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from the England Job before its even discussed with them?

Is it just in case the FA dont want to consider them, so they get in first?

OK, we all except its a no win position, you win games (well thats what we expect), you lose games, you get slagged to death by the media and fans and eventually sacked (no different from any other managerial position), but you earn a nice little salary/compensation along the way.

Surely, being Manager of ENGLAND is like being a player, it's an HONOUR to represent your country. (or it should be).

It's an easy job.  People talk about the pressure of managing England.  What pressure?

Several million pounds a year, for doing next to nothing - and then getting several million as severance pay when you eventually lead the team to failure again (I said lead, but I think another word would be more appropriate).

Why do all these managers express their interest?  The challenge?  Possibly.  But it's a win-win for them.  Either actually take England to the final of a major championship, or get paid VERY well for trying (I said trying, but I think another word would be more appropriate).

Kind of a glory I expect, but it could also be career suicide.  Trouble is, England supporters and press think we are one of the best teams in the world.  20 years ago (41) that may have been correct, but the bottom line is that world football, especially European football, is a lot harder these days and we aren't actually that good.  We've either fallen behind or were never that good to start with.

As a club manager, you have a host of players to choose from, from all walks of life. As England manager, you don't really  have a lot of options and the ones you can pick from are often above themselves.

If you were a manager with a proven track record, why would you risk your reputation trying to perform the impossible?    Most of the linked names don't need the money, it's just putting yourself through years of misery.

I would take it..do the job the Ricky Tomlinson way.

Since no one really has a good thing to say about English footballers or fans, why should it be considered an honour to play for England?

Jeremy Clarkon in the Sunday Times (taken form times online) got it spot on I think


We’ve been robbed of our Englishness     Jeremy Clarkson


As the nation settled down on Wednesday night to watch England play Croatia, I sensed an air of optimism in the land. A feeling that all would be well. I mean hey, England were holding their own against Brazil when Croatia didn’t even exist as a nation state. So what chance would these swarthy-looking Yugo-ruffians have? They were minnows in a tank of sharks. They weren’t going to be beaten. They were going to be eaten.

Hmmm. I’m afraid I knew we were going to lose moments before the match began. I looked at our players mumbling their way through the national anthem and realised they didn’t really care about playing for England. Because they don’t really know what England is. And truth be told, neither do I.

When I was their age it was crystal clear. Newspapers would report: “Fog in the Channel: Europe cut off.” Peter Ustinov would arrive at JFK airport and, having studied the signs saying “US citizens” and “Aliens”, he’d ask a security guard where the British should go. We were separate, different, better.

We had hardback dark blue passports with a personal message from the Queen on the inside cover “requiring” that foreign border guards allow the bearer to do whatever he or she pleased without let or hindrance. Slap one of those down on a Frenchman’s desk and the crack of invitation grade cardboard would have the greasy little oik sitting up straight; that’s for sure.

We had saved the world from tyranny so often we’d lost count; we’d brought decency, truth and cricket to every continent and every coral pinprick. We’d sailed iron steamships into America when they were still using coracles. We were defined by our brilliance, our superiority, our technical know-how.

Today, things are rather different. Mention the war and you’ll be told by an outreach counsellor that we must empathise with the Germans, who are coming to terms with their mistakes of the past. “And you know, children, it was actually the British who invented concentration camps . . .”

Empire? When I was at school, teachers spoke with pride about how a little island in the north Atlantic turned a quarter of the world pink, but now all teachers talk about is the slave trade and how we must hang our heads in shame.

Right. So we must forgive Germany for invading Poland. But I must beat myself to death every night because my great-great-great-grandad moved some chap from a hellhole in Ghana to Barbados. In fact I can’t even say we’re British any more because then all of Scotland would rush over the border, pour porridge down my trousers and push a thistle up my bottom.

I believe people need to feel like they’re part of a gang, part of a tribe. And I also believe we need to feel pride in our gang. But all we ever hear now is that we in England have nothing to be proud about. In a world of righteousness we are the child molesters and rapists.

Our soldiers were murderers. Our empire builders were thieves. Our class system was ridiculous and our industrial revolution set in motion a chain of events that, eventually, will kill every polar bear in the Arctic.

And it gets so much worse. Because if you say you are a patriot, men with beards and sandals will come round to your house in the night and daub BNP slogans on your front door. This is the only country in the world where the national flag is deemed offensive. Small wonder the England players were disinclined to sing the national anthem with any gusto. It’s in English and that’s offensive too. Unless it’s simultaneously translated into Urdu, for the deaf.

Then there’s our national character. In the past, boys were told in school assembly that their mothers had died and were expected to get over it in a nice game of rugby. Crying only happened abroad. Not any more. We were ordered to weep like Americans when Diana died, and no local news report is complete today without some fat oik sobbing because his house has fallen over. I sometimes get the impression Kate McCann is being hounded precisely because she has a stiff upper lip.

Every day we read obituaries about men who pressed on with the attack on a German machinegun nest even though their arms and legs had been blown off. Today disabled people get a statue in Trafalgar Square just because they got pregnant. Tomorrow all the obituaries will be for those who saved others from certain death by insisting they wear high visibility jackets. Cowardice is the new bravery.

As for that wounded soldier seen recently sporting a T-shirt that said: “I went to Afghanistan and all I got was this crappy false leg,” I call that typically English. But not any more. It’s appalling. A slight on disabled people. And you shouldn’t have been in Afghanistan in the first place, you baby killer.

Do you see? We can’t be proud of our past because it’s all bad, we can’t use British humour because it’s offensive and we can’t use understatement to deal with a crisis because the army of state-sponsored counsellors say we’ve got to sob uncontrollably at every small thing.

I want to end with a question. It’s addressed to all the equal opportunity, human rights, diet carbon, back room, bleeding heart liberals who advise the government: “I am English. Why is that a good thing?”

I bet they don’t have an answer. And until they can come up with one, chances are we’ll never win at football again.

Yes in an ideal world everyone should want to take the job, but at what cost?

Simply not worth the hassles tbh.

Fair point - it's not like taking the job gets anyone any respect any more, it's not an honour to have your head superimposed onto a turnip, to be told by people who can't get jobs in the game so they write in the press about it which players you're to pick & how they're to play (but it's your fault if it doesn't work) etc etc.

It's a poisoned chalice & I genuinely have sympathy for anyone that takes it up.

The problem is not that it's a poisoned chalice or that everybody else tells you what to do...the problem is that the England manager never comes out and tells people to feck off and let him get on with the job..and tell those guys writing for newspapers that they couldn't cut it in management. Tell people that and get results and you'll be the hero of a nation..the problem is that the FA does not want to appoint people like that.

True enough - Clough being the obvious example. O'Neill made it clear he wasn't being the yes man either.

i agree, i never was a fan of graham Taylor and he should of been fired but nobody deserves to be treated the way he was by the press, the press stirs it up, there should be some sort of law to stop the press from printing so much ridicule ,pure malice, but all there interested in is selling papers,,i  i dont think the press want england to win sometimes so they can have a good juicy story     ,on selecting a new manager , why is it so important what any manager does in his private life,i dont care myself as long as he can do a good job ,its up to him what his beliefs are,
or what his personal problems are, i hope the press think about that when euro 2008 starts ,they would of sold a lot more papers if england where there,

being an international manager should be about the easiest job in football. People tell you about the drawbacks :

- finite pool of players to pick from

- not enough time to work in depth tactical situations with players

- players come from all different teams, so are not familair with each other.

well, these arent drawbacks - they are in fact advantages. They are the same restrictions that all international managers are working under.

So the successful ones use it to their advantage.

- regularly pick the same pool of players

- play simple tactical systems, and not overcomplicate it.

- often have "partnerships" that play from the same teams.

Your job therefore is to motivate the players to want to play for you. IF you can achieve this, then you will be successful.


where do I apply ?

oh aye, something else - I saw a program on skysports on sunday morning which had four guys sitting round a table discussing tactics and players etc. As far as I was aware none of them had ever played the game at anything approaching a reasonable level, and their only qualification was writing about football in the tabloids. Who gives these people celebrity status to air their opinions. their opinions are worthless.

I completely agree.

There is no way the England football team will ever be allowed to be brilliant runners up like our rugby team recently was. It'd just be another failure, when in reality being runner up in a major tournament would be England punching well above it's weight.