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Magill On Monday - contributed by Daniel Magill
As far as the England manager's post goes it would appear that a foreign
manager or Terry Venables is the only choice we have. If that is true, and I
would like to think that it's not, then Venables should be given the job
quicker than you can say "Where's my passport, I'm off for a highly paid
jaunt in England!"
Yes, you can add my name to the long list who think having a foreign manager
of the England football team would be the worst idea since one FA bright
spark thought to himself, "that Graham Taylor, he'd make a fantastic
international manager."
I don't feel this way solely because it would be going against great
tradition, or because victory wouldn't be as sweet under a foreigner. No, I
feel like this because I suspect victory would be far less likely under a
foreign coach.
Let's take a look at the evidence. Firstly, for the last 10 years or so there
had been a general opinion within this country that the FA was full of old
men who once had a passion for the sport, but whose lack of business know-how
and passing years, was a source of great embarrassment for English football.
Fair point. Responding to this criticism, a young man with proven business
record and a zest for football was installed as the FA's new chief executive
last year. No problem there, until of course Mr Crozier meets with his first
real test. As soon as Crozier came under a little pressure last week, what
was the first line of criticism to be aimed at him? "He's Scottish." "He
doesn't care about England." "He knows nothing of our tradition."
How can Crozier possibly respond to such criticism? Yes he is Scottish, yes
he does probably care more about Scotland and it's traditions than England.
Seemingly for this reason alone people have been demanding Crozier's
resignation. Why ever should it be any different for a foreign manager when
he hits his first bad patch? And to those who say that they don't care about
his nationality but want him out because of his lack of footballing
experience, take a look at George Graham at Spurs. Here is the most
successful and experienced English manager in recent years, yet seemingly the
majority of Spurs fans want to see the back of him because he was once an
Arsenal man and he knows little or nothing about Spurs' traditions. Would a
Scottish or, dare I say it, German manager of the England team meet with such
unfair criticism? Of course he would. Would it affect his ability to handle
the job? Of course it would.
No, if Terry Venables is the only English man willing to take on the job then
let him have it, despite his disappointing record at Euro 96. (Well would you
call two wins and three draws on home soil, a roaring success?)
Finally this week, did you hear the story about the football league scout who
asked his club secretary to book him a flight to Kristiansand. Unfortunately
there was some confusion and he ended up at Kristianstad in Sweden.
He said, "I only realised when I saw a big blue and gold flag. It looked like
Ikea and I had no money."
Thankfully the club managed to wire some cash over to the stranded scout, and
he returned safely with a stylish new sofa bed, a new unit for his office and
a handy little box for his socks!
Seriously though it set me to thinking. Maybe football is strewn with such
catastrophic misunderstandings. I'm only guessing but I wonder if Walter
Smith was mis-heard over the summer, when keen to commission a portrait of
the famous Goodison park, he rang his old chum Bryan Robson at Middlesborough
and asked him to send over an experienced pitch artist. It would certainly
explain a lot!
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E-mail me with any comments or views: dmabfc@aol.com.
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