The Trials & Tribulations of being a England Supporter

 I watched the 1966 World Cup Final on television with my two sons, and while we were jubilant with the result it was only what we had expected and anything less than a convincing victory was never in our thoughts.

 However, since that day, I have sadly watched a succession of excellent young players run themselves into the ground during the English team’s long and inevitable slide into obscurity. The ignominy of failing to qualify for Euro-2008 is only a few games away, and under the current coaching methods and management style it is sadly predictable.

 An era of dark and empty days of watching future championships without an English side will then follow. Furthermore, just like the countless decades since the tennis world feared an Englishman, without draconian changes at the very top of the FA and right down to coaching staff level, it will be a long time before footballing-nations once again fear an English team.

 In 1966, we had some of the best players in the world with a highly respected manager who knew exactly how to extract 120% from his team and would brook no interference whatsoever.

 I once played football against Tommy Lawton and I even scored a goal, but this was in the early days of WWII when most of the English team were under the protection of the Army. I was only 3-years old and had Matt Busby of Scotland, who was in the
Army Physical Training Corps, on my side! Playing for England used to be a highly sought after honour, but today it is seen as a punishment by players who mooch around the turf with attitudes that show only too well they would much rather be elsewhere.

 After all, who wants to play football for a bunch of losers?

 The miserable, lack-lustre performance of most English players in all our recent games is going to get worse, and even the occasional win cannot reverse the trend. I know little more about football coaching and management than a cabbage, but I’ll guarantee that left to myself I could select and coach a team to perform better than any we have seen for many a year.

 But therein lies the problem, because I could not and would not be left to myself. One wonders how successful Christopher Columbus, Genghis Kahn, or Napoleon would have been with a management committee hassling their every move and a manual to follow that was written by people who didn’t even know what problems needed to be overcome never mind how to overcome them.

 Great football managers in the English football leagues produce great teams and fantastic results because they manage without interference from their superiors. Woe betides the director who tries to give the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson instructions on how to manage his team! Since the formation of the English Premier League, we have seen a succession of excellent managers fail to produce good results—not because of their incompetence, but because of interference and instructions from board level.

 There is no doubt that eventually heads will roll in English football. However, it will be the heads of the hapless coach and his assistant—who have lost all sense of direction and couldn’t make a right decision if they were told the answer—and not those of the bloated superiors at the FA, who are safe and happy with their sinecures. When a company returns a succession of bad results the shareholders call for the resignation of directors and managers, after all, they own the company.

 Well, as owners of the FA, we must now call for the resignation of everybody involved, because we have suffered four decades of misery under their leadership, and I for one don’t want there to be a fifth! It really does seem true that people are promoted to a level of incompetence, where they are then left to spend the rest of their days, comforted by the knowledge that they will never lose their job.

 Future managers or coaches of English football team should be selected by the people who know and love football—the annual season ticket holders at all our league clubs. Any person who considers they have the qualifications and experience to manage and coach the English team should be able to pay the fee and register their name for ballot.

 Then let the supporters decide who is best for the job, because the FA sure as hell cannot!

Article Source: http://www.theukarticledirectory.co.uk