Stuart Pearce has paid for the poor performance of the England U21 side this summer. His contract will not be renewed when it expires at the end of the month. Can't say that I'm disappointed about this and I'm sure that plenty of others won't be either, but it'll be interesting to see who comes in to replace him. There's been some talk about Hoddle and Steve McClaren's out of work, but who else would people like to see put forward?
My god was he useless . Rubbish coach with crap players. Technically behind most teams you would be desperate to take the job if success was your aim. He did like Punk Rock, "London Calling" the Clash does it for me with it's iconic cover. Rock on Tommy.
I wouldn't be surprised if The FA decided to give Beckham the job, despite his complete lack of any experience with coaching or management.
Hoddle has already said that he will not be interested in the job, because the FA will not permit him to choose players that ought to be eligible. Let's face it, this has got to be the most poisonous job in top-flight football. Allegedly, you have the pick of the country's u21 players, but the reality is that clubs hold the whip-hand when it comes to making them available.
A few weeks ago, I saw Michael Appleton's name mentioned, on the basis that he apparently worked well with Hodgson at West Brom.
I don't think that I've ever seen a manager with such a poor record as him. He's managed 79 games and won only 19 of them, with a career average win rate of 24%. That's bloody awful.
It's all down to Pearce. Once England get a new manager in they'll dominate teams like Spain as they have a superior crop of talent and harder work ethic. Oh....
they should never have taken the job from Peter Taylor who was performing in producing a ball playing winning team with players actually improving under his management/coaching
In an ideal World the England manager should pick the under 21s manager so they can work together in taking the English game in the same direction. Unfortunately Hodgson doesn't have much of a direction, with him we stagger around rather aimlessly making the same old mistakes with the same old depressing outcome. Give it to Gary Neville if Hoddle doesn't want it and we're too stupid to hire a proper coach who is proven at training up youngsters and teaching them to play quality football. I wouldn't be surprised if Sherwood's offered it though.
You can't polish a turd. Players are near enough developed by the age of 17/18, if you can't control a football, pick out a pass or be comfortable in possession then, chances are you won't when you're 20 or 21 and so forth. That's the main reason behind England's continuing failure and lack of tournament mentality. We had Italian U-21 players in tears after losing the final. In England, we have players pulling out of U-21 games and other friendlies. You can have the best manager in the world in charge of the England U-21 team, ain't gonna change a thing if the crop of talent they have to choose from is vastly inferior to that of Spain, Germany, Italy and the real footballing nations.
I agree with you in part DL, but Pearce left out superior footballers and picked some really **** line-ups. His selection for the Norway game made absolutely no sense and he failed to get the side to perform anywhere near their capabilities. It's not all his fault, by any means, but he's clearly not the right man for the job, in my opinion.
But there are players who can, Tom Carroll for a start. A lot of the significant changes at youth levels have already started at clubs and there's talent coming through but we need a coach at youth level that can actually teach them a few things, show them how to pass the ball and attack because I guarantee they learn **** all from tools like Pearce. Players are learning and maturing all the time, it's up to our coaches to have the right attitudes and help them develop their game. We didn't lose our last 2 games because Norway and Israel are bringing through better players than us, or because we have less homegrown players in our top leage. We lost because we had an inept coach who's only seemed to be able to confuse the players on the pitch and shout at them off it until they were convinced they let everyone down. I'm not saying our current group would've won the tournament but they could have given most teams a game, learnt a few things and left a better player for it.
The job is a poison chalice and always has been imo, all the top eligible U21's get drafted into the first team because thats so ****, has anyone seen our best lineup in a tournament? can't say that I have. Pearce was crap, the FA should really have examined his attempts at club level a little better, talks a good game, then goes and does the opposite with his selection.
Pearce, and indeed Hoddle, do have a point about being hampered by the limitations placed on squad selection, though. Players like Illarramendi (who's 23), De Gea, Isco, Thiago and others wouldn't have been available, had they have been English. They'd have already played a game or two, so they'd be past this sort of thing, according to the FA's way of thinking. It's far better to piss about playing a couple of friendlies than it is to play in a competitive tournament with a bunch of your future teammates, apparently.
Exactly PNP, I think Hodgson is a complete arse taking all those youngsters on that poxy 'money based' friendly ahead of this. "I needed to look at my options"...if you don't know by now Woy you may aswell piss off. For all the ****e it caused I now wish Harry got the job justifying it all. In comparison, Brazil's lineup is always a strong one in their friendlies, its a simple enough concept to me, keep the same team playing as regular as possible, something that eludes the English approach to friendlies and International football in general.
As a further example of what you've mentioned there Notso, not only did the likes of Mata and Javi Martinez play in the last U21 Euros, but so did a number of the side that won today. Thiago was the MOTM in that game too, De Gea was in goal, Montoya played right-back and Munian started, when he was on the bench for today's game. None of this "I've got a couple of caps, so I'm too good" bullshit. I haven't seen any of their club sides' coaches moaning about it, either.
Pearce can be excused for the Italy and even Norway loss, but for Israel there's no excuse. There are better managers out there but that isn't the root problem, IMO. Yeah that Tom Carroll looks an excellent player, has done when I've seen him play anyway, how old is he? (Not being Wenger-esque) I still don't think Pearce is the root problem (see above) but the attitude was poor throughout, he pretty much gave up after they lost the first game and the team followed suit.
21, Pearce was a big part of the problem because nevermind all this "we're not good enough" which is just guessing, Pearce simply lacks the ability to organise a team to play a tactical, attacking game. I doubt he'd have won the tournament had he had Spain's squad because he's totally out of his depth in any form of management.
U-21 players need to work with a coach who can improve their skills, organisation, tactics etc and prepare the players to progress as a group to senior level- as Germany and Spain have both done successfully. Successful club managers don't necessarily have the right skills; you can't buy in players, you can't add experience, you have a limited pool of players to choose from, who, being English, won't have the natural talent and ball skills we take for granted in young Spanish players, for example. Who are the best coaches? I haven't a clue, but I don't think Pearce was ever one. He was typical of the manager who wanted the players to play to their strengths, rather than develop their skills. We have to move on from "the big lad up front "and "the big lads at the back" and "he can run all day in midfield" mentality in picking and coaching teams.
