Well, at least I'm happy.I didn't think Jose Mourinho was special when he was at Porto, nor at Chelsea—and now I can cheerily confirm that he won't be managing England.
So goodbye Jose, please don't come back...otherwise this sportswriter risks getting the sack.
Seriously though—who on Earth thought Mourinho-to-England would be a good idea?
Brian Barwick did, for one—even though it was obvious that Mourinho was only feigning interest in the England post with the hope that a club would snap him up first.
As it stands, the entire spectacle has been a farce of epic proportions—and I for one can't believe we aren't clamouring for Barwick's head.
First the FA hire an inept manager (cue Steve McClaren), then they proceed to romp around the world in search of a replacement—like a clumsy English bull in a china shop.
Yes, by all means, scour the globe for a world-class manager. You'll find plenty, but none that can handle the England team.
Sven-Goran Erikkson didn't impress me, and neither will any foreign manager. FACT: No country has ever won a a World Cup with a foreign manager—and yes, Luiz Felipe Scolari is Brazilian, not Portuguese, as so many people seem to think.
You all know my views: If anyone should be England manager, it's Alan Curbishley. That said, there are other good candidates, including Sam Allardyce and Stuart Pearce.
(And really, why not just promote the entire U21 squad to the National Team? They'd play with more passion and cohesion, at any rate.)
Of course it's not up to me—it's up to Barwick and the rest of the brainless FA. Thank God for Sir Trevor Brooking, who may be the one sensible voice in a sea of idiocy.
Unfortunately, I fear Brooking will go unheard.
In any event, this shall be my last word on the subject before 2008. I'm finally beyond caring whom the FA appoints, because it won't change the bottom line:
The FA are incompetent, and England won't be at Euro 2008.
And on that note...Merry Christmas, football fans. May the New Year bring all of us better fortune.
14 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Anonymous about 1 year ago
Wow, you think Curbishley and Pierce are better choices for England??!!!
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Curbishley and Pierce????? WHAT credentials of theirs are your comparing to Mourinho's?
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Simon Martin about 1 year ago
Really and truely, I am begining to suspect that the two comments above come from one and the same person. Yes I do - firstly they are English, secondly they are passionate for their jobs without being unnecessarily grumpy or stupid (see mourinho and mcclaren), thirdly although they have not won major trophies, they have both crafted good cohesive teams from literally nothing, and if anyone mentions the words "Porto", I have checked Mourinho's credentials there, and many of the players were already at the club before he coached them, and won a european cup with them.
If neither of you can be bothered to go look up the statistics, and take into account that Curbs and Pearce had no money, no backing, and still made their clubs punch above their weight, then frankly what chance did I have of persauding you, in a society where only the fashionable clubs and managers have a say?!
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Sheikh Zakaria about 1 year ago
Curbs and the Psycho....England job not their cup of tea. .but i think Fabio Capello is the fitting one, though he's foreign. THere's a gorup in Facebook where more than 35000+ ppl are asking the FA to sign Mourinho...and do u think all of them r scums and don't have football savvy?
Sven had the third best spell as an England manager in the history of the FA (Of course after Sir Matt Busby and Sir Bobby Robson)...we have tried several English managers since then but did it work?
Venables, Taylor, Hoddle, Keagan..all simply misfired.. yes, Home managers can bring radical changes to the national side, but i wud still go for foreingers.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Tell him Sheikh! Simon is the quintessential English bloke full of unwarranted confidence in a bunch of mediocre managers and the arrogance of a truant school boy. Personally I think Simon just delights in putting up such articles to generate responses that may either raise his profile or that he's plainly dogmatic.
Who in his right senses could possibly deny the achievements of Jose Mourinho? In any case, the special one turned the England job down not the other way round so I fail to see the writer's excitement about the turn of events. This being the case, could someone remind Simon that the next England manger is most likely to be an Italian? To add insult to Mr Martin's injury, HE DOES NOT EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH!! If Curbs is so special because of his exploits at the long-suffering CAFC, Mourinho, and Capello are supper special for proving to be winners. It will be laughable for anyone to claim that Mourinho won just because he had the money to spend. Just look at the Galacticos of Real Madrid after Del Bosque and Chelsea under Ranieri for example and you'll understand that the manager's ability to mould a winsome team is all that matters.
Capello won the scudetto with Roma when Totti, Batistuta, Aldair and Emerson were the only big names he had. He's won at every club he's managed and England will be the next to benefit from his abilities. Unfortunately for Simon, Psycho, Curbs and big Sam just don't make the grade and cry as he may, AN ENGLISHMAN WILL NOT BE IN CHARGE OF ENGLAND!!! Finito.
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Simon Martin about 1 year ago
Well, I will say this: better a passionate Italian than a mediocre swede or a money grubbing Englishman like McClaren.
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Shaka Anderson about 1 year ago
Simon. I understand the need for an English manager. The truth is though that the World cup hasn't been won by a foriegn manager, at the last European Championships in 2004, both managers of the finallist were foriegn. The manager of Greece was German & the Pourtugese manager form Brazil. From a nationalistic standpoint, the ideal situation would be a manager from England. I know people talk about Curbs, Allardyce & the like, but I want to win, and we need winning coaches. If Curbs or whoever is placed in the job, then the FA have to be sure they can deliver as I belive that they were forced to pick McClaren due to the ridiculous time constraint they put on themselves.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Yes there were players already at Porto but what did they achieve before Mourinho? Why do you keep insisting that money was all it took for the special one to win? Maybe you'll have to do some more
'checking' to understand that the availability of money is not the main aspect of Mourinho's assets. His technical ability is clear for all to see and only naive people on a witch-hunting campaign can come up with such spurious arguments.
Simon thinks writing such stuff about the special one and claiming that he inherited an already top team at Porto is "persuasive". The logic of his own argument is that if Curbs had inherited a team of good players and won something, he couldn't be labelled a good manager because the players were already there. I never knew that scoring a measly number of goals in the EPL as Psycho's Man City did last term was the criterion for naming a manager capable of doing the England job. Well, good onya Simon, the special one is not interested in the England job but unfortunately for you, there'll be no sub-standard managers like Curbs or Psycho.
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Matt S about 1 year ago
I have to agree with the post above. Simon, your argument about Mourinho’s success at Porto somehow “not counting” as the players were already there before he joined just doesn’t hold up. Why weren’t they winning European trophies before he came if it was only down to them?! Or is it just mere coincedence that as soon as Mourinho joins that the very same players start winning major trophies?!
I would have loved to see what he would have done with the same players that have under achieved for the last few years with England but he’s not stupid enough to let himself in for the endless abuse from the press and fans knowing that unless he wins the World Cup then he’ll be public enemy number one. Until expectations are lowered from winning every tournament we enter then we’re always going to “underachieve”. Maybe now we haven’t qualified expectations will be more realistic.
The FA went for an English manager last time out (the only one around at the time to have actually won a trophy) and it back-fired. They’re not going to go down that road again. Especially because they effectively turned down Curbishley, Pearce, Allardyce, etc last time. If they then appointed one of them they’d be admitting their mistake that they should have done so previously.
Unfortunately they also turned down O’Neill who would have fitted perfectly in the gap of successful manager whilst not exactly being “foreign” either.
Let’s just hope an Englishman gets a crack at a top-four club or a Champions League team in another country (probably even more unlikely than the former!) to prove themself otherwise we might be waiting a long, long time for the next English national manager.
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Mark Syrett about 1 year ago
Firstly Simon Every manager inherits a team. Wenger inherited the formidable back line, benitez had Gerrard, Ferguson would have been nothing without the greatest set of youngsters in World footballing history, and yes Mourinho inherited Deco, Postiga, and Cavalio (spelt very badly). Correct me if I am wrong, but International managers have no choice but to pick whats there, No England manager can go and say i want Robben, or Henry, it does not work that way. So surely we want someone who is good at picking a top 11 out of a set selection.
Also please stop with your silly stat with no foreign manager has won the World cup. The big nations never employ them, France, Italy, Germany, and Brazil are the only teams to have won it in recent memory, (I wasn't born when Argentina did it last, im 21!) oh and the last 5 finals were, Germany vs Argentina, Italy vs Brazil, Brazil vs France, Brazil vs Germany, and Italy vs France. No Spain, Holland, England, Portugal, or Uruguay (allowed a mention due to 2 cup wins) in sight. So surely therefore we want an Italian or a Brazilian, because there is no way the Italy squad was better on paper than England's and this so called passion, lippi has about as much of it as the no infamous Umbrella man.
Also I feel your comment about the bull in the 7th paragraph is unfair on all bovines! take it back :).
Well done on your opinion, and as you say all that matters is we will not be at euro 08, and that is a shame.
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Simon Martin about 1 year ago
Thank you mark for at least not attacking my circumstances as an "arrogant Englishman".
But my stat then is valid!!! If the big nations such as Italy, France and Germany don't employ them (and have proceeded further than us in these competitions), then you have proved my point, somewhat.
What I find remarkable is that no one points out the rioting there would be if an Englishman took charge of Italy! Or France, Germany, etc... they would consider it humiliation, rather than accept like us.
Although I will say this: Better Capello than Mourinho in my opinion, and I am sure he will be very good for us. But it won't be England again, like it was in the Sven era.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Italy, France and Germany don't employ foreigners not because they are dogmatically nationalistic but because they have the world class managers they need. England on the other hand does not have that calibre of managers so it has to look elsewhere. It does not prove your stat in any way. Good to hear you concede that the other nations have proceeded further than us in the major competitions; it only proves that we never had managers equal to the task. I wonder what you have against Sven. Sheikh just showed that he had the 3rd best spell as England manager. As much as that means nothing, I fail to see why those before him don't cop it like you dish out to the Swede. For all you know, he is better than any other Ebglish manager available including of course, Curbs, big Sam and Psycho.
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Simon Martin about 1 year ago
My reply to that is: Of course we don't know what they're capable of - they have not been given the chance to manage the England team that Sven got!!!
Good God, Do I have to spell it out? It is a vital statistic. Forget the European cup, that's a trophy too far for me, in order to win the world cup, at some point in the future, we must start to produce world class players, coaches and managers NOW, through improvements at grassroots level! Surely you cannot deny that? Or will you all go for the quick fix again? There are things inherently wrong within the English game and we must try and fix it.
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Mark Syrett about 1 year ago
Our last boss won a league cup. Sven won loads in Italy. Both got nothing for England. Capello won loads in Spain, Italy and Europe. So all we can do is hope. I mean he can't be all bad, he won an Italian league with Juventus, and then had it taken away because of match fixing. So if nothing else we may end up cheating our way into South Africa. He also beat Barcelona 4-0 and if Sky Sports show me any clip from that game again i may cancel my subscription.....after this Sunday of course.
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