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ENGLAND v CROATIA - McCLAREN NOT SOLE CAUSE FOR FAILURE
Come in, Steve McClaren. Your time is up.
As the rain and derision poured down on the England manager at Wembley, it was hard not to feel a tinge of sympathy for McClaren.
It's not his fault he was promoted above his station. It's not his fault Brian Barwick and co failed miserably to net any available international-class manager with their ludicrous self-importance. It's not his fault that England lack a truly top-class goalkeeper.
And it's not his fault that the expectation makes the England manager's job an almost impossible task - probably the toughest in football; one defeat and your job's on the line.
Ultimately of course he had to take the blame - and pay the price - for failing to steer England through a qualifying group featuring two solid international teams in Russia and Croatia, but no genuine world power.
True, England aren't as good as the nation thinks they are and yes, there were ill-timed injury problems.
The players themselves must take their share of the blame, but in football the buck stops with the manager.
McClaren's reign was littered with high-profile blunders: his attempt to distance himself from the Sven years by dropping David Beckham, then recalling said midfielder when he was playing for a pub team in Hollywood; backing Paul Robinson when his confidence was shot, then dropping him the moment it returned; experimenting with formation against the strongest opposition in the group. Twice.
When faced with crisis against first Russia and then Croatia, McClaren appeared to have only one back-up plan. But the chuck-on-a-load-of-average-strikers-and-lump-it-forward scheme that worked so well for Middlesbrough in the UEFA Cup proved less successful at international level.
McClaren asked to be judged over 12 games. He has been found desperately short, with the Croatia game a fittingly inept conclusion to a disastrous reign.
Wednesday night was this qualifying campaign in microcosm: a shambolic start with question marks over the goalkeeper, a stubborn recovery but then, with salvation in sight, another crucial slip and a desperate dirth of the inspiration and ideas needed to come back again.
While the decision to axe McClaren was straightforward, finding a replacement may be more problematic for the FA.
So ludicrous is the hype and hyperbole that surrounds England that whoever is in charge is never far away from a media witchhunt.
England have tried promoting an honest, hard-working, middle-of-the-road Premier League manager, and it hasn't worked.
The FA must find a coach of such strong character and impeccable credentials that Fleet Street's slings and arrows and cruel puns can be repelled - a Mourinho or a Wenger.
But, of course, such managers will be desperately hard to court successfully; Wenger and Mourinho have both publicly distanced themselves from the job, while others like Guus Hiddink or Phil Scolari may be unwilling to play ball after being messed about last time.
But this is the challenge. This is the time for the FA bigwigs to earn their salaries and secure a top-class man for the job.
It exemplifies much that is wrong with English football that while McClaren has gone, the same man will be responsible for picking his successor.
If Barwick turns up another McClaren, England's slide into the also-rans of international football may become inexorable.
By Bettingzone.co.uk
Used with permission.
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