1996 called, they want their news back. ‘Shearer backs Hoddle for England’ proclaimed the headlines that greeted us in yesterday’s papers. Alan Shearer was championing his former national team manager after Glenn Hoddle himself explained that his life would forever be incomplete if he never got a second chance at managing England. Perhaps he’s worried that if he lives an incomplete life he’ll reincarnate as something less than ideal. We know he’s susceptible to strange beliefs and ultimately his reason for being sacked should, in my eyes, remain as valid now as it did then. Hoddle offered little in the way of remorse for the comments that lead to his departure from the national post in 1999 and the mere fact that he is being considered for the role now is indicative of a number of issues, none of them positive.
Firstly: the hugely underwhelming shortlist for managers who could possibly take over as England manager is reminiscent of the scene from Mike Bassett: England Manager in which the FA systematically go through potential candidates for the England role only realise their aren’t any. We might not quite be at the stage where we’re looking to Championship managers yet but we’re not infinitely far away either. In truth, we’re about as close to a farcical, satirical situation as it’s possible to be in real life with an international tournament just seventy days away.
Would any other nation in the world allow themselves to only install a permanent manager at the end of May when there would then be almost no time left to prepare? There is a supposed report leaked by Roman Pavlyuchenko who apparently claimed that when he was sent on as a sub by Redknapp in a Spurs game he was told nothing other than to “just f*****g run around a bit.” Funny though it may seem that sort of ‘motivation’ may be all Redknapp (or whoever does take the post) has time to implement with the squad for the European Championships.
This leads us to our other problem: why does our only decent candidate refuse to be drawn in on the matter? Before the position was Redknapp’s for the taking he couldn’t get enough of it. He described the job as ‘the pinnacle of any English manager’s career’, a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ and ‘too good to turn down’. Now him and Jamie are evaluating all the possibilities with a seeming air of reluctance to really commit to the job. Clearly Redknapp would not want to compromise Tottenham’s season by speaking out about the role but there is the sense now that his attitude towards the opportunity has genuinely cooled. And why wouldn’t it? With little time to prepare, his star player banned for the first two games and a midfield that is made up of players who are either past their best (Lampard and Gerrard), have run themselves in to the ground this year (Parker) or haven’t played since last May (Wilshere) it’s hardly surprising that being England manager is not as rosy as it once was. On top of that the central defence is a mess and the decision about who to take out of Terry and Ferdinand is hardly enviable.
Alright, you might think, but what about the World Cup in two years time, surely that is an attractive prospect? Not really. England are, as history has proved, unable to perform well in any competition based in hot conditions in the southern hemisphere. In all of our World Cup performances in such circumstances we have never made it past the quarter finals and have been known to go out either in the last 16 (as we did in 2010) or even in the Group stages (as we did last time it was held in Brazil).
Moreover, Redknapp is a manager who loves the day to day running of a football club. Would seeing his players once a month (at most) be enough for him? It seems unlikely. The fact that I find myself not totally adverse to the idea of Sven making a return is testament to the poor options we have available to ourselves. People quote other potential candidates such as Wenger or Mourinho but this is nothing more than wishful thinking. An Englishman is needed for the job, that is not in doubt. What is questionable however is which of the two is more the depressing prospect: the job itself or the list of English candidates?
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