MOST of the public agree with David Beckham that it does not matter whether England’s next football manager is home-grown, but that is unlikely to sway influential figures at the Football Association. One spoke out yesterday with a call for “a British manager” to restore some passion, which was hugely encouraging for Martin O’Neill.
As one of the three men deputed to draw up the shortlist of candidates, Dave Richards, the FA Premier League chairman and FA board member, has plenty of clout and he made no secret of the fact that he is strongly steering the organisation away from another foreign coach — a position that is shared by several of his senior colleagues. “Obviously I do believe it’s time for a British manager,” he said. “I think — and this is a personal opinion — that it’s time to have somebody who understands the passion and the belief and the commitment to the game.”
The clear inference was that Sven-Göran Eriksson lacks that understanding. Many England supporters will nod in agreement and yet, according to a new Populus poll for The Times, most fans want the best man for the job, regardless of nationality.
Not so Richards, whose argument is easy to support as long as O’Neill, the favourite at Soho Square, is in the running. The former Northern Ireland player is known to be interested and, despite his wife’s illness, he hopes to return to work in the foreseeable future. Yet should he turn it down or be forced to declare himself unavailable, it may prove foolish to ignore the claims of Guus Hiddink alongside Stuart Pearce, Sam Allardyce and Alan Curbishley.
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No formal approaches are expected before the FA board meets at the end of the month, but, significantly as far as O’Neill is concerned, Richards said that there was “no distinction” between British and English. He also added that “Sven’s track record has been brilliant”, although he is from the camp who believe that Eriksson has allowed himself to be distracted because of his nationality.
In contrast, the Populus poll, undertaken last weekend, shows that the English love affair with foreign football managers continues, despite the rows and scandals of Eriksson’s five-year tenure.
Nearly two thirds of adults aged over 18 agree that “there is no reason why the next England manager should be English or British — he could be any nationality”. More good news for O’Neill is that fewer than a fifth think that it is important that the next manager should be English, rather than Scottish, Welsh or Irish. A further 12 per cent say that the next manager does not have to be English, but “it is important he is British”.
There are, however, big variations depending on age, location and social class. Working-class pensioners living in the North are much more likely to take a English nationalist view, while middle-class young people in London and the South East are most likely to have a more cosmopolitan outlook.
The diversity of opinions is such that, while Barwick is known to favour a British manager, David Dein, the Arsenal vice-chairman and an influential board member, has put forward the case for “Big Phil” Luiz Felipe Scolari, who won the 2002 World Cup inSouth Korea and Japan with Brazil. Pearce has described his inclusion as “absolutely pathetic” and yet he may be the most popular English candidate with backers willing to overlook his inexperience.
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As the debate goes on, English fans are mourning the death of Ron Greenwood, who led the national team between 1977 and 1982. As West Ham United’s manager in the early 1960s, he also had an influence on England’s 1966 World Cup triumph through his players, Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore and Martin Peters.