Next England Manager

It's even taken Saints' fans a few seasons to work this out. Our previous Chairman, Nicola Cortese, said that we were going to be run in a different way with an organisation which meant we wouldn't blow in the wind if personnel left. No man is bigger than the club. Fine words, but that is what has happened at Southampton. Our mantra is 'We March On'.....seems like a sound bite which looks pretty on posters....but it is how the club is run. Dust yourself off and march on.

 

Phil brown wants to be big Sam's number 2, please god no!!

 

i wouldn't want to ruin Eddie Howe's career this early.

 

I'm quite aware of the FA's apparent attitude and I do understand you have to start yet again, just when you found a manager who fitted your needs. Apart from a couple of teams in London and Manchester and the odd one in Liverpool, no club is safe. They're too important it appears. Hope Moyes does you some good,

 

Why would it ruin his career?

 

Sammy Lee on the staff, SA quote on BBC Sportsday "Sammy Lee is going me for a second time and I will rely on his international experience. He will join me."

 

Because he won't be able to take over at Saints in a few years .

 

Because he doesn't need that millstone at this stage in his career right now. At the moment he is relatively fantastically successful at AFC Bournemouth and nowhere else. That's not to say that he wouldn't be, but let's let him have a few years of ups and downs to harden him into a manager who can take the good and bad together. Besides, I'm selfish for AFCB.
I'm not sure Howe was ever in the frame, but I suspect he would have had the good sense to turn the job down anyway. I'm not suggesting never. Just not now.

England need a strong leader. For far too long they have had Yes men [besides Capello], and each appointment has been all about getting the players to play to their potential, rather than the usual underwhelming stuff, with the occasional proper performance which makes people believe [not me, and I suspect not you] that all is once again well. So it is not about style, but about leadership. A strong leader may be able to turn around this England Disease juggernaut, which continues to roll on to more self inflicted damage. The failure of properly capable players to play at anything like their potential continues to dumbfound, but to me it is the combination of playing favourites out of form and fitness, playing favourites out of position, playing players who cannot fit into the team, playing players without each individual really knowing exactly what his job is, and therefore no real detailed plan.

But let me get back to Howe and Allardyce. There's no doubt Eddie has huge potential and talent, and promotes excellent modern football, but will he have the respect of Rooney and Co.? And by trickle down, the others in any squad.? Howe has to show a real measure of success in the Premier League before he'll get the respect he deserves from England players, rightly or wrongly. He'd do wonders with an U21 squad, but what a waste that would be [I'm doing the AFCB thing again].
Allardyce has been there, done it, and achieved, albeit with teams of lesser players overall, and he's never had the chance with a top team. Myself, I'm not a fan of his default cautious style, but he has often also chosen styles that suit the group of players he's had available rather than imposing styles that his players can't play. Hence he's pragmatic. That's a quality I like. He's also a strong leader who does not leave anything to chance, because of his attention to detail. England have never appointed such an English manager as Allardyce, never having the balls to let a manager ruffle feathers, and when they did, with Capello, they effectively sided with the players. And they've only given Allardyce two years anyway, so he has to deliver or get out. If he can solve the equation of English players playing badly for England at important times then he will have done more service to the job than half a dozen others. And perhaps, in 5 to 6 years time, Eddie Howe can jump into a position where his talents can fully exploit a rejuvenated England setup, having proven his pedigree.

 

That was the downside of Bournemouth getting promoted. I had always earmarked him as a Saints boss.

 

This is where I may be different to most. Your post above still falls into the English trap for me. You talk of someone having to manage the Rooney's of this world and needing a strong man manager. Well that just keeps us in the short term vision again and I want us to move away from that. Rooney as an example, now finds himself in the 'not the future' club and the first thing Sam has done is publicly declare that he stays as captain - so much for feather ruffling.

My reason for giving it to Howe is that he is young, fresh and a hugely upwardly modern coach. I'd give him a long term project and build. You talk about it being a millstone. It shouldn't be and doesn't need to be. We need to change the approach and build properly and in my lifetime we have never done that. It's always been a similar thing. Sam will Briand the same old thing in my view. Yes I think he's a strong character, perhaps a stubborn character too set in his ways, but the very first thing he's done in naming Rooney before holding a single squad event doesn't bode too well in the "being his own man" front. That's just one little thing.

For me the appointment tells me that the FA don't think we have a problem with the type of footballer we produce. That's where I think it's wrong.

Sam won't stamp a style on English football that we can work with for the next 20 years, he'll get a group of players to become "effective" in getting a number of results in qualifying and when we reach a finals I believe it will be the same old problems. We don't need someone now to implement a short term "effective in getting results plan," we need a proper long term development of a team plan.

Many people won't agree with me (partly why we are where we are) as I am in a minority in my belief in this, but it is what I believe.

 

Actually, I agree with an awful lot of what you write. However, I don't see that we can't deal with the problem on two fronts. Sam Allardyce for now and short term, and behind the scenes independant staff working for the distant future. In which case you could also possibly nominate Gareth Southgate.

 

I'm American, so I definitely think Southampton is more important than England!

I completely understand your position, though. My post was tongue in cheek.

But my point is that while I think it's unfair, I think the smart thing to do is suck it up and talk about how proud you are to see such a fine man recognized, etc.

It's supposed to be an honor to play for or manage England-- everyone's dream. So you risk coming across as petty if it seems you are standing in the way of that or in some way not happy with it. It's pretty much impossible to win a battle against the FA (which is why they are so bad), but even harder when your position doesn't play so well from a PR standpoint.

It sucks, but this is probably not a battle to try to take on.

 

Erm you do realise this has been sorted now right?

 

I didn't go to one of them,wish it had been all three,he was a boring manager at club level.I do like his enthusiasm toward his new job though, maybe just maybe he'll get England going again it might just be the right job for him,let's hope so.

 

The two games we had against Wham in the championship were two of the most intriguing contests of that season imo. Two finely balanced games and on both occasions they nearly, but not quite, stopped us from playing. At St Mary's we reduced them to lots of long balls up to Carew, but they looked like scoring every time they broke. A tribute to our defence that they didn't.

Somerimes fats, you focus so hard on percieved negatives that you are blind to all positives. West Ham under Allardyce and Pelle under Koeman being two examples.

 

Thanks Archers. Saved me a trip to the couch this week

That first game was fascinating I agree, but still ugly and the year after even worse. I must share my perceived negativity with my mate, the West Ham fan who came to those games with me and left declaring his embarrassment. Just because a game is intriguing, doesn't mean the football is good.

What I'll agree to is that when Sam finally took off his midfield Giants and replaced one of them with Mark Noble for the last 20 minutes of that first game, they started to really play. Perhaps I just perceived that they left out their best ball player that night too eh?

 

I think this last part is incredibly unfair. You make that sound like I never saw what Pelle did well and that is entirely wrong. I was one of the first to acknowledge when he played well and certainly full of praise and thanks just a week or so ago when he was sold.

I may be very opinionated but I would say it is wrong to say I am blind to things and suggest I never admit when something is different to what I've said. I always try and look at the other side too. There aren't too many that do that here.

 

Well you don't overreact and have a hissy fit when people challenge your views, I'll give you that.

Still think you had a blind spot about both Wham under Big Sam, and Pelle though. It's all a matter of perception; to me, despite their flaws, both were a lot better than you ever gave them credit for. That doesn't necessarily make you wrong and me right, it just means we looked at the same thing with different eyes.

As for anti football, well I used to love watching Italian football in the eighties and nineties, & I loved watching the Chelsea side that ground their ugly way to the C L title four years ago. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

Fair enough. I did give plenty of credit to Pelle though.