The Only Way is English

With Mr Capello out of the picture at Wembley the chase is well underway for the next holder of the ‘Poisoned Chalice’ that is the role as England manager. Barry Fry probably couldn’t have put it any more horribly on Sky Sports News, but essentially he is right: The next manager of England has to be English.

‘Passion and commitment for our country’, is what a purple faced Fry demanded in the next manager. ‘There’s only one man for the job, Harry Redknapp’. Of course all he did essentially was call for the favourite to be installed, a man whose experience at club level is almost unrivalled, managing a different sort of club to the likes of Ferguson and Wenger. Of course he did it in a way that may have came across as xenophobic and left the involved presenters a shade bemused, but is he right?

Does every fan in England crave an English manager? Do they all think foreign managers would be interested in the job purely for financial reasons? Or is it the prestige of leading, what we must accept a hugely underachieving nation, onto the World stage and into the history books?

Frankly, I think the whole argument is irrelevant. Why does England need a foreign manager? When out of 4 professional leagues, 92 professional English clubs, how can not one be managed by an Englishman suitable for the National Job?  We somehow manage to muster 11 players playing in our leagues, bar the rare exception, all who are English to represent England. So why not a manager?

What is the point of international football when nations can cherry pick managers from a rival nation.  When taking on Italy in the World Cup it should be England versus Italy. Our best XI against theirs.  Appointing an overseas manager is basically telling the rest of world football that we can’t aren’t good enough to produce our own managers. Is this what every English fan wants?

Then again the rest of the world wouldn’t be wrong in thinking so. Say Harry Redknapp, a man currently flying with Tottenham and recovering from heart surgery, turns down the job. Then who? If we’re staying English it’s Hodgson, Pardew or Pearce. None of them sound appealing? Well did the inclusion of players such as Scott Carson, Bobby Zamora and Jay Bothroyd in recent squads write headlines on their own? They got the call up for two main reasons. They are English and had earned the call up on merit through form for their clubs. If they are the best players we have available then that’s our concern and we should get on with improving our own players. Surely the same should apply to who is appointed England manager, shouldn’t it Barry?