Steve McClaren has paid the penalty for England’s Euro 2008 failure. But the REAL villains of the piece are the FA and the tabloid rat-pack who hounded the luckless national coach into the ground. Just as they did with his predecessor Sven-Goran Eriksson and virtually all the England managers before them.

England’s problem is not that they can’t win games - it’s that they can’t win tournaments. They have the talent but simply lack consistency - and always have done. And, as Roy Keane put it so aptly after the Croatia debacle, the team is filled with ‘’too many egos’’.

McClaren was no worse and no better than most of his predecessors. The outrageous Sun newspaper , whose hacks would pillory anyone who got the job just for the fun of it, decided he was England’s WORST manager ever in the grounds that he lost 28 per cent of his games in charge. Completely negative, as ever - they’ve been after poor Mac since day one of his tenure, just as they headhunted poor Sven throughout his days in charge.

'Would England have lost had Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Ashley Cole, Michael Owen and John Terry been playing? I doubt it very much - but you wouldn’t get The Sun hacks to admit it'


If they looked at the other side of the argument, (and it was there in black and white in a chart they compiled), McClaren won exactly 50 per cent of his 18 matches at the helm. And that’s a better record than Sir Bobby Robson, the hero who led the team to within a penalty shootout of the 1990 World Cup Final. It is also a better win percentage than Don Revie, Graham Taylor or Kevin Keegan. But of course, The Sun chose to ignore those facts in their hatchet job on the latest fool to take on the most vilified job in world football.

Personally, I think ANY manager would be crazy to become England coach. His only possible redemption would be if he won us a major tournament - and that means the European Championship or World Cup. And even in the unlikely event of that happening, when things levelled off after the glory days, as they inevitably would, you can guarantee The Sun and Daily Mirror would be screaming for his head, a la Graham 'turnip head' Taylor, Glenn Hoddle, Keegan, Sven and now McClaren.

Personally I hope the FA can’t find anyone to take the job. They will do, of course, because money will, as ever, talk. But the illogical and unjustified attacks on vastly experienced coaches who are merely trying to do their jobs, only to be let down by their players, are totally unfair.