International Football: Ex-England manager says problem lies in grass roots
Ex-England manager Steve McLaren has come out and said that the problems of English football are deeply embedded in the roots of the English football system. McLaren was made the English team manager in 2006 after Svenson Gorann Erikkson parted ways with the English national football team.
McLaren’s appointment came after a disappointing 2006 FIFA World Cup campaign for the English during which they lost to the Portuguese in the quarter finals on penalties. McLaren’s selection for the English national team’s manager’s job was also influenced by the demand from the English fans that an Englishman should be given the job.
Steve McLaren became the first English manager of the English national team in over five years as Svenson had taken over in 2001 and left the job in 2006. McLaren previously had managed the English club Middlesbrough. He had taken the riverside club to the UEFA Cup final. He had also been Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Manchester United during their treble winning season in late 1990s.
McLaren’s first big task with the English national football team was to qualify for the European Championships of 2008. He also brought about some squad changes and made John Terry the English national team’s captain. He also dropped many of England’s senior players such as David Beckham, David James and Sol Campbell. He also stated that he was taking the English team in a different direction.
McLaren failed to take England to the European Championships of 2008 despite being part of a relatively easy qualification group which contained the likes of Croatia, Russia, Andorra, Macedonia and Israel. McLaren failed to address English football team’s problems and as a result was relieved from his duties as the manager on 22nd of November, 2007. McLaren’s tenure as the English manager has been the shortest of any English manager till date.
McLaren’s next managerial job was with a Dutch club called Twente. He did surprisingly well with Twente and took them to a second placed finish in his first season with the club. In his second season at Twente F.C, he won his maiden European league title with the club and led them to their first Dutch league triumph in the clubs history. Lately, McLaren has been made the manager of Wolfsburg F.C in the German football league.
McLaren has recently come out and commented on the on-going debate which is centered on details such as the role of the English football system in England’s failures in major football competitions. England’s recent breakdown at the 2010 World Cup prompted McLaren to say that, there was a trend in England to blame a single person for the national team’s failure. He added that it is important for everyone that a wider inquest is allowed so that problems at the grass root levels of football in England can be addressed.
He also said that in his experiences in Holland, he realized that nations other than England, worked on their basic grass root levels to improve football. He went onto ask questions such as, 'why England can’t develop players like the ones that are produced by Spanish and German football leagues'. He concluded by saying that Holland and Germany developed coaches first who then worked on the talent that was available to them in their respective leagues.
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