After England’s inglorious departure from Euro 2016, Roy Hodgson’s inevitable own exit leaves the FA searching for its 18th manager since Walter Winterbottom took over from the International Select Committee.
The FA needs first to decide the people leading the search, then establish what type of manager is best suited — whether English, “Anglo” or foreign — decide on the preferred candidate and then go for him.
Dan Ashworth, the FA’s technical director, will be the driving force in the process, working with Martin Glenn, the chief executive, with input from Dave Reddin, the head of performance services, who proved hugely successful in helping rugby union players and cyclists achieve their maximum potential. What this triumvirate first requires is more experience of dressing-room life, a helping hand from a former England player and manager like Glenn Hoddle.
He left the FA in controversial circumstances, following his abhorrent comments about the disabled in 1999, and further contrition would be required before Hoddle could be allowed back in to shape events again. But his counsel should be sought. He was a visionary coach, lacking only some man-management skills, and the way he set up England to get the point in Rome to qualify for France ’98 was a tactical masterstroke. The frontrunning Ian Wright hounded Italy’s defenders all night. Hoddle has been there, done it, got the tournament T-shirt, made the mistakes and could guide Ashworth, Glenn and Reddin. Hoddle still has so much to give the game he graced as a player.
Once the search party is scrambled, the FA has to consider the type of manager. The appeal of a foreigner has strengthened with the successes of two Australians, Eddie Jones and Trevor Bayliss, with England’s rugby union and cricket teams respectively. So why not football?
Simple. The governing body would immediately lose the argument with the Premier League about the number of foreigners blocking the pathway of home-grown youth if it parachuted in another Swede or Italian. What message would it also send to club chairmen?
It would effectively give owners carte blanche to carry on appointing foreign coaches, further strangling the possibility of an English manager being given a chance. International football should be nation’s best against nation’s best, whether players or managers. Anyway, the likes of Arsène Wenger and José Mourinho are too committed elsewhere, and intelligent, to accept such a poisoned chalice.
Non-English managers who have made their name in the English game will be mentioned. Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martínez have their admirers at St George’s Park yet, again, what message does it send to aspiring English coaches, diligently doing their badges?
For all Hodgson’s ultimate failure, the FA has to appoint another Englishman. Sam Allardyce will have his backers in the media, and interviewed well in 2006. Steve Bruce may be unfashionable and deemed more of an expert in getting sides promoted.
Alan Pardew will be mentioned and his hour-long address on his career to FA coaches at St George’s Park last year was impressive for those of us allowed to sit in. Eddie Howe, of Bournemouth, is young and ambitious but would he consider The Impossible Job a risk so early in his career? Ditto the excellent Sean Dyche, of Burnley.
Gary Neville has the strength of character to manage his country one day, but he needs to deepen his knowledge of the managerial arts. Those with children of school age also have to consider the inevitable impact on their family because of the headlines.
The obvious candidate is Gareth Southgate, the England Under-21 head coach whose stock dipped a year ago with a hapless performance at the European Championship in the Czech Republic but has risen this summer by steering the under-20s to success in the Toulon Tournament.
The 45-year-old is widely admired at the FA, has spent a decade in management, and knows many of the younger players like Harry Kane, John Stones, Dele Alli and Eric Dier. Southgate is considered a beacon of the FA coaching system and it might make sense to appoint him as a caretaker, giving him the first four 2018 World Cup qualifiers to allow the FA more breathing space in their recruitment drive or enough of an audition to prove himself.
England’s first game is on September 4, away to Slovakia as England embark on the road to the 2018 World Cup. The following competitive fixtures are Malta (home), Slovenia (away), Scotland (home) and Lithuania (home) before a trip to Hampden Park on June 10. It is a negotiable group.
Nobody knows whether Southgate possesses the qualities until he is tried out. He is steelier than his polite, smiling persona would indicate. He would inevitably have to deal with questions about penalties, having infamously missed at Euro ’96. Yet it took strength of character to recover. He’s no Mourinho or Guardiola, but he could be the best prospect the FA can call upon.
The fact that there are so few alternatives, a situation that has hitherto helped Hodgson, is a huge issue for the FA, but it also underlines why the organisation has been so right to invest in the coaching hub at St George’s Park.
If only it had been opened earlier, developing more coaches on the Pro Licence course, sending them around the country, helping nurture young players or embedding them in clubs, giving them more experience, preparing them for future responsibility. If only more people at the FA had been less blinkered, seeing its importance, and not allowed the site near Burton to lie fallow for almost a decade, before opening in 2012.
The FA also has to address the problem of too many former internationals sitting in television and radio studios and commentary boxes rather than in dugouts. Players should be encouraged to take up their coaching badges younger or given a national age-group side to assist. FA thinking needs to go deeper than simply finding a replacement for Hodgson.
