England have struggled against top teams so the visit of Spain is a perfect test for the creaking hobby horse that is the Wembley revolutionAt a time when much of the chatter around England has centred on the existential, Gauloise-puffing idea of identity, essence and (God help us) “footballing DNA”, it seems fitting Spain should be Tuesday night’s friendly opponents at Wembley. The FA’s urge to find a template to follow, embellish and generally crib has circled France, Germany and Spain, with an Iberian tang to elements from B team proposals, elite player performance plan and the idea teams at every level should adopt an already outmoded possession game.After Friday’s win against Scotland Gareth Southgate even spoke in his post-match...
The nagging feeling is that Gareth Southgate will become permanent England manager because of the paucity of the list of candidatesOn the face of it, nobody should be surprised the Football Association, on the rebound after the brief, unhappy dalliance with Sam Allardyce, was so attracted to the idea of Gareth Southgate from the outset and always thought of him, personality-wise, as a trouble-free appointment.If Allardyce was a brick through the window of the FA establishment, Southgate was the go-to guy to sweep up the broken glass and put up a nice pair of flowery curtains. He is a neat fit for the parts of the England job that require an ambassadorial presence and, though there are bound to be...
The interim manager will now surely be appointed on a permanent basis but while England finished well against Scotland there were the usual deficienciesOver to you then, Gareth. On a cold, still night in north London England’s players pulled themselves up to their full height and produced a display that was enough first to see off a limited Scotland team and second to ensure, in all probability, that England’s temp-to-perm manager can now take the job on as permanent a basis as these things ever get.For England there was always a degree of additional self-inflicted tension about this World Cup qualifier. Having lost two managers in three months, they had the chance here to lose another by all-but declaring Southgate’s...
The caretaker manager could secure the job full-time with a World Cup qualifying win as well as end the reign of his opposite number, Gordon StrachanThere was a point when Gordon Strachan was hoping to persuade Andy Murray to deliver some words of inspiration before Scotland’s players walk out at Wembley on Friday. Not that Gareth Southgate seemed too concerned when it was brought up in his company before England’s final training session. “Unless he is playing at left-back he is not going to affect the game,” England’s caretaker manager pointed out. And that was the moment one of the Scottish journalists at the back of the room interrupted. “I wish he was,” came the response. Related: Wayne Rooney will...
After a gloomy international break Rooney returns to Manchester United unsure how many chances to shine he will get before England reconvene next monthGlacial is the word that springs to mind when contemplating international breaks these days. Every few weeks the hurly burly of the Premier League gives way to a version of the same sport that operates at a snail’s pace. That is not just watching England either. Time seems to stand still for the whole of the process, making Wayne Rooney losing his place a five-day drip-feed of suggestion, confirmation, reaction and then attempted rehabilitation, with the eventual match a bolted-on afterthought that leaves the landscape oddly unchanged, save for the somewhat surprising discovery that hardcore England fans...