Beware The Ghost Of Graham Taylor …
By the time Rooney, Beckham and company get down to the serious business of trying to win the World Cup, the identity of the new England manager will be known.
The Football Association (FA) is now choosing from a short-list of names - Steve McClaren, Alan Curbishley, Sam Allardyce and Martin O’Neill. Luiz Felipe Scolari, supposedly the fifth name under consideration, has told the BBC that contrary to media reports, he has not been invited for interview and prefers to concentrate on his current job of managing Portugal to World Cup glory.
Bookmakers seem to favour an English candidate. The football industry is said to prefer an Englishman as the new boss. Failing that, someone British will do. Each day brings a new name to the fore as the hot favourite. Once, O’Neill and Charlton’s Curbishley were shoe-ins. McClaren, courtesy of Middlesborough’s recent surge, saw his name mentioned as a compromise candidate. Bolton’s Allardyce, improved his chances too, we are told, with a strong performance in his second interview.
The FA must take into account many factors when selecting the next national team coach. However, leaks from the FA suggest that success at the highest level might not be the most important criterion for those charged with making the choice. If proven excellence was indeed a pre-requisite, as it should be, the FA selection committee, headed by the FA’s chief executive Brian Barwick, would make short work of its task and declare Luiz Felipe Scolari the man for the mission.
‘Big’ Phil is the outstanding candidate and is available after the World Cup. His representatives have let it be known that he is ready to discuss the post but his timetable is said to sit uncomfortably with that of the FA which hoped to install the new manager before the tournament begins. Surely, the FA can wait. England might never again have the opportunity to appoint somebody of Scolari’s class.
Scolari has lifted the trophy so coveted by the FA and the English public and has the know-how to pilot a national team to success. His record with Portugal also deserves respect. England’s next manager will be given a short honeymoon period and then pilloried for each lacklustre performance. The rhino-skinned Brazilian would barely flinch at such treatment, having lived with a far higher level of expectation in his home country. If added to the FA shortlist, Scolari would be a giant among pygmies.
Martin O’Neill is an inspirational force who performed creditably at Leicester and Celtic. Allardyce, Curbishley and McClaren are all good managers too but only on planet F.A could they be considered serious rivals to the illustrious Scolari.
International management used to be the preserve of distinguished and experienced managers in their mid 50’s. Now, with the advent of star players running national teams as their first coaching assignments, the position has been devalued. Nothing reflects this more than the FA shortlist. Throw in Dopey, Sleepy and Grumpy and it would read like a tale of Big Phil and the seven dwarves.
The profession’s true stars on this island – Mourinho, Ferguson and Wenger - were not even tempted by the England job, nor its fabulous salary. This left the FA at the mercy of assorted Little Englanders, with media clout, who have demanded, with great emotion but little reason, that the next England boss carries a UK passport.
England broke the mould bravely when it hired Sven-Goran Eriksson to run the national team. The big powers of international football still refuse to travel down this road but in all fairness, their controlling authorities can fish in far bigger pools of managerial talent than can England. Having placed achievement above nationality last time round, it seems perverse of the FA to recant now and deliver the England team into the hands of a manager with, at best, a modest resumé.
Let’s face facts. Perhaps managing football teams is like dancing. Englishmen don’t do it very well. A confident football authority would understand this and appoint the man most likely to develop the best players in the land and bring success, irrespective of his origins.
The FA, so eager to be cheered, is far from confident and seems to be going in the opposite direction of common sense. When a genuine football heavyweight with the experience and mettle of Scolari is available for the England job, it is laughable to invite him to participate in a competitive selection process alongside comparative lightweights. Men of such calibre should not be asked, in the immortal phrase of Terry Venables, ‘to do auditions.’
Perhaps, Scolari would prove no better an England manager than his predecessors. He too might be defeated by an exhausting domestic programme, the lack of adequate preparation and above all, a basic lack of native world-beaters.
However, he possesses an experience and a credibility that the other candidates do not. He understands the curious isolation of a national team boss. He could look the multi-millionaires of an international dressing room straight in the eye and command their respect. The job requires men who can deliver a result when it matters. Scolari can take his place in a select band of champions who have shown themselves equal to this challenge.
There may exist good reasons why Scolari will not be chosen to manage England. The day will surely come when this country produces a manager good enough to take forward the national team but it is not now. Scolari’s lack of Britishness should not count against him. The FA should beware the ghost of Graham Taylor. AU
