing.

Would we really want to see Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham and Joe Cole watching balls flying over their heads for ninety minutes? Gary Neville would be made up of course. He's got a decent throw on him.

You could argue that Allardyce would play a different way if he was England manager and working with better players. Why would you trust someone to succeed using totally different methods to the ones they have used in the past though?

Besides, Allardyce has some quality players at Bolton, he just doesn't let them play. Jay Jay Okocha was the talk of the Premiership a couple of seasons ago. All the skill and trickery of that time has disappeared though. Now Okocha is just another of Allardyce's artisans whose only special gift to the team is the length of his throw.

The other thing against Allardyce is he thrives on the intimacy of club football. Having his players around him day in, day out. Drumming into them exactly what they must and must not do and working them until they are fit to run through brick walls.

That does not happen at international level. You get your men for a week here and there throughout the year and you spend that time trying to mould the countries most talented individuals into a shape that best suits their talents and coaxing the best out of them.

Allardyce's idea of a plan B is to kick everything longer and harder than you already have been doing.

The right man for England? I certainly hope not.

That leaves Alan Curbishley who plays better football but has also never managed a big club and is not used to handling superstars and, apparently, Paul Jewell although that suggestion seems faintly ludicrous to me. A decent six months in the Premier League with Wigan and you're England manager? Surely not. We should not overlook his "achievements" at Bradford and Sheffield Wednesday before crowing him England boss.

Then there's Stuart Pearce. He laughed at the suggestion himself on the grounds of his inexperience but if I was forced to choose an Englishman to do the job he would be my pick.

As a player, of course, Pearce had infinitely more exposure to the international arena than the others (Curbishley did play for the schoolboys), he would have the respect of the players and seems to know what makes players tick without being one to pander to egos.

But, of course, we don't have to pick an Englishman. I am not going to pretend to know enough about the possible foreign candidates to go into detail but there are obviously several candidates who have vast international experience and know what it takes to do well in major tournaments.

I would definitely take one of these. The best thing to come out of the FA in the wake of the Sven fiasco is that in future England managers will serve from major tournament to major tournament and be assessed after each, allowing them to be replaced if there is cause for concern.

Two years of Guus Hiddink and then, if he's not showing himself to be a world beater, the option of Stuart Pearce with a couple of years experience under his belt and raring to go as England manager. Sounds alright to me.