Seems like Harry Redknapp reckons that in the future,Nigel Adkins,and other young english managers have got a great chance of managing England. "And there's some young managers like Nigel Adkins and people like that, who in the future, I'm sure, would be fantastic, but, at the moment, probably too young." http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/20876/7596340/Age-an-England-issue-for-Harry Nice to see other managers giving Nigel the credit he deserves.
Pretty sure that's a rehash of an article from about 4 years back, where he said exactly the same thing about Adkins.
Shut up Harry ! We don't want Adkins to manage England. He'll be wasted, it's probably the worst management job in world football !
Sure, Adkins has shown himself capable of being a top class manager, maybe capable of managing European giants or the international team in the future - whether he will or not is another matter, he may choose to stay at Southampton for the rest of his career, who knows? - but I dont think anyone really needed Redknapp to tell them that. Surely Adkin's record speaks for itself.
As good as Adkins is and as much as I love him, I don't think he is, or will be, a top class manager capable of managing England (although I would love to be proved wrong, just not for a long time)
That's the Saints fan in you coming out. What would you say if in two years this club was competing for a CL place..? Would you change your mind then..? Don't be fooled by Adkins' platitudes and middle management cliché. Harry isn't the only manager who has spoken of Adkins ability to go all the way. My contention is that, like Ferguson with ManU, he should go all the way with Saints.
As we all know, there were two things that should never have left Southampton .. The Titanic and Lawrie McMenemy. Lawrie was a great manager for us, but was shown to be only human at Sunderland. Sometimes managers and teams just seem to belong to each other. Adkins could be the "new" Lawrie Mac but with the backing from the top.
Lawrie McMenemy is a legend of Southampton no doubt about that. However, the regard I once held him in has fallen in recent years due to his behind the scenes dealings with Rupert Lowe. Shame, because he was an very well respected man. Guess he just got involved with the wrong crowd !
Managing England is a totally different job from managing a league team. Nigel buys and develops players, works on their fitness, and devises tactics to win a game. In the national side, you select players from the pool available to you and have a few days to drill them into what you want. Totally different game and being good at one doesn't necessarily make you good at the other. Harry said himself it's an old mans game. Will be years before Nigel would consider giving up the pleasure of creating his own team in order to take on a rag tag group of England players and then be slated for not turning them into champions in a few weeks of the year.
