England are Out
What a sad day for English football the national side doesn't qualify for a major championship and the huge axe of the FA looms over Steve McClaren.
Why should the axe be over him lets look at the problems in English football in general maybe someone will read this and think that Simon Hall has some good opinions, oh in fact the England fans have some good opinions maybe we should listen.
Steve McClaren
Not the nations first choice that was clear at the beginning, did he ever get the respect and support he needed, I for one do not think he did, the nation waited for him to fail and were never confident, when things go wrong does he have the knowledge to change tactics to change something. Examples: Russia away from home, your losing and he waits till near the end to change it, I am level 1 and would have changed it within a few minutes to get the point. So why not change it there and then. Then last night the Croatia game, your 2-0 down the system isn't working why wait till half time. However football is about opinions, I would have started with Beckham, and allowed SWP to attack them in the last 20 minutes at pace. Then you have the missing Lampard for all those wins and then last night we lost and I forgot he was on the pitch. Other players had a nightmare but why can't Lamps be dropped because he is fit. Is Steve the right man for the job, truthfully I would like to see him manage without being an FA "yes man" The thing is, he is a Yes man so he has to go. Which leads to the FA.
FA
The FA must resign all of them, because what good are they doing for the good of the game, they build a football stadium which can't house a good pitch, the roof is supposed to be able to be closed, why wasn't it closed last night. Protect the pitch. Grassroots is a mess, with the FA not supporting referees and not supporting grassroots and clearly not setting out rules for our premiership. They really have got it wrong, not with Steve McClaren but with the premiership. It is easy it is so Easy, at the start of 2008-2009 season every team in the premiership must have 3 English players on the pitch at all times. 2009 - 2010 season they must have 4 and then the following season they must have 5 and that is permanent. What are the problems with that, the big stars can still be here and still play but we give homegrown talent a chance. Lets look at the big 4 for the champions league, that would mean 20 English players, playing in the champions league, it would then mean a further 20 players playing in the UEFA cup, thats 40 players with European experience one stage closer to International. Scotland have more Scottish players playing in the champions league than English players, that is point proven, they did the double over France. What more proof do you need. Look at other teams that have qualified the majority of each squad including France and Italy play in their own countries. You don't need to spend millions on reports and papers and investigations into what went wrong. YOU the FA is what went wrong. FA stands for something else and it is exactly what the FA have actually done sweet FA.
I listened to the members of the FA board going into the meeting, and a part from a couple of chairman where are the northern people. All the members from county FA's were all from down south, has anyone been watching football, the most successful clubs are from the north, Man Utd the most successful Premiership club ever, then the lads from the other end of the M62 look at their European success. So where are the successful people, I know Mr Gill was on the panel, but the rest were from down south. What a load of rubbish.
Press
Now the press, why can't we get the managers we want, because the press hound them out, why would you want to manage a team you get slaughtered no matter what you do. The players get slaughtered 24 hours before big games, and until the press sort it out then we won't get the manager we want. Everyone went mad when Sven was put in charge because he wasn't English, however If Jose said he would do it everyone would jump for joy. The press are killing the game as much as the FA.
My Choice for the managers Job should it become available
- Jose Mourinho
- Stuart Pearce with Alan Shearer
- Sam Allardyce
- Martin O'neil
- Harry Redknapp