Contrary to the column inches in the press and personal opinions surrounding the competence (or otherwise) of Steve McClaren and his charges, England’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008 may have been a good thing in three respects:

First: It showed up the Football Association’s obvious incompetence. From allowing Sven-Goran Eriksson to financially manipulate them and then humiliate them in the Faria Alam affair to the fiasco of Felipe Scolari and then to the rush to appoint McClaren, it seems the establishment is too concerned with saving their own face than doing the right thing.

Second: It showed up the English players for what they really are. Their egos inflated by the press and a worldwide television audience, they are not as good as they think. Even if they are, they certainly cannot function as a team.

'Let’s stop all these inter-departmental committees set up to find out the source of failure when it is blatantly obvious in the first place – no committee will ever point the finger at themselves'


Third: It confirms that there are no good English managers. For all the names that have been mentioned as McClaren’s replacement, Harry Redknapp’s heritage put him in the frame but in the wider context of who deserves the job on merit, he is nowhere close.

So where do we go from here?

To address each issue one at a time, obviously the FA have to take a good look at themselves. None of them seem willing to take the responsibility for the recent debacles. Everyone at the top levels prefers to remain safe in their job and deflect attention away from themselves to the likes of McClaren or Steve Gerrard or even Johnny Foreigner. Let’s stop this nonsense.

Let’s stop all these inter-departmental committees set up to find out the source of failure when it is blatantly obvious in the first place – no committee will ever point the finger at themselves. They should do the honourable thing and all offer to resign en-mass. Maybe the job of selecting the next England manager should be left to a committee comprising statisticians, ex-England captains, company CEOs and fans. Each one of them not only has the instinct to review the CV of and select the right man for the job, but also to see if he can work within the England set-up and monitor his performance using a scientific as well as a corporate yard-stick.

In terms of players, England has a bunch of players who are individually no worse than (and in fact better than) some of those who have qualified for Euro 2008. It’s just that as a collection of talented people, they simply fall apart. It’s like watching successive Dutch squads, bar the 1988 Euro winning team. The bottom line, like Roy Keane has stated; it is a question of ego.

England players all feel they amount to something, and the press and a worldwide television audience continually feed this feeling. Rio Ferdinand, for example, isn’t as good as he thinks he is but he plays for probably one of the best-supported clubs in the world, and Manchester United fans will defends their players as gods no matter how crappy they are. Frank Lampard may also be a good club player, but he is no international. So, too, Jermain Defoe, Gareth Barry and Paul Robinson. England, despite the whining about foreign players, have a good bunch of youngsters coming up, with the likes of Theo Walcott leading the way.

Successive international competitions, from as far back as 1974 when the unfancied Germans took down Cruyff’s brilliant Dutch team in the World Cup Final, have shown that a less-than-talented squad can succeed at international level. The recent example of Greece at Euro 2004 has been touted as the ultimate example of the value of a good manager.

In this respect, the FA must decide what they want – a good manager or an English one. Arsene Wenger has recently said that England should have an English manager. And the appointment of a foreign one would cause the likes of Queen Elizabeth I and Winston Churchill to turn in their graves. After all, they saw off far greater odds in their time with nothing but English blood coursing through their veins. But these are modern times. The world has become smaller.

Some great players wearing national jerseys were never born on national shores. Croatia’s Eduardo for example. Zidane and half the French squad themselves even. Canny managers like Felipe Scolari and Guus Hiddink are head-hunted to manage other national teams. Football has become a worldwide enterprise much like businesses and companies. It’s no longer plausible to say a British firm must have a British CEO. It’s the best man for the job no matter what his passport says.

So what of the future?

The FA must take a good hard look at themselves. Where necessary, changes in personnel have to be made. Time must be taken to select the right manager for the job even if it means combing the plains of Africa, looking under a bowl of rice in Asia or marching with the penguins in Antarctica.

And the right players must be selected for the job. Not the best players, but the RIGHT ones. If Frank Lampard cannot play with Steve Gerrard, then one has to be left out. If playing Peter Crouch will get goals but playing Wayne Rooney seems more glamorously correct, the self-destructive bad-tempered brat has got to go.

And most of all, England need a manager who can stand up and moon an overly analytical and critical press who revels in their ability to produce perfect 20-20 vision in hindsight.

Please…someone get Jose Mourinho’s number!