F.A. To Groom Coaches - Potentials Include Pearce, Shearer, Southgate, Adams, Ince
After a very disappointing World Cup campaign that saw England eliminated 4-1 at the first knockout round phase by Germany, the F.A. (Football Association) are trying to plan ahead this time. Sir Trevor Brooking, Director of Football Development, and current England head coach Fabio Capello have agreed to a strategy whereby they will first identify potential English managers for the future and then bring them in to the football set-up in order to groom the home-grown coaches.
Names mentioned so far include Stuart Pearce, Alan Shearer, Gareth Southgate, Tony Adams and Paul Ince. All of these coaches have represented England at the top level and know what it's like for English players heading to a major tournament.
The F.A., it seems, has recognized the need for some training before handing the job to an English manager after the disaster that was Steve McClaren's tenure as England manager. After a quarterfinal exit at the hands of Portugal at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the F.A. decided to appoint Steve McClaren as the head coach, but unfortunately the decision backfired spectacularly, as England failed to qualify for the European Championships in 2008.
After his sacking, McClaren has gone on to manage successfully in Holland, winning the Dutch Eredivisie title with FC Twente, an achievement which has earned him a move to the German club VFL Wolfsburg. The success McClaren has achieved in club football highlights a major flaw with the young English managers of today, who it seems are unable to make the transition to International football despite impressive performances at club level.
In order to deal with this problem, the F.A. has taken a very positive measure. Fabio Capello is one of the most experienced coaches around since the F.A. have employed him until 2012; it is very smart to use his experience to train young English managers to deal with the problems faced at the International level.
Alan Shearer, a Former England Captain, is one of the men who has been touted as a potential successor to Capello, but has very limited management experience. He managed his hometown club, Newcastle United, briefly, and has not managed another club since.
Another candidate, Stuart Pearce, is already involved in the England set-up, coaching the Under-21s at the moment. Pearce also has more experience at the club level, having coached Manchester City for more than a season.
Another name that was previously mentioned was the former England Captain David Beckham. The player himself, though, has taken himself out of the running, saying that he is concentrating on his playing career for now, and has no intention whatsoever of going into management, even after he retires.
At the international level, it seems that having a coach from the same country can be very useful. All four of the teams that reached the semifinals of the World Cup in South Africa had coaches from their own country: Vicente Del Bosque of Spain, Oscar Tabarez of Uruguay, Joachim Loew of Germany, and Bert van Marwijk of the Netherlands. Other major teams such as Brazil, Argentina and Portugal also use home-grown coaches, and it appears that England want to move in that direction too.
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