England is out from Euro 2008 –So What?

Now back to square again, England is looking for a new manager for their national team. As per the wish of English media, Steve McClaren was sacked after losing to Croatia and edging out from the Euro 2008. Nearly after a week, still the Football Association of England hasn’t decided whether they should look for an English man or a foreigner as the new manager. Print, TV and web media is pouring names as per their interest, suggesting how FA should approach the next manager, and criticizing the authorities for not listening to their words at last time when they picked Steve McClaren.

Now the Draw for the qualifying round of European teams to next World Cup –in South Africa is also over. Interestingly, England again grouped in with Croatia for the qualifying round. Media toasted up this as a chance of revenge against Croatia, and some famous footballers also echoed this nonsense. The qualifying rounds will start by next year and it is better, before it starts English FA should come out with a new manager.

Anatomy of the failure is still going on. Each and every pundit are writing as per their feelings about the failure and suggesting how to play or how manager should pick up players for the match against Croatia. Before the match, the approach was different. Even though the press and pundits were not happy with McClaren, they were happy with the result of match between Russia and Israel. When Russia lost to Israel, everybody in England expected that their team is through to the finals. They required just a draw against Croatia and everyone expected they will defeat Croatia and will end up as the group leaders. No one expected that the team who plays only for a draw will end up in misery. They forgot the cardinal rule of football –always play for victory.

Once the match got over, England lost in all terms. They lost to Croatia in both legs and also slipped their place in world cup seeding list. World cup qualifying draw of last week provided some breathing space for senior players in the English squad. After a long pause, they started emotionally responding to lose of Euro and future in World Cup. Now, interestingly, the responses and comments from English authorities and players are very close to the statements of Crusade days. One of the senior most player in the squad, who is in self imposed exile in US, declared that the world cup draw is an opportunity to do the revenge against Croatia. This former England captain claimed that ‘he is looking for World Cup revenge on Croatia after they dumped England out of the qualifying stages of Euro 2008’. FA Chief Executive Brian Barwick echoed the same in different way by saying 'it's an opportunity at a competitive level to pit our wits against a team that did us twice and an opportunity for the new coach when he's with us so see whether he can turn around our fortunes against a very good team’. English striker Michael Oven went one step ahead with arrogance to compare the Croatian team with English by saying “none of the Croatia players would get into the England team”.

Above mentioned statements shows the arrogance of English players and reveals that they are still in an imaginary world and will take much more time to come down to reality. Before the match between Israel and Russia, Russian manager Guss Hiddink said, England team doesn’t deserve to be in the finals of Euro, but he lost. I accept, Russia also doesn’t deserve a place in the finals like England but they are in. It was on England’s expense, Russia made it. But the arrogant statement from Russian team manager never went into the minds of English authorities. He was right in saying so, because Russia managed a draw against Croatia in their both legs and at the end, they lost one match less than England in total.

I love English football, especially premier league. But, very sorry to say, for the last few years, though they talk about golden generation, they were mediocre. Just because of the tactics of Sven Ericksson than the performance of the team, they reached in the quarters of World Cup in Germany. But, the power of media urged Eriksson to move out from the position and install their favoured “English Man” as manager. What went wrong with McClaren? Still people are debating such issues; pundits are providing their own versions. Interestingly, nobody is ready to accept the fact that Croatia was a superior team at least for the day… They played fantastic football and dominated in all aspects over England. Yes, most of the senior English players were injured and not playing in the team, still, the expectation on this football nation never reached to its potential.

Now I can start my anatomy on these issues. I am seriously watching English football for more than two decades. Currently, football in England means Premier League football. Other than EPL, everything is secondary for the authorities and the media. Everyone knows, it is just because of the revenue generated from the EPL. The revenue attracts better players from outside and that attracts more viewers and they generate more revenue for FA and clubs. The national football comes to lime light only when they are engaged in qualifying rounds in Euro or World Cup or in international friendly. Beyond this, everything is about EPL only.

The feeling of ‘Englishness’ appears only in the nonsense debate on the number of foreign players playing for clubs. Whenever England lose against any national team, the media will bring the issue of English quota in the clubs and drag the attention to it. Issue is much beyond this aspect. They are lying with the FA, their management, and planning abilities. They should change the approach of ‘picking the best players from the domestic league and creating a team in urgency’. They should invest money and effort in nurturing young prospering players for the country. Clubs will take effort for their purpose, but nation also should take initiative or join hands with clubs in finding players. They should have a proper plan to approach qualifiers.

In my observation, I will pick up few factors and analyze the causes of the failure of England. For narrowing down the approach, I will pick up three factors which were lacking in the English team throughout the campaign. They are Consistency, Motivation, and Teamwork, the areas where one good manager have a big say. Consistency is the key factor of success in the qualifying round. Motivation will come next. Team work, the aspect which is completely absent, is another key aspect of any team in their success. In a nutshell, if the manager is good enough to merge these three factors in proper composition he will succeed in his work.  McClaren failed to prepare a planned approach and include the above mentioned factors in the qualifying campaign. Sven proved he was more successful in this.

We hope, the selection of next manager will fulfill those missing aspects and English FA will be able to bring an expereinced hand who can deal the English Stars in proper way.