England Managership: Time To Halt The Redknapp Bandwagon?
Paul Linford makes the case for Martin O'Neill as the next England manager.
9 Feb 2012, 13:30
Martin O'Neill
I was never a great enthusiast for Fabio Capello as England manager. Broadly speaking I agree with those who argue that if the Germans, Italians or Brazilians would not countenance appointing a 'foreigner' to coach their national teams, why should we.
That said, my sympathies have been with Capello in the days since the furore over whether John Terry should captain England at Euro 2012 first erupted.
Capello was entirely right in my view to draw attention to the apparent disconnect between what he termed 'sports justice' and civil justice, and it is ironic that it should have taken an Italian to stand up for the fundamental principle of so-called British justice: innocent until proven guilty.
Perhaps the real culprit here is the grindingly slow English court system. Had the racism charges against Terry been able to be dealt with more swiftly, rather than left hanging over until after the tournament, the issue would not have arisen in the first place.
As it is, Capello has now gone and, following his acquittal on tax evasion charges yesterday, there already seems to be an unstoppable media bandwagon in favour of Spurs manager Harry Redknapp taking over.
I have to say I have a few reservations about this. Redknapp has never won a league title anywhere as a manager and those who have come to the England job in recent years without that qualification (Taylor, Hoddle, Keegan, McLaren) have tended not to prosper.
There is no doubt that Spurs have enjoyed a huge – and welcome - revival under his management - but how much of that was down to the sheer good fortune of having discovered Gareth Bale, possibly the second greatest player in the world right now behind Lionel Messi?
There seems to be a consensus that an English, or at the very least British manager is now required, not least because of the way Capello struggled to build a rapport with the British public.
If so, the prime candidate should surely be the man who has proven again and again his ability to make a team more than the sum of its parts - and is now doing so again – Martin O’Neill.
Granted, O’Neill has not won a league title either, but what he has consistently done is taken struggling teams (Wycombe, Leicester, Villa, Sunderland) and given them new self-belief.
If Brian Clough was by common consensus the greatest manager England never had, his one-time protégé O’Neill is perhaps the nearest living equivalent.
Comments (5)
Subscribe to this posts's comments feed
I don't want an Irishman or, especially, a Scot to manage England. If England won anything we'd never hear the last of it and all pleasure would thus be removed (as intended).
Horne and Linford are typical Brits who want anybody but the English.
09/02/2012 15:09No, I just want the England team to be successful Stephen. What you are saying is that you would rather see England lose with an English manager than win with an Irishman or a Scotsman as that would take away the pleasure of winning. I can't think there would be that many fans who would agree with you there.
09/02/2012 15:24NO NO NO
The FA have a long and distinguished record of making a mess of things.
Anyone who wants to change that has a real job on their hands...
After their latest success (in making a mess of things) anyone who thinks they have changed course and become sensible and logical really needs to sit down in a darkened room, put a towel over their head and wait for the thought to pass. Or if it does not pass, ask to be taken into care.
I am being serious. If the FA was run on normal grounds, they would all have been fired by now for gross incompetence.
Mind you, they are great comedy.
09/02/2012 15:43Just to add a slight clarification to my original piece, Martin O'Neill has never won the English premier league as a manager, but he did of course win the Scottish premier league three times with Celtic.
09/02/2012 17:24Glad you amended your earlier comment about O'Neil not winning a league championship. Prehaps the more telling stat from his time at Parkhead is his European record. Celtic pushed for qualification to the knockout stages of the "Champions League" when they qualified, while he took Celtic to their first European final in 33 years when they got to the 2003 UEFA Cup final (won by a team managed by some bloke called Mourinho).
12/02/2012 19:28