I usually shrug off England results immediately, but something about this one has stayed with me.
I think it's because of the hubris. We all take great delight in seeing clubs like Chelsea and Man United fail, but it's especially sweet when they fail despite employing loads of expensive and very clever experts to make certain of success. When they fail because they appointed loads of experts... Well, that's just perfect.
I now see that in England and the FA. The England managers job used to be the pinnacle of the domestic game, the natural reward and honour for the best English manager (at least in theory). That was kind of the point. The manager, like the players, was the best our football could muster to represent us.
The FA f***ed that off when they appointed Sven. I'm not especially patriotic and certainly not very nationalistic, but to me there's no point in national representative football if you then import the expertise for money.
They justify it by saying they want the best manager they can get. They've appointed Capello, now Tuchel too. They've tried for Wenger, Guardiola, Mourinho. Not only do English managers not get good club jobs in England, the national football association, who oversees English coach development, won't ring fence it's own job for them. We've just sort of come to accept it, but it's very questionable. If we'd won the tournament it would have been a triumph for German coaching. Still, they've decided and that's the end of it. No need to try and assess public opinion. They know best.
Then, this mad idea that if we just pay enough money to an 'elite' coach it'll get us over the line. Sven was pretty successful as a club manager. Capello was a legend. Tuchel's won big things. End result? Much the same as ever. No different really to when Robson or Southgate did it. Could it possibly be that an 'elite' coach is actually usually just one with the best players? Could it be that top, successful club managers don't necessarily make successful, or even good, international ones? Is it irrelevant that the most successful England manager of the modern age had none of that top level experience?
Why do the FA continue to look internationally for the most expensive, biggest name when there's no evidence it makes much difference?
I think they are in thrall to the the cult of the expert. They are like the failing big clubs, they believe if they hire enough expertise they can impose control. You can't. There is no pattern to football success. They might as well start praying to some ancient sun God or something. Just accept that past a certain point, you're simply wasting money.
As a football nation we spent a kings ransom on the national team in terms of management , staff, facilities and resources, much of which could have gone into youth pitches. I haven't seen a single return on that money that we couldn't have got anyway. They could have provided the players with the bare minimum support and coaching staff, faxed through a team sheet before the game, left them to it and we'd have been no worse off.
They say an expert can be defined as someone able to convince you that you can't do it yourself. That you need them, because it's so complicated. That's what's happened to football generally, and especially to the big clubs. It's the definition of corporate foolishness and waste. Fine. f*** the big clubs. To see the FA emersed in it is different.
England
