england v germany it is then

The FACT cannot be ignored that Capello and Ericksson have achieved the best wins per games played ratio of all the England managers: Capello, around 71% and Ericksson, 68%.

The worst was Sir Bobby Robson with only 50% and even Sir Alf Ramsey (the only one to win us a World Cup) only stands at 60%.

Appointing an English manager means nothing except to those numpties who struggle with a foreign accent at press conferences.

Appointing the right manager is the only path to follow and by appointing the candidate with the best CV gives us the chance to make that "best appointment"If people insist on going down the "English Road" then there is only one credible candidate..........................Roy Hodgson who has worked extensively abroad AND already managed a national team.

Merse, Merse, Merse my dear man if I’m a numptie then so is nearly everyone I have talked to this last few weeks who all have held the view that a national manager of a football team should be able to conduct an interview to a reasonable standard in the native language of the country of the football team he is managing.

If I go into a Chinese restaurant I know I may have to say pardon a few times and I know I will need to speak clearly and as precisely as I can to make sure I get what I wanted, I have great respect for the person serving me as at least he has learned English while it’s the only language I can speak and I know between us we will get there in the end with both of us ending up happy.

Last week when I was out with Carol I was served by two black men in an English takeaway, both were great guys and maybe their English was very good, but its very rare I hear the accent they spoke in and as a result I found myself saying pardon more times than I wanted too, I was not bothered about having to say pardon, I was more concerned they would feel it was their fault and the truth is it may well have been mine. As it turned out when we got the food it was all wrong and as we did not want to make them feel bad about it and as Carol is not as fussy as me when it comes to what we eat, we swopped over our meals. The thing is once again we got it sorted to a satisfactory conclusion, but the difference is those two men are not going to be giving an interview to the whole of the UK.

You said in a post last week that while I could not understand that well what Fabio Capello was saying when he gave interviews the chances were he would not understand anything I ever said. If that is the case and seeing I speak English and no one ever has had a problem understanding me most of the time, using your argument I would suggest to you there is a good chance that Fabio Capello does not understand half of what the England players says to him.

Is it really important how good his English is? Yes I do feel it is when the team failed to produce anything and went out of the world cup without a fight and seemingly not caring that much based on what you posted today about them laughing and joking after getting hammered by the Germans. What fans want to hear is what the man who is getting paid 6 million pounds to get results have to say about it and surely even you must admit his interview after the German game was just pants and not what was required after such a defeat and exit from the world cup. You have to remember over 14.000.000 people in the UK watched the game and listened to his interview.


The man has a wonderful CV, but you hit the nail on the head when you talked about the CREAM he had to pick from when he was a club manager and anyway just because a manager has been very successful at club level does not mean he will be a successful manager of a national side does it? You would think it would give him a great opportunity to do so, but there have been many good club managers in the past that never fulfilled their expectations as a national coach.

Is he able to command the respect needed from a group of all English players? Is he far too stubborn and will not make the changes that are needed just because everyone is saying they are what are needed? Who knows but what is a fact is he has failed for whatever reasons to produce a team worthy of even being in the 2010 world cup and we can blame the players all we want and yes they deserve so much of the blame, but in the end the buck stops with the manager.

Why was there no passion? Where was the pride? Whose job is it to install that into the players? Where were the tactics, the right substitutions? Whose job is to pick the players up at halftime? Can he even do that when he struggles with his English? I don’t know as I’m not in the dressing room but it has to far harder for him to do it than and English manager who knows how to speak and how he will be responded too by fellow English people. Half of the problems Aussie had on here was he did not understand the way we talked and what we meant sometimes when we said certain things in certain ways.


My personal view is he is far to stubborn and that has played a part in the team sprite that was clearly missing, even our own Paul Buckle was guilty of that very crime when he kept playing Hargreaves at the back when it was so clear it was not working. It might be argued he wanted to give it as long as possible to see if it could work, but I believe he just got a bid stubborn. In the end he did change things around again.

I believe its managers like Paul Buckle who really earn their crust of bread, having to make silk purses out of pig’s ears and getting the very best out of players who are never going to ever play in much higher divisions. It has to be a much easier job if the players you have to pick are all world superstars surely?

Dave, the people you talk to are hardly the important factor are they? The people who are relevant in all this are the ones he manages. I said before, English Premiership players have plenty of experience of working under foreign coaches and those at the top clubs almost exclusively so. There are only six English managers out of the twenty strong Premiership roster anyway, and only two of those (Redknapp and Hodgson) who are credible candidates to be manager of the national team.

As for understanding what the manager of the English football manager says during press conferences.......................did anyone ever fathom what Glenn Hoddle was on about and do you want Capello to immitate Steve McLaren and put on a fake English accent whilst speaking Italian?

Looking at the time of your post, why the hell aren't you watchng Brazil ~ do you not appreciate genius?

yes, Carol

too much detail just jealous mate