England, Euro 2008 and the germans had the right idea

I heard it say after their 1966 loss to England the Germans went back and changed things root and branch in the German game and then dominated European and world football for 25+years from the 1970 world cup onward. Players of those times also went on to be good managers too.

We always look for a scapegoat or scapegoats. This is because we are a nation of jobsworth shopkeepers when it comes to this stuff. And now because the FA shop is overflowing with money and all players have pockets full of money because of TV we are stuck.

The last radical thing the FA did was appoint Alf Ramsey….its worth reading his biog on Wikipedia to undertand his ability both as a player and as a manager with Ipswich ( a bit like Mourhino with Porto) I am always repeating the Jack Charlton interview where he said to Ramsey, thanks for picking him, Ramsey replied something on the lines of …your not the best defender Jack but you fit into my system. This seems to me a part of the present problem, we play all the best players but there is no team spirit or team system. The last person to buck this, Hoddle, who dropped the flagging Gazza, was vilified. Our Managers don’t play the best TEAM, they play the best players, my belief is for example, that certain players dont like each other and therefore dont play well together.

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“Winning Isn’t Everything: Biography of Sir Alf Ramsey” (Dave Bowler)

Because of the money involved in the UK and to a great extent the Euro game with the buying rather than nurturing of players its virtually impossible to do a Ramsey or a Clough and take an unknown team to the pinnacle of the game. This creates difficulties in judging who should be the best manager for a national side. As all the managers who acheive anything are not English. Without changes in the game its not worth appointing anyone as the whole circus will carry on. It now looks like Sven did his best with a bad situation.

If English football has become such a business its board as much as the manager needs to go. They also lack the drive and understanding of success. Look at the balance of the board, the seem mainly from the south…and I am hard pressed to understand their qualification except they work in football at different levels. We need tough people like Ken Bates and Dave Whelan, we also need outside business people and advisors as members of this board, what about some women too. If we want to attract families why are they only represented by men.

At the bottom we need money filtered through to join football and the education system to local clubs, much as they do in the USA with many sports, why isn’t this happening. We need players with tactical and intellectual intelligence as well as football skills. We need greater fan involvement between fans and player, coaches and management. Why couldn’t the team raise a smile or wave to fans as they got off their coach last night at wembley.

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