It is odd, because I don't pay much attention to England. They have performed pretty well in tournaments yet still Southgate is routinely derided as an idiot.
At the Euros they came as close to winning a tournament as you can. Pity the players bottled taking a penalty and left it to kids and subs.
He's never been a popular choice though as many, with some justification, believe him to be an out-of-his-depth yes-man who ought to have no business leading such a great crop of players. Not even sure if actually winning the Euros would've helped; people would simply have demanded the World Cup on top as a bare minimum. (The kids taking penalties-thing was actually smart; they had no baggage).
Similar situation to Jogi Löw with Germany; they hardly left the tournament podium in a decade but his critics still felt he was a failure, that he should actually have won them all.
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
I'm not sure what a good international manager looks like. It seems like a stupid and thankless job. You have no time with the players so you are really just picking a team and making a speech. Get stuck in, play for the badge, we can beat these etc
I think Venables was good at it because he had the ability to get simple ideas across to players quickly. But modern coaches, and their tactics, physical preparation etc.... it just isn't possible to recreate that.
Piece of piss, you'd think. Wear the blazer & tie, belt out the National Anthem and the job's a good 'un.
Today we simply have no footballistic ( ) identity that everybody buys into, unlike the Italians and the Germans, say. Or even the French. Our game has sadly been corrupted by foreigners for far too long and nowadays we don't know whether we are coming or going.
I blame Wenger, even though he WAS instrumental in delivering Brexit, as a small consolation.
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
We have a group of strong technical players now- saka, foden, grealish, bellingham, rashford etc. And a top class centre forward who wins a free kick every time someone glares at him.
We are not exactly blessed with the beat defenders but they are not bad. Shedding our football identity was well overdue.
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."