Do England need an English coach?
Ed Humphreys evaluates the choices facing the FA in their search for the next England manager
This time last week, the big cheeses at Soho Square were musing over the two remaining candidates for the ‘biggest job in football’: Luiz Felipe ‘Big Phil’ Scolari, and Steve ‘Super Coach’ McLaren.
The CVs of the two are very different. On one hand the FA had the multi-paged CV of a highly successful manager who has won the World Cup, the Brazilian league, the Brazilian Cup, South
American Champions League and the South American Supercup. On the other hand, the shorter CV of a Carling Cup winner.
Just because Scolari is not English, does not mean he cannot speak English.
However, Scolari is not English. For some (Howard Wilkinson) this is a big problem. Furthermore, he has never managed in the Premiership. Yet, last year, Rafa Benitez, in his first season in the Premiership, was guiding Liverpool to European glory. It did not take him long to adjust to the English game, with Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher key components of the team.
Also, just because Scolari is not English, does not mean he cannot speak English. Not long ago he told BBC Radio Five, in clear English, that he was an admirer of Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest team of the 1970s and early 1980s.
Martin O’Neill, a member of that Forest side, curiously descended from favourite to outsider as Middlesbrough’s results picked up. The prospect of an England manager being selected on the basis of a couple of admittedly astonishing Uefa Cup comebacks was an alarming one.
The FA appeared to put that part to bed, by choosing the Brazilian. The Gene Hackman lookalike is just what England need.
Scolari’s teams play a passionate, physical game with flare in the right half of the pitch. This style is surely preferable to McLaren’s cautious game designed to disrupt the opposition.
Perhaps the most remarkable Big Phil attribute is that he can make bad players perform. How else can he have turned Kleberson into a World Cup winner? McLaren does not appear to have this string to his bow, despite persisting in playing the uniquely awful Fabio Rochemback.
Scolari twice outwitted England in the last two major championships. In Euro 2004, while Sven Goran Eriksson was bringing on Owen Hargreaves and Phil Neville to give the ball away, Felipe Scolari replaced captain Luis Figo with the once maligned Helder Postiga. Unfortunately, we all know what happened next.
In the post-match press conference, Scolari claimed that his wedding ring signalled a footballing marriage with Portugal. Divorce from Portugal is essential and not altogether impossible. He is still quoted between 8 and 14 to 1 at the bookies.
The Football Association, having set a precedent by paying Sven Goran Eriksson almost five million pounds a year, should not baulk at Scolari’s wage demands. They will be paying for one of the best.
