Red Watch: Some don't want England to make it

Nov 21 2007 by Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post

AS THE nation settles down in front of the telly for another night of teeth-grinding, nail-biting agony that is the curse of being remotely interested in the fortunes of the national team, you could be forgiven for harbouring a sneaking feeling that not everyone watching will be devastated if we fail to garner the single point which will see us entering Austria and Switzerland next summer, if not quite by the back door, then certainly while the doorman’s paying the milk bill.

The broadcast and printed media have not been short of those who seek to profit f rom the misfortunes of our national team, and its beleaguered manager in particular, through the venting of their esteemed opinions on what’s wrong with English football, the England team, and the situation in Iran.

Particular prominence has been given to the views of Paul Parker (ex-manager of Welling United) and his view that it would be good for English football if we failed to qualify, conveniently ignoring the desire of some 15 million people to have something interesting to do in June.

Radio Five Live turned to their resident England baiters Chris Waddle (ex- player-manager of Burnley, who he narrowly failed to get relegated in 1998) and Terry Butcher (sacked by Coventry, Sunderland, and Sydney, currently piloting Brentford to 16th place in League Two) for an in-depth analysis of just where Steve McClaren is going wrong.

It’s pretty clear that, should the national team do well, the demand for pop- singing, ex-mullet wearing wingers and blood-soaked defenders will be in serious decline, so we shouldn’t really be surprised at the passionate diatribes such experienced practitioners launch when given air-time.

Likewise the national Press, for whom manager- baiting has become their prime source of copy.

The apparent humiliation of relying on minnows such as Israel to help us out of the group stages has been almost too much for them to bear, an affront to our proud tradition of international success, winning as we have as many major tournaments as, er, Denmark and Greece.

The unrealistic expectation which is the burden of every England manager even lead one respected national columnist this week to criticise McClaren for the ‘defensive mismanagement’ during those fateful four minutes in Russia.

True, I clearly remember McClaren shouting at Wayne Rooney to cling to Zurianov’s shirt, and instructing Robinson to spoon Berezutsky’s shot into the path of Pavlyuchenko.

I suppose I’m wasting my breath calling for a little restraint and calm analysis in these days of instant success or failure, black-or- white situations and media hysteria, but before we hang McClaren out to dry, we’d do well to consider the environment he, and indeed future England managers, have to operate in.

Like him or loathe him, the result in Israel was the first bit of luck he’s experienced in the whole campaign, bar maybe the Russians’ disallowed goal at Wembley.

Most of his best players have been injured at one time or other, and he’s been similarly denied the chance to blood the likes of Aaron Lennon.

The lack of depth of quality English players in the Premier League has been well documented; hence the presence of Smith, Downing and Jenas in the squad, journeymen all.

Though we might like to, we can’t blame McClaren for this; it’s the life we’ve chosen, a fixture-packed, harum-scarum, foreigner-full Premier League that’s exciting to watch but not conducive to producing home-grown technical skills that are the minimum requirement in international football.

It’s ludicrous and counter- productive to advocate that failure tonight would spark a long period of soul- searching which would result in a system whose prime focus was to promote the interests of the national team; the self-interest of the Premiership clubs would scupper that.

So let’s just cheer for a victory tonight, if only to give Chris Waddle the chance to supplement his pension next June.