Few will be surprised that Steve McClaren has been sacked following England's failure to get a result against Croatia at Wembley last night. The manager and his assistant Venables had their contracts terminated today because England failed to reach next summer's Euro 2008 finals. It is all so tragically predictable.
In time honoured fashion the blame game has started in earnest as the hapless FA announce that they will launch a 'root and branch' review as they go in search for the reasons behind the England team failing so badly. In reality, many football fans will believe this will turn out to be nothing more than talk as the FA launch yet another damage limitation exercise in a bid to look like they are actually doing something.
At today's press conference questions were asked about the position of FA chief executive. Remember that Brian Barwick is the man who made a complete hash of trying to appoint Philippe Scolari prior to Steve McClaren being offered the job.
At the time Scolari was still the Portugal manager and the World Cup was just around the corner, the Brazilian claimed that Barwick wanted him to agree to becoming the new England coach which put him in an impossible position. The British press got wind of the story and their intrusion and resulting publicity killed any chance of a deal.
In response to questions about his own future, Brian Barwick allowed FA board member Premier League chief Dave Richards to speak on his behalf who insisted that the McClaren appointment had been a board decision...(so perhaps they all need sacking too?).
The FA and Barwick have also been blamed for the poor state of the Wembley turf, which had clearly not recovered from the recent NFL game. Both the England and Croatia camps had complained about the surface prior to the game. Of the state of the Wembley turf one commentator said 'we will never see an NFL game at Wembley again'...(it isn't all bad news then?).
No doubting some will also blame the Russian millionaire who promised the best four Croatia players a Mercedes each if they got the right result.
So no stone will be left unturned in the search for answers to England's problems, at least that is what we the fans are being told.
Going into the Croatia game, the coach was without his big star names like Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Rio Ferdinand and John Terry. The press had as per usual picked the team by telling McClaren who to select and like a lamb to the slaughter he followed their lead by dropping Paul Robinson and David Beckham in preference to Scott Carson and Shaun-Wright-Phillips.
The former England manager might will look back on those decisions and wonder if he'd done things differently then would he still be the manager, because on just eight minutes Carson made what can only be described as a schoolboy error when taking his eye off the ball in doing so allowing Nico Kranjcar's tame shot to slip beyond him into the corner on the net. Catastrophe number one.
As if that wasn't bad enough on 14 minutes a Croatia counter-attack carved open the England defence and Phillips was guilty of doing a Tony Adams impersonation when standing still holding his arm aloft appealing for offside, worse still he allowed Ivica Olic to run free to make it two-nil.
Phillips later missed England's best chance of the first-half before being replaced by Beckham at half-time. The Chelsea winger had not played badly, but at key moments he'd let himself and his country down as had Carson.
No doubting some will argue that the keeper atoned for the error which led to the opening goal by making a string of fine saves, which he did, but that double salvo really left England shell-shocked for virtually all of the opening period. That isn't an excuse, but a statement of fact on what happened and not what should have happened regarding those in possession of the England shirts.
England looked like they were going to turn the game around after Lampard converted a second half penalty and then Beckham's superb cross was finished in style by England's outstanding player on the night Peter 'the coat-hanger' Crouch to make it 2-2.
Alas it wasn't to be as Petric scored with a thunderbolt on 77 minutes, in doing so bringing down the curtain on McClaren and sorry England.
Few will be optimistic about this root and branch review given Barwick's track record, but it is to be hoped that if there is anything good to come out of failure of not qualifying for Euro 2008, it is that hopefully future generations of England players can play the kind of possession football displayed by the Croatian's at Wembley on what turned out to be a very dark day for the English game.
For that to happen it is going to take a lot more than sacking successive England managers. Premier League clubs will need to ensure that they have a core of English players within their squads and for that to happen the recently much talked about quota system may well have to be looked at again.
Showing posts with label quota system. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quota system. Show all posts
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
As media firing squad clammer to pull trigger - who should replace McClaren?
With no game for United this weekend, our collective attentions will focus on the international scene once more.
England need Israel to draw or win against Russia on Saturday night and then McClaren's team have to beat Croatia next week if the Three Lions are to avoid missing out on a place at the Euro 2008 finals next summer.
In the build-up to these crucial games there has been a lot of discussions about overseas stars plying their trade in the Premier League and the likes of Steven Gerrard has joined Fergie in support of Sepp Blatter's quota proposal.
The FIFA big cheese wants to see more home-grown stars from the country of origin playing in domestic competitions like the Premier League. The idea hasn't gone down well with most of the media, so why exactly is that? How can it be that the manager who has won more domestic honours than any other in the British game can see the sense in Blatter's proposals, yet the media cannot?
One of the great ironies is that here we have a Scotsman agreeing in principle with Blatter for the long term good of the English game. Yet at the same time Arsene Wenger a Frenchman - who clearly has no interest in the England national team - does not agree with Blatter and yet the press who continually bang the international drum agree with Wenger on this issue....
In response to the England captain Steven Gerrard supporting under-fire McClaren and the quota system Matt Dickinson of the Times (surely an Arsenal fan?) devoted a couple of pages yesterday to attacking Blatter's proposal while at the same time plunging the knife in between McClaren's shoulder blades (again). Gerrard, we were told was looking for excuses. Hang on a minute Matt, could it actually be that the Liverpool star agrees with what many including myself see as a common sense proposal?
As if that wasn't enough, Dickinson added his own personal comment piece attacking the lack of skill and wit of the English, both on the pitch and on the touchline, he used matches between English journalists and their European counterparts to make his point. Which was a silly argument, but he made his point about the lack of skill.
The thing is critics like Dickinson will happily point out that England haven't won anything since 1966 and they say that prior to Wenger arriving together with the mass influx of overseas stars things weren't any better. That maybe so, but should England fail to qualify for the Euro 2008 finals - wont that say quite a lot about the current state of affairs?
The point being, we still haven't got it right, and despite the fact that the media darling that is Terry Venables says that he cannot see any reason to sack Steve McClaren, the press firing squad are clammering to pull the trigger.
Sacking the manager is the media's answer to everything, it always has been and it is why papers like the Times fills page after page in a bid to dictate the agenda to Brian Barwick and the FA.
Having loaded the gun, Dickinson realised that even if the FA sacks McClaren, there's no obvious replacement, he made reference to this in his comment piece. That's the thing, it's very easy to say get rid of the coach, less easy to come up with solutions which run far deeper than ousting the manager.
Perhaps the penny has dropped that even if the media get their way, there's no obivous replacement. Mourinho doesn't want the job, nor does Wenger or Fergie. Hiddink looks to be tied to the Oligarchs and Russia. Barwick, aided by the press, made a complete balls-up of trying to entice Scolari.
All in all, it's a mess but no doubting McClaren will get sacked and Blatter will be ignored but then what happens when England do not qualify for the next big tournament, will everything still be ok? No doubting the media will have all the usual anwsers in the form of a loaded rifle.
England need Israel to draw or win against Russia on Saturday night and then McClaren's team have to beat Croatia next week if the Three Lions are to avoid missing out on a place at the Euro 2008 finals next summer.
In the build-up to these crucial games there has been a lot of discussions about overseas stars plying their trade in the Premier League and the likes of Steven Gerrard has joined Fergie in support of Sepp Blatter's quota proposal.
The FIFA big cheese wants to see more home-grown stars from the country of origin playing in domestic competitions like the Premier League. The idea hasn't gone down well with most of the media, so why exactly is that? How can it be that the manager who has won more domestic honours than any other in the British game can see the sense in Blatter's proposals, yet the media cannot?
One of the great ironies is that here we have a Scotsman agreeing in principle with Blatter for the long term good of the English game. Yet at the same time Arsene Wenger a Frenchman - who clearly has no interest in the England national team - does not agree with Blatter and yet the press who continually bang the international drum agree with Wenger on this issue....
In response to the England captain Steven Gerrard supporting under-fire McClaren and the quota system Matt Dickinson of the Times (surely an Arsenal fan?) devoted a couple of pages yesterday to attacking Blatter's proposal while at the same time plunging the knife in between McClaren's shoulder blades (again). Gerrard, we were told was looking for excuses. Hang on a minute Matt, could it actually be that the Liverpool star agrees with what many including myself see as a common sense proposal?
As if that wasn't enough, Dickinson added his own personal comment piece attacking the lack of skill and wit of the English, both on the pitch and on the touchline, he used matches between English journalists and their European counterparts to make his point. Which was a silly argument, but he made his point about the lack of skill.
The thing is critics like Dickinson will happily point out that England haven't won anything since 1966 and they say that prior to Wenger arriving together with the mass influx of overseas stars things weren't any better. That maybe so, but should England fail to qualify for the Euro 2008 finals - wont that say quite a lot about the current state of affairs?
The point being, we still haven't got it right, and despite the fact that the media darling that is Terry Venables says that he cannot see any reason to sack Steve McClaren, the press firing squad are clammering to pull the trigger.
Sacking the manager is the media's answer to everything, it always has been and it is why papers like the Times fills page after page in a bid to dictate the agenda to Brian Barwick and the FA.
Having loaded the gun, Dickinson realised that even if the FA sacks McClaren, there's no obvious replacement, he made reference to this in his comment piece. That's the thing, it's very easy to say get rid of the coach, less easy to come up with solutions which run far deeper than ousting the manager.
Perhaps the penny has dropped that even if the media get their way, there's no obivous replacement. Mourinho doesn't want the job, nor does Wenger or Fergie. Hiddink looks to be tied to the Oligarchs and Russia. Barwick, aided by the press, made a complete balls-up of trying to entice Scolari.
All in all, it's a mess but no doubting McClaren will get sacked and Blatter will be ignored but then what happens when England do not qualify for the next big tournament, will everything still be ok? No doubting the media will have all the usual anwsers in the form of a loaded rifle.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Wenger vision and the quota system...
The Times is engaging its readers on Arsene Wenger's appalling record when it comes to the low numbers of English players in the Arsenal squad.
This current debate comes on the back of Sepp Blatter's recent threat to take on the EU over the possible re-introduction of quotas regarding the numbers of foreign players who are allowed to play in national associations across Europe both in domestic and in UEFA competitions.
For the record, UEFA introduced their original 3+2 ruling in 1991, a system which allowed clubs to field three foreign stars, plus two 'assimilated' players. On top of which National associations throughout Europe had their own individual rulings in place pertaining to the numbers of foreign stars.
All of which was despite the fact that in 1973 the European Court of Justice had ruled against such impositions on the grounds that it was a restriction of freedom of movement against EU citizens. However, in 1995 the Bosman ruling changed everything and with that out went the illegal quota system. Roll the clock forward to 2007 and back to the debate about Blatter threatening to take on the EU in a bid to bring back player quotas.
The media have really laid into Blatter over this issue stating that it will not work. The much respected football pundit Gabriele Marcotti has presented some very interesting arguments against the quota system, he says that any re-introduction would affect Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Times columnist says that as things stand a young player might opt to play for Wales because he has a Welsh grandparent, but the same player might think twice if it limited his chances of playing in the Premier League, I personally doubt that.
Here's why, take the example of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. At this moment in time there's only one well known Welshman at any of those clubs, Ryan Giggs. However, look beyond the 'top four' clubs and you will find that most clubs still retain a reasonable core of British players. The point being that situation is hardly likely to be affected by any reintroduction of quotas. Quotas or not, Ian Rush and Mark Hughes would still have risen to the top. Quality will always shine through.
Arsenal though under Wenger are a big concern when it comes to the lack of English players in their squad. Granted they lost Ashley Cole and currently they have Walcott, but this isn't largely tokenism when compared to the squads of Chelsea, United, West Ham, Aston Villa, Manchester City and perhaps to lesser extent Liverpool.
One thing is certain if Manchester United did what Wenger has done at Arsenal there would be a national outcry. Every phone-in would be jammed with ABUs complaining at every juncture, every time England lost or dropped points, United would eventually be blamed. How come Wenger gets away with it, is it because Arsenal are not such a big club?
However, to blame Arsenal alone would be wrong, because other leading across Europe are also guilty of following Wenger's open door policy to foreign players at the expense of home grown talent.
Wenger says quality is the key when it comes to selection issues - few would argue here. However, the quality of young British players seems to be dropping and this is the real problem. All clubs need to do more to create the next David Beckham's and Steven Gerrard's and not less, which rightly or wrong is how Arsenal are perceived as a club right now.
Wenger is a great coach, but his record of producing and retaining home grown English players isn't something that he can be particularly proud of. The Frenchman has produced some decent young players like Blackburn's David Bentley and Chelsea's Steve Sidwell, but they've been edged out by Arsenal foreign imports.
If every other club in the Premier League followed Wenger's policy quite simply there wouldn't be an England team in five years time. This is why I personally believe that we do need quotas to maintain the long term integrity of the national associations across Europe, but rather than have the old 3+2 system there should be a minimum of three or four Englishmen in every Premier team including Arsenal.
This current debate comes on the back of Sepp Blatter's recent threat to take on the EU over the possible re-introduction of quotas regarding the numbers of foreign players who are allowed to play in national associations across Europe both in domestic and in UEFA competitions.
For the record, UEFA introduced their original 3+2 ruling in 1991, a system which allowed clubs to field three foreign stars, plus two 'assimilated' players. On top of which National associations throughout Europe had their own individual rulings in place pertaining to the numbers of foreign stars.
All of which was despite the fact that in 1973 the European Court of Justice had ruled against such impositions on the grounds that it was a restriction of freedom of movement against EU citizens. However, in 1995 the Bosman ruling changed everything and with that out went the illegal quota system. Roll the clock forward to 2007 and back to the debate about Blatter threatening to take on the EU in a bid to bring back player quotas.
The media have really laid into Blatter over this issue stating that it will not work. The much respected football pundit Gabriele Marcotti has presented some very interesting arguments against the quota system, he says that any re-introduction would affect Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Times columnist says that as things stand a young player might opt to play for Wales because he has a Welsh grandparent, but the same player might think twice if it limited his chances of playing in the Premier League, I personally doubt that.
Here's why, take the example of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. At this moment in time there's only one well known Welshman at any of those clubs, Ryan Giggs. However, look beyond the 'top four' clubs and you will find that most clubs still retain a reasonable core of British players. The point being that situation is hardly likely to be affected by any reintroduction of quotas. Quotas or not, Ian Rush and Mark Hughes would still have risen to the top. Quality will always shine through.
Arsenal though under Wenger are a big concern when it comes to the lack of English players in their squad. Granted they lost Ashley Cole and currently they have Walcott, but this isn't largely tokenism when compared to the squads of Chelsea, United, West Ham, Aston Villa, Manchester City and perhaps to lesser extent Liverpool.
One thing is certain if Manchester United did what Wenger has done at Arsenal there would be a national outcry. Every phone-in would be jammed with ABUs complaining at every juncture, every time England lost or dropped points, United would eventually be blamed. How come Wenger gets away with it, is it because Arsenal are not such a big club?
However, to blame Arsenal alone would be wrong, because other leading across Europe are also guilty of following Wenger's open door policy to foreign players at the expense of home grown talent.
Wenger says quality is the key when it comes to selection issues - few would argue here. However, the quality of young British players seems to be dropping and this is the real problem. All clubs need to do more to create the next David Beckham's and Steven Gerrard's and not less, which rightly or wrong is how Arsenal are perceived as a club right now.
Wenger is a great coach, but his record of producing and retaining home grown English players isn't something that he can be particularly proud of. The Frenchman has produced some decent young players like Blackburn's David Bentley and Chelsea's Steve Sidwell, but they've been edged out by Arsenal foreign imports.
If every other club in the Premier League followed Wenger's policy quite simply there wouldn't be an England team in five years time. This is why I personally believe that we do need quotas to maintain the long term integrity of the national associations across Europe, but rather than have the old 3+2 system there should be a minimum of three or four Englishmen in every Premier team including Arsenal.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Eureka! Has Blatter finally come up with a good idea?
The man who brought us the dreadful silver and golden goals and decided that players who take off their shirt after scoring a goal should be booked, to list just a few of his previous bad ideas has finally potentially come up with a good one. Though it isn't a new one or come to that original. The man from the land of cuckoo-clocks himself Sepp Blatter, the FIFA supremo, has decided that it's about time someone challenged European Union rules in a bid to impose a quota on foreign players within European teams.
Blatter says that too many foreigners is bad thing "When you have 11 foreigners in a team, this is not good for the development of football, for the education of young players, and there is a financial aspect, too."
No doubting Arsene Wenger had got wind of Blatter's forthcoming interview with the BBC earlier this week when he stated that quota's would be bad for the standard of the Premier League. He would say that wouldn't he?
Blatter clearly had the Gunners in mind when launching his verbal broadside, but Arsenal are by no means the only club in the UK who have fielded entire teams of foreigner players. It wasn't that long ago that the 'Old Firm' derby in Glasgow had no Scottish players' taking part. At that time the Scottish national team was very, very poor. The warning bells were ringing for the future of the Scottish game and big time.
Move forward to 2007 and things are very different with both Rangers and Celtic fielding British and Scottish players, their results have improved dramatically as have the fortune's of the Scottish national team.
There could be a big downside to the quota system though, if indeed it ever gets introduced. While it would be good for the long-term future of England, players playing in England from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will no doubt be treated as foreigners, which was the case back in the early 90s.
Back in 94/95 when playing in Europe there was quota system in place and against Barcelona it deprived the Reds of Peter Schmeichel and Eric Cantona for a game in the Nou Camp in which we were thumped 4-0. Many Reds blamed that defeat squarely on the three foreigner rule.
Now if Blatter intends to bring in this ruling for our domestic league's as well as European competitions, then players from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could lose out as they may well have a less of chance of breaking into say the first team of United.
The devil will as ever be in the detail concerning the numbers, but no doubting that the FA and Premier League will argue that British players should be treated as a special case.
Blatter says that too many foreigners is bad thing "When you have 11 foreigners in a team, this is not good for the development of football, for the education of young players, and there is a financial aspect, too."
No doubting Arsene Wenger had got wind of Blatter's forthcoming interview with the BBC earlier this week when he stated that quota's would be bad for the standard of the Premier League. He would say that wouldn't he?
Blatter clearly had the Gunners in mind when launching his verbal broadside, but Arsenal are by no means the only club in the UK who have fielded entire teams of foreigner players. It wasn't that long ago that the 'Old Firm' derby in Glasgow had no Scottish players' taking part. At that time the Scottish national team was very, very poor. The warning bells were ringing for the future of the Scottish game and big time.
Move forward to 2007 and things are very different with both Rangers and Celtic fielding British and Scottish players, their results have improved dramatically as have the fortune's of the Scottish national team.
There could be a big downside to the quota system though, if indeed it ever gets introduced. While it would be good for the long-term future of England, players playing in England from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will no doubt be treated as foreigners, which was the case back in the early 90s.
Back in 94/95 when playing in Europe there was quota system in place and against Barcelona it deprived the Reds of Peter Schmeichel and Eric Cantona for a game in the Nou Camp in which we were thumped 4-0. Many Reds blamed that defeat squarely on the three foreigner rule.
Now if Blatter intends to bring in this ruling for our domestic league's as well as European competitions, then players from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could lose out as they may well have a less of chance of breaking into say the first team of United.
The devil will as ever be in the detail concerning the numbers, but no doubting that the FA and Premier League will argue that British players should be treated as a special case.
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