Early in the BBC documentary – ‘MANAGING ENGLAND THE IMPOSSIBLE JOB’ – in an interview conducted shortly after being appointed England Manager, Bobby Robson, in the days long before he was Sir, makes the comment: ‘I know this job has impossibilities but if I can get it right its utopia.‘
Every one of the thirteen England managers appointed by the Football Association since 1962 must have had, to varying degrees, this thought at the start of their tenure. But as the hour long programme reveals, utopia is only a step away from nohopia – and since winning the 1966 World Cup, in terms of the national football team England has been a land of hope but not much glory.
Five of the last six England managers, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Fabio Capello, Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and current incumbent Gareth Southgate are interviewed in the documentary, describing what the job does or did entail along with the prestige and pitfalls that come with it.
Both of those were fleeting in the case of Allardyce, whose 67 day reign ended with him leaving the job by mutual agreement in September 2016 – this after an entrapment scandal when undercover journalists posing as businessmen filmed the England manager allegedly offering advice on how to circumnavigate Football Association (his employer) rules on player third party ownership.
Although he was cleared of any wrong doing by a City of London Police review, Allardyce takes time in his interview to state once again he broke no rules or accepted any money in relation to the matter, but admits: ‘I didn’t cover myself in glory.’
Of the four recent England managers to speak, Allardyce comes across as the one who most regrets no longer having the job – his disappointment at not lasting longer in a role he coveted for a long time, offset by the fact he should never have put himself in such a vulnerable position in the first place.
Whether he would have made a successful England manager is now only the stuff of hypothetical debate, victory in his one game in charge nothing but a footnote in the story of a national team who have spent much of the past fifty years in a state of flux – rarely able to find a blend where the right coach is in charge of a talented and/or responsive group of players.
Aside from 1966 when England had four world class players (Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton and Jimmy Greaves) and in Alf Ramsey a shrewd manager, there have only been two other occasions when the mix has looked something approaching potent – those being the successive reigns of Terry Venables (1994-96) and Glenn Hoddle (1996-99), both of whom were tactically astute and respected by the players, each one leaving the job prematurely for reasons unconnected to football.
Due to legal issues connected to his business affairs, Venables departed after guiding a strong England team through to the semi-finals of Euro 96 and Hoddle for making known his personal beliefs on reincarnation, of all things.
Former FA Spokesman David Davies admits to the documentary more should have been done by the governing body to keep Venables in post, while for remarks that were admittedly ill-advised Hoddle was forced out by pressure stemming mainly from tabloid and political indignation – as if newspapers or politicians never make tactless comments.
Almost twenty years on, being an important football manager who said or says insensitive things hardly makes Hoddle a unique case.
Beginning with Don Revie (74-77) who had been a highly successful club manager with Leeds United for the previous ten years, the FA went for the ‘safe hands‘ option – Ron Greenwood (1977-82), Bobby Robson (1982-90), Graham Taylor (1990-93) and Kevin Keegan (1999-2000) – when for at least half of that time the most talented manager in the field by a mile, Brian Clough, was shamefully never given serious consideration, something ‘The Impossible Job‘ programme chooses to avoid.
Which is not overlook the achievements of Sir Bobby in taking England to the 1990 World Cup semi-finals. But only two years earlier, with an arguably better team, they seriously under-performed at the 1988 European Championships and following a poor performance in the opening game of Italia 90 there were widespread reports of the players taking charge of tactics.
Robson, a fatherly figurehead, left the job with some platitudes which could not be said of his successor Graham Taylor, who had enjoyed a degree of high-level success at club level, but whose spell in charge of England was littered with errors in selection and use of unimaginative tactics. Neither of which, however, were deserving of the appalling treatment he received from sections of the media.
In an era when the popular press were engaged in an all-out circulation war, Robson and Taylor were both victims of some crass headlines. The England team boss joined Lady Di, Fergie, Dirty Den, Eddie the Eagle, Jason & Kylie and a succession of England cricket captains as tabloid fodder, each man retaining their dignity as they were mocked unmercifully in the wake of bad results.
While Robson and Taylor both endured some horrible low points it should also be remembered their time in charge coincided, for the most part, with the ban of English clubs from European football – and although hindsight would suggest it had a detrimental effect on keeping up with how football on the continent was developing, it is interesting to note England qualified for both of the World Cups and European Championships that were held while the ban was in force.
When an abject England were beaten by Germany in a World Cup qualifier at Wembley in October 2000, Keegan, who never seemed entirely at ease in the job bit the bullet, resigning before most of the crowd had left the stadium.
In a rare statement of positive intent, the FA announced they were seeking a manager well versed in modern, progressive football – which did not discount the possibility of turning to a foreign coach.
Despite the FA taking soundings from senior England players on whom they thought was best qualified to take things forward (which produced a resounding endorsement of Venables) these views were ignored – with the position offered to and accepted by Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Swedish manager of Italian Serie A club Lazio.
Initially the appointment looked a good one, England putting a faltering World Cup campaign back on track with an outstanding 5-1 win in the return fixture against Germany and eventually securing qualification to the 2002 tournament.
But in the weeks proceeding the competition the private life of the England manager became the stuff of lurid headlines – and there was the FA fearful the return of Venables would bring the organisation into disrepute.
Performances in Japan and Korea then raised questions regarding Eriksson’s tactical nous as England produced a couple of laboured displays in the group stage – before being unable to overcome a Brazil side reduced to ten men and there for the taking in the quarter-finals.
If selecting centre-forward Emile Heskey as part of a midfield quartet was innovation, it made Alf Ramsey a nuclear physicist for his wingless wonders philosophy. Eriksson appeared to take the view that managing England involved picking what he considered the eleven best players and telling them to play in a 4-4-2 formation – everything depending on Plan A as there was no Plan B.
Hence what became known as a ‘golden generation‘ of England players failed to go anywhere close to winning a major tournament, suffering quarter-final exits (both on penalties) at the European Championships of 2004 and World Cup in 2006 after which Eriksson and England parted company – the decision made public some weeks earlier, a breach of confidence that clearly rankles with the Swede to this day.
‘When it was decided I would leave after the (2006) World Cup,’ he tells the ‘Impossible Job‘ documentary, ‘I asked the FA not to announce the name of the next coach until after the tournament – but they didn’t listen.’
Eriksson admits to knowing head coach Steve McClaren was keen on taking the job so when it was made public he would be the next to take charge, England went to the 2006 World Cup with the current and next manager in the dressing room.
Whether the FA ignored Eriksson’s request for secrecy as revenge for continuing newspaper revelations about the company he was keeping or announced McClaren would be his successor for purposes of continuity is open to debate – but either way it backfired.
Under McClaren England failed to progress from an easy qualifying group for the 2008 European Championships – which inevitably left them seeking another new manager before 2007 was out.
Appointed to the job was Italian Fabio Capello, a highly successful club manager in Italy and Spain who easily guided England through to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. But once there the rigid 4-4-2 formation insisted upon by the coach made for ponderous football that Germany ruthlessly exposed in the last sixteen.
With the players at his disposal it was no surprise England easily qualified for the 2012 European Championships, but with their place in the finals assured, Capello resigned after a disagreement with the FA. Roy Hodgson stepped into the breach but was unable to prevent a familiar story – England leaving the tournament at the quarter-final stage after losing to Italy on penalties.
Under Hodgson England adopted a more counter-attacking approach, yet early signs of promise were eclipsed by growing defensive frailties that Italy and Uruguay exploited at the 2014 World Cup, England finishing bottom of their qualifying group.
The emergence of a talented group of young players in the months leading up to the 2016 European Championships gave rise to guarded optimism as the tournament approached – an eye-catching 3-2 win over Germany in Berlin suggesting the burden of expectation that had blighted many England performances down the years was finally beginning to lift.
But precious little of the freedom England displayed in defeating the World Champions was evident at Euro 2016 and after three nervy displays in the group stages, many of the same players who had excelled against Germany were found wanting in terms of fortitude – and lacking leadership went meekly out of the tournament at the hands of Iceland in the last 16.
The weight of history was not lost on Capello when he recalled his time as manager: ‘I have fond memories of my England adventure,’ he says at one point in the documentary, ‘but the shirt of the national team can weigh down heavily on the shoulders of the players.’
But in the final analysis does it really matter how the England team fare and by extension who the manager is? The muted response to inglorious exits they have made from the last two major tournaments is all the evidence anyone needs to judge how far the stock of the national side has fallen.
Given that club football is now all pervasive and with a new Premiership fixture list already in circulation, how many will be genuinely saddened when Gareth Southgate and his charges make their exit from the current World Cup? Apart from pubs, bookmakers and supermarkets, who will feel more than a pang of disappointment – before urging the teams they support to spend millions in the transfer window as a new domestic season approaches?
In the aftermath of Italia 90 when a Gazza-inspired England reached the last four, The FA published their ‘Blueprint For Football‘. It included such bold pronouncements as the formation of a 16-club top division that would result in fewer games for the top players, who in theory should then feel fresher when playing for England.
Thus would be removed another obstacle from the path of a national team, the premise being the whole game benefits when England do well.
And we all know how that ended.
Managing the England team may not be an impossible job – but putting all the elements in place to create a successful one might just be.
This article was first published on June 22 2018.
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