Don’t give a failure the chance to hide behind these excuses

November 24, 2007

Tony Cascarino, Analysis

I played for coaches who did little more than stick down cones in a line on the training pitch like workers closing off lanes on a motorway. Now, at youth, amateur, semi-pro and pro level, coaching standards are so much higher. Yet England have failed to reach the finals of Euro 2008 and the Premier League is full of foreign players, so there must be something up with the coaching, right? Totally wrong.

My six-year-old boy is coached by better professionals than many of the coaches who I worked under during my career. He goes to a “skills academy” and learns things I’ve never seen before. After sessions, he does a warm-down. I didn’t do one after playing in a World Cup quarter-final.

Kids may not kick a ball around in the street any more, but they can go to floodlit all-weather pitches where they’ll be supervised. No David Beckham Academy when I was young. I just played with my mates in the park and toe-punted the ball around. I didn’t get any proper coaching until I was 15.

Would the pundits be flooding the talk shows to tell us why youth football in England is on the road to hell if England had qualified on Wednesday? Of course not. So we’re soul-searching because England didn’t beat the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia at home or Israel away. Because Russia get a dodgy penalty in Moscow last month, the whole English coaching system is screwed. Come off it. Have you noticed how good England Under-21 are?

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The critics are confusing coaching with management. These are separate. England failed because Steve McClaren failed, not because English players aren’t taught to juggle the ball like Brazilians as soon as they can walk. There’s nothing wrong with Steven Gerrard’s technique, or Gareth Barry’s. It’s how they were managed.

A coach coaches but a manager picks. Fits the jigsaw puzzle together. You might be surprised by how little actual coaching top managers do. They are like foremen in a factory. Sir Alex Ferguson is brilliant because he combines an overall vision with expert man-management, not because he spends hours on the training ground teaching Wes Brown to tackle. England fell short not through lack of ability caused by inadequate coaching, but because of lack of confidence caused by inadequate management. I could give a hundred examples of McClaren’s mistakes. Here’s one: what a difference Jamie Carragher might have made against Croatia. But he felt undervalued in the England set-up and retired. That is pure bad management costing England dear.

Scotland were dreadful under Berti Vogts but are much better now. What changed in the Scottish game? Did they ban all foreign players? Did they replace the entire team? No, they just found the right manager. One hugely talented figurehead makes all the difference.

Doom-mongers argue that the growing number of foreign players is bad for the English game because home-grown players don’t get chances. The reality is not that English standards are slipping or the quality is too low, but that the Barclays Premier League’s top clubs have raised the bar and can pick from the world’s elite.

So it’s logical that only a couple of English players will prove good enough for Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United or Liverpool. Because only a couple of Spanish players are good enough for these clubs, only a couple of French players, only the very best from Africa. England have only one Wayne Rooney – but Spain have just the one Cesc Fàbregas, Argentina only a single Lionel Messi. Manchester United produced a remarkable crop of kids in the 1990s, but that was a freak generation.

Portugal’s league is full of Brazilians. Turkey and Russia have had a huge influx of overseas players. Yet they all managed to qualify for Austria and Switzerland. Greece won Euro 2004 just by having an effective game plan.

England’s failure isn’t about the coaches, it isn’t about the players, it isn’t about the make-up of the Barclays Premier League. It’s about the manager. The authorities can introduce all the new ideas and extra funding they like into grass-roots football, but if the right man isn’t in charge of the England team, my son could be 16, 26 or 60 and we’ll still be having this debate.

Expert opinion

Otto Rehhagel “You should give the job to José Mourinho. He has the character and that fighting spirit to get the best out of a team and would be a good man for England. If he does not want it, though, they can come and ask me.”

Franz Beckenbauer “One name comes to my mind straight away when I think of who might bring the England team out of their coma: Jürgen Klinsmann. He is a man with clear ideas and England could envisage a new beginning with him in charge. He would have three years until the 2010 World Cup finals to get a new team on its feet. He speaks English perfectly and has a glowing reputation in the country since his time with Tottenham Hotspur.

“Jürgen is seeking a challenge in a country with a great football tradition and love for the game. He is better suited to working as a national coach than as a club manager, where you quickly get worn down by daily pressures.”

Avram Grant “I think the English manager needs to be a good manager - I don’t think you can say he needs to be English or a foreigner. It doesn’t matter these days. What matters is that they take a manager who can take the England team forward. I worked with Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth and he would be good for this job. And yes, José Mourinho can make a good job for England. I am sure about that.”

Slaven Bilic “It was nice to hear that the English media have even calculated with my name, but I would never accept such an offer.”

Lawrie Sanchez “I am concentrating on my job at Fulham. Ironically, I am the most qualified internationally in the Premier League because of my experience with Northern Ireland. But I am still a young manager. When I am in my mid-fifties or so, then I would like to slow down my day-to-day involvement and have a go at the big job, which would possibly be my last job.”

Gareth Southgate “I think it should be an English person, but not because I am blind to the fact that a foreign coach could improve us. I just think international football is about one country against another, and that should be players, coaches, physios, the lot, otherwise I do not see the point of having international football. If you are going to import your coach, you might as well import your players as well and let’s just call it the Champions League.”

David Moyes “I believe the new England manager should be English. We have plenty of tremendous coaches around with terrific qualities. Scotland have proved what can be done by employing a Scottish manager [Alex McLeish].”

John Terry “José [Mourinho] is a fantastic manager and I would like to work with him again. I’m sure he would love it and one day he could be England manager.”