Capello had a serious cv as a player and manager
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McClaren, Hodgson and Allardyce didnât have the job in a row. In the last 20 years or so England have been stuck between the natural desire for an English coach to be over the national team and the recognition that there werenât many good English coaches out there, leading them to sometimes appoint a continental coach.They oscillated from Eriksson to McClaren to Capello to Hodgson. But their willingness to appoint a continental coach was unique among the big European football nations, so the attitude was more outward looking than many here would have you believe.
To work at the top clubs you are working with players from all different cultures, and who speak all different languages. It would be interesting to know how many of the Englishmen managing in the Premier League today speak more than 1 language, or have even lived abroad for any significant time. Sean Dyche has a squad almost exclusively of British players, with a player from NZ thrown in as well.
Every country gives big managerial jobs to star players, Zidane took over at Real Madrid and Henry at Monaco with very little to back it up.
Outside of the PL and the Championship, I am guessing the majority of the managers in league 1 and 2 are British?
Iâve read that book and traditionally I would say that probably is the case. Mavericks like John Barnes, Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle were never fully trusted. Itâs definitely something that is changing and this England team and management is a demonstration of that, you particularly see that with the minority players.
At some point in the early 1990s football switched from being a game where sheer effort could often overcome skill to being one where technique and tactics in addition to much more professional physical preparation became paramount. England got left behind then and have never fully caught up. But they are catching up.
One thing that has always intrigued me is how the great managers in English or UK football always seemed to come from particular geographical areas. Scotland and around Glasgow obviously - Shankly, Busby, Stein, Ferguson, Dalglish, Graham. The North East of England produced Paisley, Revie, Clough, Bobby Robson, Jack Charlton.
Yorkshire produced Bill Nicholson, Keith Burkinshaw, Harry Catterick - and Howard Wilkinson.
There was another corner over in the Wirral peninsula which produced Stan Cullis, Joe Mercer and Ron Saunders.
Yet despite what I said at the start if this post, all of these were all deep thinkers about the game and very intelligent men. Most probably werenât very educated in the formal sense but they had a very rounded intelligence and a fierce devotion to hard work.
What intrigues me is the historical lack of great managers that came from below that unofficial line that divides the north of England from everything below it.
It also intrigues me that when sort of traditional hard working way of life that defined the north of England and Scotland came to an end around Thatcher times, the north of England and Scotland suddenly stopped producing great managers.
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Yet all those countries have inferior records against Italy in major international football. Thereâs not a country about that the Germans have more respect for than Italy in footballing terms.
You have an aversion to penalty shootouts as you are of weak moral character and canât hold your nerve at the pressure points.
Maybe the social class thing means other countries have a âbigger pickâ. England have only really been pulling players from half or less of their population.
I think this is a function of England as a nation traditionally not being particularly prepared to look outwards in a non-colonial sense, of believing that it is the centre of the world. You see that in its politics. The idea of âgreatnessâ as a nation is inherently tied to anti-intellectualism. There was a definitely a change in working class culture at some point around the late 1970s/early 1980s. It became coarser and glorification of individualism and money and backward looking nationalism started to replace the traditional class solidarity. Rejection of education as a sort of âfuck youâ became a thing, almost a celebration of lack of knowledge. Music changed from being highly political to being largely non-political. The tabloids and the jingosim of the media - which all came from the elite, not the working classes - and was a conscious effort to force feed the working classes a diet of nonsense to turn them into good little Tories, contributed hugely to that coarsening of the culture. Football suffered a lot from that. Hooliganism and racism pervaded the game, it was an early adopter of the tabloid culture of aggressive anti-intellectualism.
Ya. Also the Asian population in the UK donât really participate in soccer much . Compare that to the Turkish emigre in Germany & French population with North African heritage
They sound like cunts Iâm surprised you love them so much
Weâre a very diverse and multi cultural nation with a wide and varied range of sports as well. The Asian population in England would pre-dominantly play cricket.
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they fucking lost on penalties - and youâve gobshites examining cultural, political and racial reasons for it. Fucking hell.
Almost every thread descends into this shite now, it always come back to race somehow
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Who said race was a cause of England losing on penalties ??
There are always reasons team lose people like to analyse that .
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Wait until they find out that Asian people in the UK play way more football than cricket. Theyâll move onto some other irrelevant argument then.
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Has Margaret Thatcher been dug up yet?
âShure without Italia 90 there would have been no Celtic Tiger, Boyzone, Glenda Gilson, Decking, Niall Harbison, JedwardâŚit gave us the confidence to join the great nations of the Earth.â Colm Meaney probably saidâŚ
Jackie Charlton has a lot to answer for
Jorginho aside Very few of that Italian side has made an impact in the champions league in recent seasons.
Serie A plodders canât handle the tempo of the EPL teams.
England is a mass of paradoxes and contradictions. Thatâs why itâs fascinating. Every Irish person has a love/hate relationship with England.