English national soccer team management, what is wrong and who should be next?

The recruitment process for the new coach begins now and we will do everything to get the right man for the job."

A line that has been trotted out many times before by various Football Association chairmen - but this comment, made by current incumbent Geoff Thompson to announce the sacking of Steve McClaren, highlights just one of the many problems that have blighted the once proud national game.

England, quite frankly, don't need a "new coach" - they need a manager, someone who can organise the team, who can pick players in the right position, who can act in the best interests of the team as opposed to the media.



It would also help if the people at the top also had some sort of footballing knowledge.

Brian Barwick, the C.E.O and a television executive who is a fan of football but ill-qualified to appoint the next England manager when compared to the likes of Sir Trevor Brooking, came out with all the usual lines.

An apology to the nation. We care passionately. It'll never happen again.

But it will happen again if football knowledge continued to be criminally ignored.

Sir Trevor Brooking, the F.A. Technical Director, has to report to many sub-committees, one of which hadn't met for two years.

With "passion" like that, who needs enemies?

The blazers have far too much of a say in the matter - the likes of David Dein and Sir David Richards, people with too many destructive influences at heart, were allowed to interfere with the messy and public process that was used to select the less-than-inspiring choice of McClaren.

This problem seems to be eradicated at face value - Barwick has been given sole responsibility to identify McClaren's successor by the F.A.

But even then Barwick would have to recommend his choice to the F.A. Board, which could quite conceivably mean that he could be swayed into altering his stance by a bunch of faceless men, many of whom football's man and woman in the street will never have heard of.

If the FA were to fail this time round, Thompson should refer his "root and branch examination" to his own board and ensure that they all walk the plank.

Then we come to the problems on the pitch - this is where it really matters after all.

Last weekend in the Premier League (24/11/07), only 36% of those in the starting eleven were qualified to play for England.

At this rate, it's measurable to say that future managers will have to select from The Championship and, god-forbid, League One.

There must also be concerns as to whether the players coming through have the technical ability needed to compete at international level.

Croatia were assured and controlled in possession; whenever England were under pressure - and that was frequently - they resorted to the kick and rush football seen up and down the country on a Sunday morning at amateur level.

Who should be next? It would seem that Brian Barwick would have a foreign candidate in mind, having stated that he is in pursuit of "a World-class manager".

That would seemingly rule out the likes of Harry Redknapp and Steve Coppell, and any other English manager working at the top level at present - the last Englishman to manage a top four side was Roy Evans, back in 1998 when he was joint-manager at Liverpool with Frenchman Gerard Houllier.

Fabio Cappello, Jose Mourinho and Martin O'Neill, the only British candidate with half a chance, but who has also stated his lack of interest, are perceived to be the front-runners.

But whoever comes in needs to have a passion to sort out all the problems from top-to-bottom, with perhaps various English coaches in tandem so we have some home-grown successors for the future.

This was Ron Greenwood's plan in 1982 for the World Cup; Don Howe, Bobby Robson and Terry Venables were all involved in the set-up and Greenwood felt this method was the way to go.

But the toothless authorities abandoned that idea then; they can't afford to make similar mistakes this time around.