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...
There is a nagging feeling that the contrast between the manufactured controversy and the act of remembrance threatens to undermine the entire point of Armistice DaySo the ridiculous Poppygate saga has come to a conclusion. Of sorts. The English and Scottish football associations have declared they will bravely defy Fifa and their players will wear black armbands with poppies printed on them when they meet on Armistice Day. As they should, if they wish.But has the gulf between the silliness of the debate and the seriousness of the cause ever been quite so wide? Related: David Squires on … football and Remembrance Day Related: Spare us the phoney poppy apoplexy | Marina Hyde Continue reading...
It’s a really troubling conclusion but is backed up by the fact that the best we can do in terms of home-grown options is a mere handful at mostly struggling Premier League clubsWhat a thoroughly depressing week for English football. By the end of it there was almost a feeling of relief at the Daily Telegraph’s investigation turning up a few more names, because it allayed the suspicion that the object of the whole exercise from the start had simply been to bring down the England manager.While that false impression prevailed there had been a certain amount of sympathy for Sam Allardyce, on the grounds that entrapment should be used only as a last resort to bring criminality to light,...
Some will be unhappy but who is enthused by the English candidates to succeed Sam Allardyce?It is 16 years now since the Football Association had the temerity to appoint its first foreign England manager, namely Sven-Goran Eriksson, and it can be enlightening to look back at the coverage of the time and remind yourself how many people seemed to think it was the end of civilisation as we knew it.The Daily Mail is a good place to start when it comes to the froth of moral indignation that greeted the Swede. “England’s humiliation knows no end. In their trendy eagerness to appoint a designer foreigner, did the FA pause for so much as a moment to consider the depth of...
England get the managers they deserve but FA’s mistake was not in appointing Sam Allardyce to high office but in fostering the culture that led to his downfallFarewell then, Big Sam. We’ll always have the good times. Like that Adam Lallana goal. Or being 1-0 up for the last 40 seconds of an away qualifying win in Slovakia. Which was basically the same as that Adam Lallana goal. Plus of course there was that moment just after the Adam Lallana goal when you said “it’s not for me to say where Wayne Rooney plays”. Which was absolutely correct, as it turns out.There have been failed England managers before. There have been funny England managers. There have been depressing ones too....