Big Phil Hounded Out Before He Even Started
Media intrusion. 20 reporters camped outside his house. Alleged death threats. And all before he even signed a contract. Is it any wonder at all that Luiz Felipe Scolari weighed up his options and decided that the England job just wasn’t worth the hassle?
The British tabloid press will be “over the moon” (apologies for the cliche) at getting Johnny Foreigner out of the race and now such luminaries as David Gold of Birmingham, Howard Wilkinson and professional patriotic chest beater Ian Wright will get their wish and get a second choice Englishman as England manager and set their countries’ trophy winning ambitions back another four years or more.
There is no doubt in my mind that once Guus Hiddink (another foreigner!) pulled out of the running to go to Russia, that Scolari was the best man for the job and now the very people who have hounded out every England manager since Walter Winterbottom have went one step further and made a potential England manager walk away befor he even started.
When they have more of the same with Steve McLaren or Sam Allardyce in charge I hope they think back in their quiet moments about how different it could have been if the red mist of xenophobia hadn’t descended and Big Phil Scolari had been sitting in the England dugout instead of an opposition one.
Maybe they won’t regret it this summer but the day will come when they rue the missed opportunity and by then, it’ll be far too late.
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4 opinions for Big Phil Hounded Out Before He Even Started
Matt
May 1, 2006 at 3:10 pm
My feelings are ultimately quite naive, but I am inclined to agree with the sentiments of the hounds. I think the manager of the English football team should be English. That’s the point of a national team - that it represent the nation from which it arises. If we can’t produce decent managers who can win trophies for the nation then that’s a problem that needs resolving. The solution should not just be to pull in whomever we can afford.
Alan
May 1, 2006 at 7:06 pm
Surely waiting ten years until a suitable English candidate is ready for the top job is too long to leave your country in the international wilderness and the short term priority is to chase the trophies while looking long term and bringing through that new crop of English coaches in due course?
Matt
May 1, 2006 at 7:25 pm
Is there any evidence of that being an effective plan? Sven has been manager for how many years now… 3/4/5? Yet his first choice replacement was another foreigner. Maybe the the candidature needs time to mature, but I’d rather see someone new in there, thrown in at the deepend if you like. I don’t think Allardyce is the right choice, but surely McLaren or even dare I say it Harry Rednapp have been in the game long enough to know what to do.
Jonathan
May 2, 2006 at 1:04 pm
Who’s to say that being employed by a “top” club makes any difference.
The last four English-England managers were plucked from a then (old) First Division Fulham, a then mid-table but big spending Chelsea and a pro-longed period of unemployment after an up-and-down spell at Spurs.
Before that, the manager was appointed having taken Aston Villa to runners-up spot in the League. Graham Taylor went on to become perhaps the least popular England manager of all time!
Even Sir Bobby Robson’s management career before taking the England job was mid-table top-flight punctuated by cup successes. A bit like Steve McLaren?!
England’s club football has been dominated by non-Englishmen for the last twenty years. The three Scostmen at Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United in the late-80s through the 90s to the French revolutions at Arsenal and Liverpool at the turn of the Millenium to the current Iberian invasion (and a Dutchman).
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