Knives Out For The New England Manager…
The knives are out for the England manager. The vacuum of leadership following the resignation of Fabio Capello saw a carousel of people publicly promoting the candidacy of one man to the extent where the decision to appoint anyone else would seem flawed from the start - that candidate was Harry Redknapp.
Cut the hyperbole and assess Redknapp’s career; successful spells at Bournemouth, West Ham, Portsmouth and Tottenham. The only blemish being Redknapp’s short spell at Southampton which ended in relegation. But any manager who has managed long enough will experience failure amongst the triumph. There can be no dispute Redknapp is a highly respected Premiership manager.
With regards to tactics, much has been said although it’s probably best said by one of his star players. Rob Beasley interviewed Rafael Van Der Vaart in November 2010;
“There are no long and boring speeches about tactics, like I was used to at Real Madrid. There is a clipboard in our dressing room but Harry doesn’t write anything on it”
[When asked about Redknapp's tactical training] “…it’s not that we do nothing – but it’s close to that”.
Congenial with the media, popular with the players, Redknapp was the only choice to some. In 1999 the FA appointed a manager with little experience of managing beyond the English game, but a man who would motivate the players and bring out their Premiership form with Premiership tactics. Kevin Keegan’s England crashed out at the group stages despite the anomaly of a 1-0 victory over Germany. By October 2000 he would resign citing “I’ve not been good enough”.
12 years on and the Germans have re-emerged as an international power, the English have submerged in to non-qualification for Euro ’08 and a non-appearance at South Africa ’10. The English fans demanded an English manager. Call it another case of football amnesia but the two previous English full-time managers were disappointing and disastrous; to describe Keegan and McClaren respectively. The FA heeded the call, but against the popular grain decided to interview Roy Hodgson.
Hodgson has won nothing in the English game, but he has managed Inter Milan to a UEFA Cup final and Switzerland through to the 2nd round of USA’94 and through qualification for Euro’96. Combining his time with Switzerland and Finland he lost only 4 qualifiers out of 32. A fair achievement for any International manager, but a fine achievement for a manager of such nations. At best, the England squad doesn’t rank within the top 3 for Euro ’12. At worst it’s within the top 10. Why don’t we try a manager with tactical experience of doing exactly what England require in Euro 2012? Winning international football matches against the odds.
And why not put knives away?
For now.
I think the FA have acted despicable especially as today they announce that the decision was made a month ago. Why couldn’t they have made an announcement then? The time they have taken in making this decision has nore or less wrecked Tottenhams season or was that part of the plan by Trevor Brooking who apparently hates Redknapp because of the Billy Bonds affair. At the start of all this the FA said several things such as they would bear in mind the public’s opinion and they clearly haven’t. They also said they have to mindful not to disrupt any clubs, which they have…Tottenham’s. They could have at least let Harry Redknpp know a lot sooner especially as they saw how Tottenham fell apart and the effect it was having.
The FA are a bunch of old farts who are absolutely clueless and are all for themselves and nobody else. How dare they criticize fIFA about decisions they make when they come up with this crap. They deliberately put Capello in a corner where he had no option but to resign. This could all blow up in their faces and I hope it does for the disgraceful way they have carried on.
Brilliant for Spurs, disastrous for England, even the players wanted Redknapp.Everyone wanted Clough, did the idiots appoint him, no, Nobody wanted Keegan, apart from the idiotic press, nobody wanted McClaren, so the idiots appoint them. Why are the fools making the appointments never sacked?
Feenix – (Admittedly not in this blog) I have written about my contempt for the FA before. There are many crosses they should bare but Tottenham’s form is not one. The FA didn’t generate the speculation – that was purely perpetuated by the media and various twitterati.
Let’s not defend FIFA here either. The FA may be incompetent but pale in comparison to FIFA which is a politically corrupt mutant of an association – but that’s a different discussion.
Clive – Your ‘fools’ point is one echoed here. If a manager gets scrutinised for their acquisitions – why shouldn’t a chairman? After all ‘this is a results business’.
Personally, I think Redknapp would have been another Keegan. As it is, Spurs get to keep a manager who has taken them to the verge of the Champions League and England get a manager with International experience – win/win!?
I think this is a sterling choice, the media in all honesty do my head in. I could quite easily see them coronating Redknapp then slating him within seconds. Until England get real about their international team (much like our political standing in the world) then maybe we’ll get somewhere. Everyone has to realise that the England doesnt have a god given right to be respected just because we invented the game and won a world cup 46 years ago. We have to earn it.
My only concern with Hodgson is his ability to sort out the ego’s within the team. He has the advantage that if he thinks messrs Lampard et al are not playing fair he can just drop them. But one issue was that he couldnt control the team at Liverpool whereas at the smaller clubs like Fulham and West Brom hes done a great job. I will be backing him all the way and be realistic about our Euro 2012 chances. Not that the tournaments going to be good anyway, its another UEFA propped up corrupt shambles.
Felix I don’t think it is fair to say that the FA haven’t considered who the public wanted as the new manager, no-one’s had a chance to state who there preferred choice would be as the tabloid press has told the English supporters that their manager of preference is Harry Redknapp, mainly due to the fact that he will set up an impromptu press conference out of the window of his Bentley at any given minute.
Poor ol’ Roy Hodgson, took the Liverpool job with Kenny Dalglish waiting in the wings to undermine him, and now seems to be in very much the same situation with the England job and Harry Redknapp, and the media willing him to fail.
also, bring in Danny Murphy. Someone that intelligent on the pitch is bound to do a better job than Stuart Pearce as an assistant coach.
Not sure about Danny Murphy – but his mentor is someone who is worth a role at the FA. Dario Gradi has proved to be the man to produce English talent – even on a budget. An intelligent man and a football thinker who surely could have replicated his success at Crewe on a national level with the Burton project.
Very well-written. I have confidence in Roy.
Knives out? Catch the mouse? Squash his head, put him in the pot?? Xx
Sorry but Redknapp is nowhere near the level of manager that Clough was.
Clough Won two European Cups, won the English League with two different teams both times having to get them promoted from the second division, with the main reason for Clough not getting the England job was for comments he made about the FA in the past.
Redknapp has won the FA cup, with the main reasons for not getting the england job was a lack of tactical savvy and a large buyout clause on his contract.
If anything Redknapp has more in common with Kegan. Being that he's popular in the media and is a good motivator.
I back the FA for not making a snap judgement and taking their time before making a decision. I don't think Hodgson is perfect, but I hope the players and the fans show him enough respect to give him a chance.
But your entitled to your opinion.
So are the players themselves and they wanted Redknapp. I don't compare Redknapp with Clough, I compare Clough was the manager the vast majority wanted and Redknapp is the manager the vast majority wanted. Keegan was the media choice bur not the peoples choice and MaClaren was nobodies choice.
The appointment is all down to money. Redknapp would have cost the FA a big compensation package whereas for Hodgson it is relatively small because of his current wages. Capello was on a £6 million a year package, Hodgson being the cheap option is on £2 million.
Hodgson had no release clause because his contract was set to expire at the end of season. Redknapp would cost a lot but the FA have spent big before and reaped little success. Why shouldn’t the FA be cautious of spending excessively?
I don’t believe Redknapp was the people’s choice. He was the Sun’s choice which is the self-entitled ‘people’s paper’. Various polls (guardian, telegraph, football 365) all state that Harry Redknapp is clearly NOT the people’s choice. While the three polls shouldn’t be held as gospel – it does dispel the myth of ‘the people’s choice’.
There were players on twitter publicly backing Redknapp’s candidacy, but it was deemed there was only one man in the running – so why wouldn’t the players give him public support? They want to get picked after all
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