Yikes. You want them on drugs then? His “marginal gains” clap trap sounds credible but is basically a variant on “nudge” and has recently been widely ridiculed by the very people he claimed benefitted the most from it. There appears to be less and less evidence by the year that it was the successful element for his cycling team; it failed miserably at Nice FC where the “marginal gains” could be politely described as very big losses and I gather that thus far at United he’s seen as a somewhat marginal and comedic figure who has quickly been sidelined into looking at financial stuff because his credibility with the coaching staff is nil.
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It was meant as a joke.
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Use the person who got the lionesses to win the cup,
Or just let the women play,
Seem to be better than the men,
Over paid and egotistical don’t get you no where
Tbf, given her views on the volume of misogyny in the game, I don’t think she’d take it!
The long and fabulous story of John Terry as England captain. Private life issues known some time before he was first captain and yet they went public under a later managerial regime. Several players downed tools. FA quietly said they’d not play for England again and several didn’t. Nothing could have been more satisfying for many people in the game than England failing to qualify on his watch. The very best of times 
Fave comment of today so far is Steph Houghton’s “England need a manager with experience of winning trophies.” Comedy gold. That’s in the person spec. for most of the 92 and a few more besides. Rarelyy works. Given the numbers who have failed miserably in the job in the past with many trophies to their name I’d suggest the recruitment process might need to be a tad more sophisticated. A bloke who won nothing as a manager just gave England their best run in 50 plus years. A bloke with zero managerial experience just got Ipswich back to back promotions.
Anyways, keep ‘em coming folks. This is wonderful.
Nice piece this morning by Henry Winter on why Eddie Howe is best person for the job. However, my view is that he will stay with Newcastle both for financial reasons and to continue his current ‘work in progress’. Not the right time for him.
In view of Southgate’s clear pride in managing England and the (temporarily restored) love-in between team and nation, I don’t think the FA will pick a foreign manager. This all points to Graham Potter being next manager. If you ignore the Chelsea debacle ( a job he should never have taken), he did amazing things at BHA. Without big names he created a cohesive, attacking team that punched well above its weight. Just the man to build on Southgate’s legacy
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I think winning it with a fully national team (so including staff) will also mean more. If half the team, judging by the effect we all seem to think the coach has, is of a different nationality, is it the same?
I’d consider not watching the games if my team had a foreign coach. Luckily that hasn’t happened since the 70’s.
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That’s a rather xenophobic attitude. Sarina Weigman has done a great job with the Lionesses, and everyone loves them.
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It’s absolutely nothing to do with Xenophobia. I’d appreciate it if you would retract that.
I’m very happy for my club to have a foreign coach, I am happy with foreign players playing for my club. I do not care about the ancestry of the nationals playing for (or coaching) our national team, or where exactly they were born and whether they acquired their nationality a day before the game or at birth.
But as it is a national team, they should be nationals, i.e. hold the correct passport at that point in time. Why would that be restricted to just the players?
You yourself say “Sarina Weigman has done a great job” (it’s Wiegman BTW), implying she had some influence in the win. Southgate was also criticised for how England played and the resulting outcome (whether that’s fair is a different discussion). By all accounts a coach/staff is considered a big part of the “team”, and IMO a national team should be consisting of people that are at that particular time nationals.
Unless, of course, you feel the whole concept of a national team is xenophobic. Or perhaps the national team should consist of players playing in that nations league, regardless of their nationality?
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The England job………I’ll do it
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As a country we’re blessed with good football managers. The combination of intelligence (or football intelligence as JC would call it 
and leadership is rather rare though. Van Gaal stands out for me. He had a plan, battles ( eg Sneijder ) were fought out effectively and result was usually there. I’d love to work for such managers.
Oh and I have skipped matches but sometimes found the battles between press and Van Gaal more amusing …
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I appreciate the explanation but genuinely don’t understand it. There are lots of reasons why it’s simply impractical but I guess discussing that would take us into politics. Suffice to say then that I find it a reductive narrow perspective and best left there.
As regards Howe, I think he’s an interesting one. As a manager he was/is for me only a placeholder at Newcastle. The equivalent of Mark Hughes at City. Someone competent but not spectacular who can give an impression of improvement on the pitch whilst the infrastructure is put into place behind the scenes. He over-performed in his first season but struggled last season, as pundits predicted pre season, because of the additional European demands; lack of squad depth and some unfortunately timed injuries. Not his fault at all but we’re into season 3 now and if Newcastle don’t make further progress on the pitch, despite the well documented financial restrictions, then it’s entirely foreseeable his days will be numbered. I suspect he may not take the England job were it to be offered but then may find himself out in the cold if he doesn’t.
All that said, there’s scant evidence he’s a significant upgrade on Southgate. I really like Potter in many respects but again I don’t see that he’s the upgrade either.
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Following this season’s escapade with Aberdeen I agree - he’s just the man for the England national team (His understatement … “Unfortunately, we haven’t got the right results in the league…”) .
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Vaughan Gething is looking for a job.
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Nah, we need on the pitch with #11 on his back.
He doesn’t get my vote
I was expecting the punchline to be the fan’s name was Gareth Southgate
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Fabulous Wilson article in today’s Observer talking about the departure of Southgate and what needs to happen next. Absolutely nails the madness around the role and those who view Southgate as a failure.
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Shocker: Klopp rules himself out. Presumably people will need Pep to also be forced to answer before that stupid idea can be put to bed also. Guessing Carsley will likely be in charge for the Nations League. Sad slow drift onwards Potter?
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