McClaren Gets £2.5m for Failure, Who’s Next in the England Hot Seat?

Steve McClaren’s not a complete idiot you know. After managing England to a 3-2 home defeat to Croatia, neither he nor any of the Three Lions will be going to Euro 2008 next summer. But rather than falling on his sword after failing to qualify from what should have been a pretty easy group he “vowed to fight on.” Why? Because he still had two years of his lucrative contract to run. If he’d resigned he would have got nothing (which some would say is what he deserved) but instead it has cost the FA a £2.5m payoff to get rid of him. Seems McClaren learned plenty from Sven. But enough about Second Choice Steve and on to the future. Who’s going to be next to pick up the poisoned chalice of England manager?

First of all, this is always an exciting process. The speculation, the optimism. It’s way more interesting than watching England flatter to deceive in a major international tournament. The first place to look for next England managers is the bookies, so here’s how William Hill sees it:

Jose Mourinho 4-1

Martin O’Neill 5-1

Luiz Felipe Scolari 7-1

Guus Hiddink 8-1

Fabio Capello 10-1

Stuart Pearce 12-1

Alan Shearer 12-1

Sam Allardyce 16-1

Marcello Lippi 16-1

Harry Redknapp 16-1

Alan Curbishley 16-1

The big thing for most England fans is that they’ll want someone who isn’t a safe choice, an FA yes man. FA Chairman Geoff Thompson has promised a “full root and branch examination of the whole England senior team set-up.” For me the best outcome would be a manager who’s allowed to come in and stamp his personality and style of play on the team. Any one from Jose Mourinho, Martin O’Neill, Big Phil Scolari and Guus Hiddink would be welcomed with open arms.

Despite being the bookies favourite and holding a special place in modern English football culture, Jose Mourinho is known to favour a return to club football, and is also a patriotic Portugueezer. His ambition is to manage his own nation, not a foreign one.

Martin O’Neill is regarded as one of the few intellectual British managers and Randy Lerner has said he won’t stand in the way, but O’Neill’s seems to be just getting going at Aston Villa and might not be to work for the FA after being rejected in favour of McClaren last time around.

Big Phil outwitted Sven Goran Eriksson and eliminated England from a tournament three times in a row (Brazil 2002, Portugal 2004, 2006) and looks set to leave the Portugal job post Euro 2008. Will the FA wait that long? And will the FA learn from their mistake in 2006 where Scolari said he wouldn’t discuss or sign anything until after the World Cup and the FA tried to start negotiations anyway? Will Scolari forgive such bad manners?

Guus Hiddink looks more realistic. He’s become a kind of international football management expert managing his native Netherlands, South Korea, Australia and Russia and there’s no bad feeling between himself and the FA. The only problem is that he recently signed a contract extension with the Russian FA.

Fabio Capello less so because of his defensive reputation, but you can’t argue with his record (though Real Madrid did.)

Stuart Pearce surely lacks the necessary experience. He’s doing OK with the England Under-21s but despite a good start he didn’t have a good spell at Mancester City.

I have to disagree with Laurie’s enthusiasm for Alan Shearer getting the job. He was a great striker and pretty convincing in those McDonald’s adverts, but he’s never managed a football team in his life. And though he plans to one day get into management what England need now is an expert, not a novice.

Sam Allardyce was close to getting the job last time around, but his so-so start at Newcastle hasn’t done him any favours. Would love to see his brash personality take on the FA old boys though.

Marcello Lippi is a World Cup winner and a legend and if he wants the job he should get it. There’ve been mumblings that he’s too defensive but anyone who saw Italy at the 2006 World Cup will know that’s juts not true.

Harry Redknapp is an interesting one. He’s consistently done it at club level, but seems to have developed a reputations for successes based on bargain transfer deals which obviously isn’t very useful in international management. Tactically, he’s smarter than he gets credit for and it’s really his ability to get the best out of players like Di Canio and Kanu that makes those transfer deals work. Players seem to trust and respect him, which could be just what England need.

Alan Curbishley has yet to prove himself at a top club, though Charlton’s collapse after his exit speaks volumes for his talents and West Ham are starting to look half-decent this year. The bigger problem is that he’s a bit dour and after Sven and Steve England could do with someone with a bit of charisma.