Ingeerland's Next Manager

Probably against the tide here, but I think Big Sam is a good appointment, when considering the options available as the FA want to stick with an Englishman. The players should come primed and ready from their clubs. What is needed is an infusion of passion, pride and teamwork, which Hodgson wasn’t able to deliver and Sam will be better at this. He’s labelled as a bit Mike Bassett, but there is more to him than that.

We should play to his strengths. When we go to a tournament, all we need to do is convince him that he’s not at an international tournament at all, and he is in fact, playing in a relegation six pointer each and every game.

In the TV listings, the game would be billed as England vs France or whatever, but we’d intentionally delude Sam’s mind to the point where he thinks it’s Burnley vs Sunderland in a must win game.

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It doesn’t matter who the manager is. It’s impossible to succeed in the current situation

We don’t produce enough decent players. If Jordan Henderson was Spanish he wouldn’t have been a footballer. If Xavi was English he wouldn’t have been a footballer. It’s 63 years since the wake up call - losing at home to the Hungarians 3-6. We’re still at root suspicious of skill and tactics. and if you doubt that stand on the touchline of a kids game. When my boy was playing the games were on full-size pitches, with full-size goals. Not sure if that’s still the norm but I wouldn;t be surprised if it was. The parents and most of the coaches knew nothing but thought they knew everything about football (remind you of some forums?)

We focus on the big kids. We produce leather-lunged footballers who can run all day and have loads of ‘heart’ and ‘desire’ but little skill. When players come along with God-given skills we’re suspicious of them. MLT was just one of a very long line. Any decent players emerge in spite of the system rather than because of it

Next, the organisation of the professional game is in the hands of the FA - the most dysfunctional organisation in the history of organisations. Can you ever remember the FA doing something and you thought ‘good idea, yes, I’d have done that’? No, me neither.

The out-of-touch bumbling amatuerism of the past (county FAs and blazers) has been replaced by pots of money and corporate on-message Blair-speak about ‘the England way’ (people brought in from private industry who are not ‘experts on football’ Nice suits though)

And of course I’m sure the Premier League doesn’t help. Chelsea and Man City win the youth cup year after year but none of them make their first teams

As an aside - one thing to ask that’s relevant for England is ‘why don’t Scotland produce players any more?’ From the start of league football in the 1880s up to the Premier League in 1992 you’d be hard pressed to find any successful team without any Scots - usually as crucial players. The last were Strachan and McAllister for Leeds - the last league winners before the PL - and Colin Hendry for Blackburn in 1995. The Scots always punched above their weight, Now they’re awful. I think that is what awaits England

So - all this is before considering the bit that a manager can influence. Sure Roy made mistakes - Wiltshire, Sterling, Rooney, etc. But we wouldn’t have won it with the players at our disposal now, whoever had been in the squad or the team

Pardoxically in this post-Brexit world the answer lies in a loss of nationalism. Recognise that we’re part of Europe - where all the coaching expertise comes from. Some humility wouldn’t go amiss. We’re shit, and have been for ages. We need to want to learn from the rest of the world. We currently don’t

We need to recognise that, at the moment, nobody, not Guardiola, Mourinho, Pocchettino or a reincarnated Brian Clough could turn England into world beaters.

That said, we could aim to be equal to the sum of our parts rather than much much less. Do any of the players look forward to playing for England do we think? It really doesn’t look like it. What’s needed in the short term is a man manager to get the players we have got enjoying their football. Sam could maybe do that, and is not such a tactical dinosaur as everyone makes him out to be - he was quite innovative when at Bolton

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Good post, although Portugal and Greece have both won the Euros with relatively poor teams.

They both had decent draws, luck and a very good team spirit, we simply don’t have that spirit, its not there, they’re more loyal to their clubs, ask Fonte Portugal or Saints and he’d tell you if he could Portugal, you wouldn’t get that from an England player and we’re all the worse for it.

True - but England won’t ever win like that. We’re in the worst of all possible worlds - crippled by the weight of expectation even though we’re shit, but we can’t ever see ourselves as the underdogs we actually are and get the resultant boost to team spirit (Greece, Portugal, Leicester…)

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According to the BBC, Wenger turned the job down!

very astute post SO5 … pity the people controlling our game aren’t as insightful

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So, Big or Fat or both Sam has been 100% confirmed as the new England manager whilst Steve Bruce has resigned from Hull. Hmmmm.

Back to Sunderland?

Originally posted by @ericofarabia

Originally posted by @Sadoldgit

So, Big or Fat or both Sam has been 100% confirmed as the new England manager whilst Steve Bruce has resigned from Hull. Hmmmm.

Back to Sunderland?

Nope, that’ll be David Moyes then!

Originally posted by @BTripz

Originally posted by @ericofarabia

Originally posted by @Sadoldgit

So, Big or Fat or both Sam has been 100% confirmed as the new England manager whilst Steve Bruce has resigned from Hull. Hmmmm.

Back to Sunderland?

Nope, that’ll be David Moyes then!

Yep, confirmed by the BBC

Would be a laugh if Sunderland won the premier league this season!

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Sammy Lee confirmed as Allardyce’s No 2. Well pleased for him.

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Fair play to Allardyce, he basically just said to the England-following media pack you can chuck any shit you want at me, I’m tough enough to take it.

Let’s hope he is, as he’ll be appearing on a back page portrayed as a root vegetable or a dunce sometime soon.

I’m desperatly trying to find something that can fit Allardyce but am failing miserably, guess that’s why I don’t work in a creative job then :lou_sad:

Any name with lardy in the middle of it looks after itself when it comes to tabloid abuse.

bad and good from alladyce

“I still think Wayne Rooney has a massive place to play in the England side,” said the 61-year-old.

“If Jose says he is not going to play him in centre midfield and he is playing up front and scoring goals for Manchester United then it would be pointless me bringing him into England and playing him in centre midfield.”

Bad that he still thinks Rooney is key, good that he is not going to play him in a position he doesn’t play for his club.

Clever to suggest that if Rooney is playing up front and scoring goals he has a part to play - because that seems pretty unlikely, but if he is doing it for United then it means he’s still good enough.

The problem was the roving pointless no-end-product role that Roy dreamt up to keep him involved.

Originally posted by @CB-Saint

bad and good from alladyce

“I still think Wayne Rooney has a massive place to play in the England side,” said the 61-year-old.

“If Jose says he is not going to play him in centre midfield and he is playing up front and scoring goals for Manchester United then it would be pointless me bringing him into England and playing him in centre midfield.”

Bad that he still thinks Rooney is key, good that he is not going to play him in a position he doesn’t play for his club.

Glass half empty view IMHO

Sam also said it is far too early to think about Rooney retaining the Captaincy (Good) and that his future will depend on how and what Mourinho does with him.

IF Jose gets the old Rooney back then that could be good for England, but at the moment he is slow and couldn’t trap a bag of cement and looks more suited to FC Manchester level than United level.

I think Sam left the door open to actually dropping him IF he is shit which is a heck of a step forward from Woy who was wanting a love child with him no matter HOW bad he played