New England boss must be English
ARSENE WENGER is open to becoming the manager of England – should he ever be free.
Mauricio Pochettino wouldn’t rule it out, either. And the German Ralf Rangnick is apparently being considered, having been on the shortlist when the FA appointed Sam Allardyce.
Martin Glenn, the FA’s Chief Executive, seems quite relaxed about the idea of giving the job to a foreigner.
“I don’t think you have to be wedded to the fact the England manager has to be English,” he said. “Being English is a benefit, a bonus.”
But isn’t that the point of international football? It’s one country against another. Our best against your best. If the players have to be English, shouldn’t the manager be English, too?
Of course, there’s no FIFA rule about coaches’ nationality. So over the years numerous countries have imported their manager from elsewhere in the hope that he would make them more successful.
If you’re the football association of, say, Albania or Azerbaijan, you can almost understand the reasoning.
They are relatively poor organisations with low-quality domestic leagues and have little history in producing either top players or coaches.
If they get in a competent Dutch or German coach, he might be able to take an average squad to a major tournament. Fair enough. But England have no such excuse. They are one of the richest associations in world football, with a multi-million pound coaching structure at St George’s Park and a league pyramid that is the envy of all.
England consider themselves to be one of the world’s top football nations. But top nations don’t look beyond their borders for their coach.
Brazil always have a Brazilian, Germany have a German, France have a Frenchman, even if that sometimes means considering someone who’s not an obvious name.
The current manager of Spain is Julen Lopetegui. Never heard of him? He used to manage Porto and Rayo Vallecano and has worked with the national age-group teams. The important thing is that he’s Spanish.
In charge of Italy is Giampiero Ventura, who has had 18 club jobs and won a just single Serie C title. But, crucially, he’s Italian.
Those countries do not sub-contract their mostimportant job to someone who wouldn’t qualify to play for them.
The FA have already tried it with Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, so they should know that route offers no more guarantees than any other.
If the next England manager is Gareth Southgate, that’s fine. He has many assets.
But the most important of those is that he’s English.