After witnessing England’s humiliating Euros campaign first hand, we here at Football Road Trips couldn’t wait to get home. And following a spineless resignation from Woy, eyes all over the football world looked to see who would be the next man to take the England job.
With the FA standing by its ludicrous stance that England must have an English manager, they restricted themselves to a pretty feeble list, rather than tapping into the foreign talent that were mentioned for the job (the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann, Arsene Wenger and Rafael Benitez).
So a few of the viable English managers put forward were: Steve Bruce, Eddie Howe, Gareth Southgate and Sam Allardyce.
Now that list isn’t exactly overflowing with managerial prestige is it?
Steve Bruce- undoubtedly a fantastic player in his day but his managerial record doesn’t sparkle like the likes of say Benitez, who has managed Liverpool, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. Whereas Steve Bruce- affectionately nicknamed Mr. Potato Head by rival fans has managed Wigan, Sunderland and Hull.
Southgate was the early favourite for the job having done a half-decent job with the Under 21s, but he’s hardly an England legend and his three years at Middlesbrough weren’t exactly world class (he got them relegated from the Premier League).
Eddie Howe was the youngest of the men mentioned for the job. He’s obviously a decent manager, having guided Bournemouth up the divisions and Gary Lineker did describe him as the ‘English special one’ in a tweet earlier this year- but the general consensus is that Howe is too young and inexperienced for the job.
And that brings us to Sam Allardyce. Big Sam. Not one of the most fashionable managers in football, but he’s certainly someone who can do a ‘job’, having been a bit of a relegation dogfight specialist for a number of years- most recently with Sunderland.
He’s been often criticised for his long ball tactics and he even called Pep Guardiola’s tiki-tika football, “a load of b******s.” So, the FA seems to be changing its philosophy slightly: as they are going from wanted free flowing attacking football to appointing someone who will probably start Andy Carroll up top.
At Big Sam’s first press conference he said taking the England job will be his ‘greatest challenge’ and his first challenge will be winning over the fans and pundits who will no doubt be sceptical about his appointment given his reputation.
He’s also famously been able to instil passion and fight in his teams, something the most recent crop of England players have sadly lacked. So with that in mind are we set to see a very different looking England than the one that turned out at the Euros?
The answer is probably yes- players such as Mark Noble are almost certain to get a game and I don’t see why not. At the Euros Jack Wilshere and Jordan Henderson didn’t do much to nail down starting spots in the line-up.
From his previous clubs we’ve seen that he pays close attention to set-plays and defensive organisation. A trait that England could have done with against Iceland, to stop the long throw threat.
He’s probably more Mike Bassett than Jose Mourinho but all in all I think Big Sam will do a decent job for England when he pulls on the Three Lions blazer for the first time against Slovakia on 4 September.
And let’s be honest it can’t get much worse anyway.
Matt Bullin.
Appeared on footballroadtrips.co.uk first
