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Few choices Search for England coach proving difficult
It's supposed to be one of the most prestigious jobs in the game (at least, the English media think so) but finding a suitable candidate who actually wants it is proving rather difficult. Last Saturday, some twenty minutes after losing 1-0 to Germany, England boss Kevin Keegan announced his resignation on camera. "I've had more than a fair chance and I did it to the best of my ability," Keegan said. "But I have not been good enough.' Most fans could have told him that part. Anybody who watched the previous 90 minutes was wracked by the painful and bizarre sight of Gareth Southgate (a central defender) trying to impersonate a midfielder. Keegan committed tactical suicide against Germany, just as he did against Portugal at Euro 2000. But it was the timing of the announcement that was surprising, coming as it did just three days before a World Cup qualifier in Finland. Proof that Keegan is a spontaneous man (he did the same when he was Newcastle manager four years earlier) and an honest one too.
Problem is, it left the English Football Association in the lurch. They need a new boss and they need one bad and there simply aren't too many decent coaches waiting around for the phone to ring. Ideally, they would like to appoint an English coach. After all, this is the country which invented the game, the same one which was so proud of its staunch isolationism that it refused to participate in the World Cup until 1950. Alas, there are no more than a handful of English managers to begin with and to a man they seem to be either inexperienced, crooked or incompetent. Terry Venables is the fan favorite. He is hailed is a genius for taking England to the semifinals of Euro 96. It was the second best ever result in the country's history and, like its best ever, winning the 1966 World Cup, it was achieved on home soil. Venables has a good pedigree, having managed Barcelona and Tottenham, but he's been a dud at his last three jobs: Portsmouth, Australia and Crystal Palace. He also left the England job in controversial circumstances after Euro 96 and has been accused of a number of financial irregularities. A sharp guy perhaps, but not really the kind of person you want to be running the ship. Peter Taylor was very successful as England's Under-21 boss and, with him at the helm, Leicester is now top of the Premiership, except he has only eight games' experience in the top flight and has already ruled himself out. Middlesbrough's Bryan Robson, Sunderland's Peter Reid and Aston Villa's John Gregory have also all said they wouldn't be interested in the job, which is good news for England fans, because they would have probably been even worse than Keegan. Robson and Reid have both spent a lot of money to keep their mediocre clubs mediocre. Tactically, they are zeros, great players who should have had a long apprenticeship before being handed the keys to the club. Gregory's Villa is also lackluster in every sense. If he's the best England can do, perhaps they should just pack it in. Bobby Robson has plenty of experience, too much, in fact. He's pushing 70 and, in any case, Newcastle haven't given him permission to speak to the English F.A. Southampton's Glenn Hoddle? Nice guy, but he has already had a crack at it and his wacky views on reincarnation and karma have earned him a permanent black-ball. Charlton's Alan Curbishley? Everybody says he's really clever, but let's first see if he can keep his club from being relegated. That about sums it up. Simply put, there are no great English managers around and, in fact, very few good ones. Since 1987, only one English manager has won the English title: Howard Wilkinson, in 1992 (funnily enough, he doesn't want the job either, though, as the F.A.'s technical director, he'll be filling in for now). That's an embarrassingly appalling record of futility. England simply hasn't been grooming young managerial talent. Being a manager doesn't just require charisma, intelligence and knowledge of the game. It takes education, tactical nous, familiarity with fitness and training, things you learn along the way. It seems the English F.A. has missed the point. You don't just promote great players ( Stuart Pearce, Alan Shearer and Tony Adams are all considered possible future England managers, further evidence of this folly), you have to train them first. All this means that if England want a good manager, odds are they'll have to appoint a foreigner. Sir Alex Ferguson would be nice, but as a proud Scot he would never take it. Besides, he would have everything to lose and nothing to gain. Arsenal's Arsene Wenger has also been ruled out, as has Aime Jacquet. Johan Cruyff is a flight of fancy, while Marcello Lippi, beyond the fact that he doesn't speak English, is more suited to being a club coach. Wim Jansen has a sharp tactical mind, but he's probably too bookish and Frank Rijkaard would be a colossal gamble in terms of experience (or lack thereof). So where do you go? Who knows? Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to persuade Wilkinson to hang on to the job, at least until the F.A. can find a half-decent English manager. No country has ever won the World Cup with a foreign manager, not to mention that exposing a foreigner to the vicious inanities of the English tabloid press is sheer country. England got itself into this mess, it needs to get itself out. And it needs to look inside itself for the solution. Based in London, Gabriele Marcotti writes a weekly column on international soccer for CNNSI.com.
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