Sunday, June 27, 2010

English Football - No Leaders!

So England crash out of the World Cup pathetically yet again.

The German team were made to look really good and they fully deserved their success. My feeling is this German team are nowhere near good enough to win the World Cup. The truth is we were second rate and despite my eternal optimism and my rose tinted view of English football I have to seriously ask what is wrong with our beautiful game.

We won the World Cup in 1966 and since then we have not looked remotely good enough to win either the World Cup or the European Championship in the 44 subsequent years.

We have some good players and in Fabio Capello we have one of the best managers in the world.

I have come to the conclusion that leadership is lacking. That is leadership on the field and in the Football Association. There is no vision, no purpose and no strategy.

When we look back at 1966 we had a leader in the late Alf Ramsey a manager who had a vision; we also had an inspirational leader on the field in the immortal form of the late Bobby Moore.

Where are the leaders in 2010?

If we are lucky enough to be awarded the World Cup for 2018 I suggest we develop a vision NOW for that tournament. And to develop that vision we need a leader. I have no idea where that leader is going to come from but if we do not have some leadership we might as well get used to at least another 44 years of winning absolutely nothing.

15 comments:

Mark JF said...

I agree there's no leadership:

Who at the FA thought that it would be a good idea to appoint a national manager (Mr. Capello) who has never managed a national team and never managed at a major tournament? Yup - that's bound to win us the WC.

Who in Mr. Capello's team really thought a "my way or the highway" approach to managing 21st century millionaire footballers was a long-term strategy? I concede it was needed to bash this squad into the shape from where they were but long-term...?

Why does Mr. Capello insist our players change the way they play to suit his vision? Why do you not look at the strengths of English football and adapt around them? That's not strong leadership - it's mis-guided ignoring of reality.

Why does the on-field captain not say (especially at 3 - 1 down) "Look lads, ignore the manager, let's revert to playing like we do normally and see if we can rattle in a couple of goals and take this to extra time."

That said, I think it would be wrong to sack Mr. Capello. You learn from doing things and making mistakes. Provided he shows signs that he's prepared to learn from what happened in S. Africa and adapt his tactics and his approach, we should put it behind us and get on.

That said, it is time to clear out several players from this squad. It might tough on David James (one of only 3 players I think did OK) but he's pushing 40 and we need to bring a youngster through. But Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Steve Gerrard, John Terry and Emile Heskey need to be eased out as soon as possible and younger alternatives brought through.

Trevor Gay said...

I agree with everything you say Mark.
I think we have to have a vision NOEW from leadership - wherever that leadership comes from - building for 2018.
We need to blood youngsters now and not wait until they are 25 - get some promising 18-20 year olds playing for the full England team now - they can peak in 2018.
Time to clear out all the dead wood and for me that is anyone over 28.

JOHN O'LEARY said...

Geez, I was even rooting for you guys. But I'd like to see you take your sport at little more seriously, Trevor.

Trevor Gay said...

Football is not a matter of life and death John - its far more inportant than that :-)

Richard Lipscombe said...

Interesting question because there is no 'right answer' to this issue. Many speculate about what it takes but few are able to produce a winning team culture.

Winning is a habit. It is a habit that becomes a culture. Culture is 'the way we do things around here'. So to build a winning team needs a leader, facilitator, coach, or mentor who can mould behaviours to those that fit the resources he/she has available.

Changing behaviours comes when the group is willing to fail and learn from the mistakes made. Fail fast, learn, and build a set of shared values and practices. Once success begins to show up - become wedded to the behaviours, disciplines, and character traits that support it.

National Teams are moulded over decades not one world cup event. Germany may not win the 2010 World Cup but they have already won the first battle towards building a winning team for future international events. What makes them different to other teams is their cohesion, behavioural mindset (they recover quickly from set backs), and commitment to each other. France and England are good examples of the opposite to what we see from Germany.

But there is no easy fix and there is no 'right way' to build a winning team.

Cheers
Richard.

Trevor Gay said...

Cheers Richard – I agree and that’s why I suggest we need an 8 year strategy staring now. We need to throw in the youngsters with a few experienced players building for the 2018 World Cup. We may not win anything between now and then but we will hopefully create a team culture where players will metaphorically die for each other. The main thing youngsters are still hungry whilst I seriously worry that many of our prima donna players don’t have that hunger any more.

Sir Alex Ferguson always talks about hunger. I would be very happy if Fabio comes out with an eight year strategy and frankly I think it’s the only way.
It’s time to get rid of the dead wood NOW as far as I’m concerned – that means all these - Lampard, James, Terry, Gerrard, Barry, Heskey, Ashley Cole, Crouch, Carragher ….

Rooney must stay – appoint him captain now to be the mentor for the youngsters and build the team for 2018.

Unknown said...

Brilliant to read that, German team were made to look really good and they fully deserved their success, which is a great sign for their team.

__________________

dissertation Writing

Dissertation Writing said...

English Football - No Leaders! <--
that's what i was looking for
Writing a Dissertation

Dissertation Writing said...

English Football - No Leaders! <--
that's what i was looking for
Writing a Dissertation

Reseller Hosting said...

Love the attitude, not much to say, which is really rare for me, but I am trying to behave, which is really rare too. Great post I loved it.



cheap reseller hosting |
reseller web hosting

Nikolai said...

Hah this was very interesting to read about.
cheap webhosting
cheap web hosting

Template Design said...

Really a good post you have shared with us.Its very useful an informative.Thank you for sharing.

Affordable Seo Service said...

Very good blog.Great information it very useful an informative.
Thank you for sharing.

Custom Logo Design said...

This is Really information you have shared with us.Its remarkable thank you for sharing.

website design company said...

I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well.