Do we even need an England manager?

From the Telegraph....

The Football Association need not appoint a new manager
Regarding the ongoing quest for a new England coach, I am pleased to offer this radical proposal to the excellent Sir Dave Richards and his fellow FA grandees. Don’t bother. Hire no one.

Do we really need him? even mention of the England job has proved radioactive for Harry Redknapp*Photo: REUTERS
By Matthew Norman6:40AM GMT 16 Mar 2012Comments
Reclaim spiritual ownership of the game from the foreign brigands who stole it from us, as Sir Dave compellingly analysed it in his Gettysburgian address, with a thrilling experiment.
Consider the benefits, actual and potential, of sending a gaffer-less squad to Euro 2012. The first point feels too obvious to state, but it is technically impossible to perform any worse this summer than in the previous two major tournaments England so abominably stunk up that the fumigation of the World Cup stadiums concerned is far from complete.
Recalling that the fiasco against Paraguay, Ecuador, the USA, Algeria and Germany occurred under feted scudetti-winning coaches, Messrs Eriksson and Capello respectively, there is no reason to suspect that Harry Redknapp (one FA Cup with Portsmouth) would reverse the form book.
The post is so radioactive that a man need not hold it and still be sickened by the fall out. Proximity is enough. Since he became the prohibitive favourite, Harry’s super soaraway Spurs’s title challenge has hurriedly redrawn as a frantic rearguard battle to cling on to a top-four finish.
On this basis, what point could there be to appointing him, Arsène Wenger or anybody else, in accordance with “the Abramovich Rule” which states that the paramount purpose in hiring a coach is to lay the ground for compensating him for its loss with a £10m cheque?

It is Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea that offers guiding precedent on the manager-less team. When Jose Mourinho left in 2007 (and with apologies to his titular replacement Avram Grant), the team coached itself to within the width of a post of the Champions League trophy.
Judging by how effortlessly the man who missed the decisive penalty, John Terry, dominated a Roberto Di Matteo press conference this week, something similar explains Chelsea’s rousing defeat of Napoli on Wednesday evening.

Explaining England’s tournament form is a more complex matter, but the self-fulfilling terror of failure evidently plays a central part. Liberated from fanciful expectations by the absence of a coach, with the country contentedly resigned to another debacle, the lads might recapture the ability to make an accurate 18-inch pass they show for their clubs. If not, nothing will be lost, and untold millions in salary and pay-off saved ... millions the FA could invest in a solid gold statue of Sir Dave splashing about in a platinum fountain when he goes.

How the squad would be picked is one of various minor incidentals. Fifteen of the 23 probably pick themselves, while my preference for the remaining berths would be to have the Queen draw eight balls from a giant hat containing the names of every eligible player throughout all four leagues. How better to mark 60 years as head of a great democratic state than with an emblematic role in democratising the selection process? After the cosy elitism of the iron pyrites generation we drolly know as “golden”, we could use a bit of that.

This democratic rebirth would extend to putting team selection and substitutions to national phone votes before and during games. If England as a country elected to start against France with Crawley Town’s 33-year-old midfielder Dannie Bulman in place of Stevie G, and then to replace Ashley Cole with Morecambe left-back Laurence Wilson within four minutes of the kick-off, at least the phone-in bleaters would have only themselves to blame.

This adoption of the theory known as “the wisdom of crowds” would be refreshingly on trend. None of the successful revolutionary movements which have reshaped Arab history appears to have either leaders or clear aims - an experience wearyingly familiar to students of the England team in every regard other than the success.

Dismiss all this as facetious lunacy if you will, but first have the decency to ask yourselves this. Offered a choice between 1) allowing a body of which Sir Dave is vice chairman to oversee the England team, and 2) the intoxicating cocktail of Swiss canton-style democracy and nihilistic anarchy outlined above, which do you think would appeal more to the wearer of a straitjacket?

 

Have we even got one?

 

Did we ever have one?

 

Pearcie might do a job for us. Has to be an improvement on Crappello anyway.

 

Ugh, one tournament ****-up and Capello is now the worst England manager in history. Everyone forgets the press had it in for Sir Bobby before Italia 90.

Anyways I'd like to see Pearce get a fair whack at this summer at least. I know in the long run he's not got the best pedigree but getting managers of high pedigree (Sven anyone?!) hasn't worked. Lets see what old psycho can do. Anyone but that fat droopy-faced **** Redknobb!

 

me

 

Hope Pardew becomes England manager so we don't have to put up with him for any longer.

Hopefully once he's sacked we can see the second coming of Chris Hughton.

He can't take Obertan with him as well

 

You're 6th in the league. This epitomizes how deluded most newcastle fans are

 

Haha coming from a Southampton

Stick to supporting your small championship club. I bet you seen the grey difference in getting rid of Pardew

 

Lunacy. Although I don't think it really matters who is the boss for this tournament. We can't win it so we might aswell just try and develop for the next one. Personally I'm not convinced Harry is the guy. I was happy with Capello. He is the most successful manager we have ever had in terms of getting results. He has the highest win ratio of any England manager. Of course he made mistakes in South Africa but you could have had Mourinho or anyone you care to mention in charge, it would not have mattered. We are not good enough, that is the brutal reality. Capello has had us getting results in keeping with our ability. We just don't like that we're not one of the top 5 nations.

Capello has resigned though due to the bungling FA (and rightly so), so we need a manager. I'd be content with Pearce, but happier with Hoddle. I think whoever it is should be forced to pick a good number of the young players to build for 2014. This is one problem I'd have with Harry. We'd probably see a team of the old favourites. I could envisage a starting xi with the likes of Terry, Ferdinand, Lampard, Joe Cole still involved.