The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
A manager way out of his depth
Aidy Boothroyd’s last job before joining the England coaching set-up was managing Northampton Town. The Cobblers were bottom of the entire Football League when he left so why the surprise he’s way out of his depth after finding himself in charge of the brightest young talents as England Under 21 coach?
The bigger disgrace is not England’s miserable tournament results under Boothroyd, but how he got the job in the first place.
It probably wasn’t unhelpful that he’s a big mate of former England FA technical director Dan Ashworth, a man who rose without trace and who is now overseeing Brighton’s stylish, yet unrewarding, football in the Premier League.
Former Posh player Boothroyd (right) peaked as a boss in his first job at Watford back in the days when hoofball could still get results. The Hornets won promotion to the Premier League playing that way and came straight back down again.
Watching him trying to guide England’s brightest young hopes in the first two games of a European tournament was as frustrating as it was predictable.
I do have sympathy with Boothroyd. It’s not ‘an impossible’ job as he claimed after defeats against the might of Switzerland and Portugal (results that left them needing an unlikely set of results on Wednesday evening to stay in the tournament), but it is a difficult one.
He’s like the captain of a club cricket second XI with his top talent likely to be whisked away to join the senior squad at short notice.
Boothroyd is also right to say producing players for that senior team is as important as tournament results, although quite what the likes of Mason Mount learnt from his brief time with the under 21s is unclear. One assumes Mount developed more quickly under Frank Lampard’s management at Chelsea and Derby.
Interestingly Lampard, who has the advantage of being a top player at top clubs, is looking for work so maybe he can be tempted to work at St George’s Park?
Lampard’s Chelsea weren’t going to finish in the top four in the Premier League, but they were at least far better to watch than Thomas Tuchel’s Blues. If Lampard could get his foot in the door at England level he might even be able to promote a more adventurous style than senior boss Gareth Southgate currently employs.
Southgate appears to approach every game as though France are the opponents. Such long-term preparation can be the only reason why he sends out a pair of defensive midfielders to tackle Albania.
Just when you thought • live football commentaries couldn’t get any worse ITV inflict Sam Matterface and Lee Dixon on us for England matches.
The pair were embarrassingly rude and patronising towards San Marino which was ironic as in a world ranking of sporting commentators they’d also be down among the no-hopers.