Bad timing and muddy thinking from Rooney
SIR CLIVE WOODWARD ON BIG SAM’S ENGLAND
IAM a Sam Allardyce fan. I like his instinctive feel, his football nous and the character and humour he brings to the game. Sam Allardici! I am confident history will show he is the right appointment at the right time. Just as long as he doesn’t change.
Big international coaching positions can become political appointments in which ‘doing the right thing’ by the board and being a ‘safe pair of hands’ trump that disruptive dogged spirit which gets many coaches to the top of the game in the first place.
I desperately hope Sam doesn’t sell himself short by trying to please all the Premier League managers, the FA, the sponsors and stakeholders, the money men, the press and media. In fact, he doesn’t even necessarily need to please the fans by picking their favourites or playing in a particular way.
I want to see Sam approach the England role with the same attitude that has seen him become a mainstay in the Premier League. He has been vocal about the England team in the past, now is the time to walk the walk.
The most important people — in fact the only ones who matter — are those footballers who share his burning vision and passion to make England the best football team in the world. Work with them and for them at all times and everything else will take care of itself.
I’ve followed Sam’s career closely ever since he contacted me in 1999 when I was in charge of the England rugby team and he was about to take over at Bolton — the start of his long and successful tenure there. He was a humble straightforward guy, curious to discover how other people in similar positions went about their jobs.
Sam, as everybody acknowledges, is a football man through and through but there is a depth to his man-management and coaching which few give him credit for.
Back in 1999 he wanted to hear all about the work England rugby were doing with regards to sports science, including Prozone, nutrition, conditioning and the psychological profiling of players and I was only too happy to oblige. At Bolton he worked with Mike Forde — later a director at Chelsea — who headed up Sam’s performance unit. Mike and my staff spent time together at Bolton. Sam wanted to make sure he understood what was on offer out there and that he wasn’t missing a trick.
Now comes the biggest challenge of his career and he is up and running with his first England game. To him, indeed any England manager, I would offer the following pieces of sometimes hard-earned advice:
1 PLAYERS WHO BLEED ENGLAND
A CuLTuRE of England being sec-second best behind club football has infiltrated fans and even thehe media over the past decadee which I just do not see in other great footballing countries. The world’s very top players understand the importance and their responsibility to the game and their country. Ours do not fully understand what it takes to win at international level.
You need a no- compromisee mentality. The clubs pay the e players lavishly and rightly expect ect a return and of course the players ers are passionate about their clubs. bs. None of that should change butut allowing international football to play second fiddle to club football ll is totally unacceptable.
Backed by Sam, the England players must take a far greater responsibility for their international careers, it must become ingrained. Look at how Cristiano Ronaldo worked phenomenally hard to overcome injury niggles for the Euros, or how Neymar put his heart and soul into leading Brazil to the Olympic title.
England must return to the top of the agenda. Club managers and owners must understand that on occasions England come first. Otherwise we will still be thrashing around looking for another World Cup win in 50 years which would be detrimental to football in England at every level.
The British sporting public has been inspired by the dedication of our great Olympic champions and the England football community now expect the same from our footballers. Don’t tell me England doesn’t matter to our footballers, that simply isn’t true. But they need to take far greater responsibility and that is impossible unless they are backed totally by the England manager.
2 TIME MANAGEMENT IS ESSENTIAL
THE clock is ticking and you have so little access to the players, so to be successful you must make the most of every second and be brighter than those you are now going head to head with.
So keep it simple and practical. Do what you can and do it superbly well but don’t go making long- termt plans and embarking on pointless long-term player and development projects.
With 38 Premier League matches and FA Cup and European commitments there is no time for anything else. Just get the absolute basics right: good selection, solid defensive line- up, free- kicks, corners and penalties.
When you are in camp don’t get distracted by fitness and nutrition — there is no way England can improve on the excellent work the clubs do in those areas and if you have chosen the correct players and set the right standards off duty they will always arrive for England duty in top shape.
3 FOCUS ONLY ON THE NEXT MATCH
NEvER look beyond this, it’s pointless and your job is not to build for the future. You have so little time with the players, so any-
thing other than the next game is a distraction. And the follow-on from this is do exactly what you want to win that next match. Don’t give a damn what other people or the media think. This is your team.
4 TOURNAMENT FOOTBALL
AppreciATe that tournaments are so very different from the ninemonth marathon of a league season. There is no Monday morning and i’m not sure england always dial into that urgency.
everybody you play will be suffering from the same lack of preparation time as you and that’s why you need to play at a much quicker tempo in tournament finals, to force mistakes from that side opposite you whose players have also come together just a week or so earlier or who are exhausted from a long season.
The Brazil team who won the recent Olympic tournament were unrecognisable from the tired Brazil team who froze horribly at their own World cup. They were proactive, playing at real pace and width, looking to win every game as if there was no tomorrow.
And for tournament football you absolutely need to have your selection issues settled months ahead of any tournament. Don’t go experimenting in the tournament itself, it will end in tears. Good selection is always the No 1 priority for any international coach and your first team should be set in stone before a tournament begins.
5 OLYMPIC CHALLENGE
SAM needs to get Great Britain back into the Olympic football tournament. He rightly will be reluctant to get involved in the politics of this but he needs to be messianic and beat the drum through the media.
infusing our best young players with the elitist winning standards of our Olympians would be a mas- sive step forward for all of British football, let alone england, because at present we are burying our heads in the sand and disengaging from the sporting world. Arrogant and just plain wrong.
it was utterly disgraceful that GB men’s and women’s teams were not involved in rio and if Wales, Scotland and Northern ireland will not play ball an england Under 23 team plus three overage players should fly the British flag. The pluses for england would be enormous.
i guarantee that Brazil will be a better team now with a nucleus of players coming through from the recent Olympics and, vitally, have a better understanding of tournament football.
At the moment, in european championships and World cups, we spend two years qualifying against largely limited teams and then play like rabbits caught in headlights. We need to take every opportunity to compete in tourna- ment football, on the world stage. Given the current strength of all the home nations we should also revive the old Home internationals perhaps inviting France or Germany occasionally to ramp it up. Let’s have a trophy, a competitive Five or Six Nations championship. Ditch all meaningless friendlies.
6 FIRE IN YOUR BELLY
Never forget that deep down everybody would love to be in your shoes although very few would have the bottle! Keep fired up 24/7, 365 days of the year because this is not a career job, you are passing through so make your mark.
Shake things up, do it your way. Think short term, not long term. Think results, not style. Don’t worry about upsetting people, including your own ceO. Don’t ever compromise.
Now is a great time for Sam to take over. The sporting public has become used to massive and inspirational success from our sportsmen and women across the board and are growing weary and cynical about england’s lacklustre football team. There has been a deep well of goodwill because football remains the national game — but even that is now beginning to run dry.
No english person below 60 has any real notion of a trophy-winning national football side or a team that makes us really proud. There were glimpses under Terry venables and Glenn Hoddle and at the 1990 World cup but the fact is on every occasion we fell short. There will be overwhelming support for anybody who can shake things up and try to make this massive change.
What an exciting time for Sam and if i was having breakfast with him this morning i would have one simple question: ‘Sam, how do you want to be remembered?’