Managing England: The Impossible Job

The first thing to note is that England's performance in the world cup and the European championships is actually worse than it appears because all the countries that have won the world cups and the Euros have also been runners up a few times. So why is it a nation that claims to have invented the game, that boasts about having the best league in the world fails so badly on the international stage.

It's important to go back to the beginning. To be on the winning side in two world wars and then defeat the Germans in the 1966 final must have been a great feeling. The following year Celtic won the European cup and Manchester united won it in 1968 with Manchester City winning the European cup winners' cup in 1970, it seemed that British football was in good shape. With England being world champions one suspects that a sense of superiority and complacency crept in to the English mindset. It's generally accepted that the 1970 world cup squad was probably better in depth than the one in 1966 and most sports journalists at the time could claim that England were unlucky to lose to a very good Brazilian team. Yet it was in the quarter final against West Germany when England blew a two-goal lead with 20 minutes to go before losing 2-3 to West Germany in extra time that the rot set in. This was reinforced two years later when they were outplayed in the quarter finals in the 1972 Euro tournament by the Germans who went on to win that year and then followed by a labored effort in an easy group to qualify for the 1974 world cup. Needing just a win against Poland at Wembley England only managed a 1-1 draw despite having a dozen good chances to score in one of the most one-sided international matches ever seen. They then followed up by missing out on 1976 Euro tournament as well as the world cup in 1978. Were England now jinxed or had the self-esteem taken such a blow and there was a lack of confidence?? Scotland were the UK's representative in both those world cups and when they failed to progress out of the group stages, there were complaints that the English and Scottish domestic leagues were too long, and players went into the tournaments tired. There didn't seem to be the will to create the environment that would be conducive to the national team. There is so much money in the domestic game that any shortening of the season or taking a mid-season break prior to the international tournaments wouldn't be popular with those that ran the game in the UK.

Something worth mentioning is that from the late 1960's through to the early 1990's most of all the top English clubs were inundated with players from Scotland, Wales and from both sides of the Irish border. In the early 1970's Leeds United and Derby County were big benefactors of this as was Nottingham Forest, Arsenal and Manchester United in the late1970's. For example, in the 1979 FA cup final between Manchester United and Arsenal of the 22 players that took the field only 8 players were eligible to play for England. This accelerated in the very late 1970's with the introduction of players from continental Europe and other parts of the world. Liverpool who was one of England's best club teams also went down this road which resulted by the 1985 European cup final of having only 2 players that were eligible to play for England in contrast to the 1977 European cup final where Liverpool had 9 players that were English. There is no doubt that Scotland having its own league, and this being complimented with Scottish players being able to play for English clubs helped their national team during this period. Northern Ireland qualified to two world cups in the early 1980's, and this was at a time when qualification was harder. The Republic of Ireland had a good team from the mid 1980's to the mid 1990's with largely players who were playing in the English premier league. England were unable to build a national team around the foundation of the top three or four teams in the league because so many players couldn't play for England.

This by contrast to West Germany who had 5 players from Bayern Munich in their team that won the 1974 world cup and in 1982 Italy had 5 Juventus players in the team that won the world cup. In 1984 France had 4 players from Bordeaux and 3 from Monaco that anchored their team that won. In 1988 the Netherlands had 4 players from PSV Eindhoven 2 from Ajax and 2 from Inter Millan. By contrast England who lost to the Netherlands in that tournament never had more than 2 players from the same club a total of 4, the other 7 were from different teams. If you were to tell anybody that London doesn't have one team, not even two, but six they wouldn't believe it. So, from the late 1960's to the early 1990's from terrible pitches, questionable selections, long seasons, loss of confidence and a preference for the long ball game English national aspirations and hopes were always higher than reality because the whole system was working against itself. The greater the success of the league was to the detriment of the national team. This was quite obvious that all England managers have been hamstrung by the way the English league is run, but the press and media have consistently gone after the manager which under the circumstances is cynical move because they of all people knew better. Not all of the England managers were cut out to be national team coaches, but they didn't deserve the ridicule and abuse from the media which encouraged some members of the public to abuse them and their families.

So, there you have it, England came up empty from 1968 to 1990 with one world cup semifinal on the ledger, yet things were only going to get worse. From the sacking of Alf Ramsey in 1974 till the Bobby Robson resigned in 1990 England would have a total of four managers with Don Revie and Ron Greenwood sandwiched in between. In the 1990's alone there was a carousel of five managers Graham Taylor, Terry Venables, Glen Hoddle, Kevin Keegan and Howard Wilkinson. This also was at a time where the Sky sports got the rights to broadcast most of the English premier league matches which eventually resulted in many football clubs giving out salaries on par with their counter parts across the pond in the National Football League. The premier league consequently became a very attractive place for the world's best footballers, but it was the Brosnan ruling in 1995 that in effect put it all on steroids. Footballers from all over Europe were able to play in any country and clubs were also free to sign any players without any restrictions. There was also no salary cap unlike the NFL, therefore clubs with money were able to sign up a collection of international super stars. Despite this by the mid 2000's England national team were labeled by the press and the media "the Golden Generation" and there were high hopes for international success. It all lead to nothing as England tripped up at every event and were finally embarrassed in the 2016 Euros by Iceland. The "Golden Generation were nothing but an over hyped bunch of prima donnas that believed their own press. Putting together a team of all stars and on paper very good players is no substitute for team spirit when huge egos encourage petty rivalries and jealousies between the players.

By 2018 England had a new manager and from then to 2024 they had some relative success with one world cup semifinal and two Euro finals so there are indications that things could be moving in their favor although I suspect not through anything they have done. Germany hasn't competed in a final of an international tournament for 10 years, which for them is unusual. Italy didn't qualify for the 2018 and 2022 world cups and in the 2024 Euro they were knocked in the round of 16 despite being European champions. Brazil hasn't won the world cup since 2002 and although the Netherlands got to the semifinals of the Euros this year they've gone through a bit of a slump the last 12 years too. So, it appears that these four national teams aren't as dominant as they used to be. So maybe there is a silver lining on the horizon for England as all their top players too are scattered around the various European countries.

They'll always be the demand for international football, whether super international club football eventually supersedes international football remains to be seen. The trial balloon of a European league and a world league has been raised but as too yet hasn't taken off. It depends on how countries that play football see the future and if players want to be more loyal to the clubs than they do to their nationality, as for England they made their choice a long time ago and there not going back.

Managing England always ends in failure. Even if you win the World Cup like Alf Ramsey. The trouble with Alf, he should had quit in 1970.

Some like Don Revie went to look for a better payday elsewhere. For most of them it was just disappointment.

There was some who could hold their heads up high. Bobby Robson was disparaged by the press but took England to the semi finals in Italia 1990. Terry Venables had to overcome legal troubles but he took England to semi finals in the European Championships on home turf in 1996.

This was an interesting and sobering look at England football managers shown during the 2018 World Cup. Very few had much to shout about. At least Kevin Keegan was honest of his shortcomings as a national team manager.

A few had no business to be in the top job in the first place. Graham Taylor, Steve McCLaren, Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce. It was not the impossible job for them, they were never up to it.