The Reign of Madness

From Wayne Rooney’s broken metatarsal in April last year to the pathetic display against Croatia which sent them out of Euro 2008, the English football team has been an absolute mess.

Prior to the world cup, then manager Sven Goran Eriksson, had been building a team around man utd’s star forward and his injury left England’s campaign in tatters. After a string of uninspiring displays at the tournament, the disgraced manager left his team in the hands of his assistant, Steve Mclaren. The selection process for the prestigious position of England manager seemed as farcical as the decision itself. Firstly, it was announced that Sven’s successor would be announced before the World Cup which hastened the appointment. Secondly the potential candidates had to come in for an interview and were asked to give powerpoint presentations both of which would be demeaning for a lot of self respecting managers whose records should speak for themselves. Thirdly it was announced that ‘Big’ Phil Scolari was to be the next manager without big phil ever accepting the position which made any other appointment seem like the second choice. Finally, the actual appointment itself was severely criticised by the media and public who both wanted Martin O’Neill, a manger who had previously succeeded in bringing the best out of his players and then helping to turn underachievers into champions which is shown by his terms at Leicester and Celtic. Compare this to a man who has only been 1st team manager at one club for 5 years and has done very little with them apart from a miracle run to the Uefa Cup final. England was doomed to fail.

Mclaren started his reign of madness in the best way possible way by dropping former captain, david beckham who was a shadow of the player he was at manutd, in a move which was to help take England in a new direction. It was unanimously praised by the media and public alike. After this however began his catalogue of errors.

It started with his reluctance to change the center of midfield where it was clear that Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard could not play together effectively. A drab home draw against Macedonia should have told him that something wasn’t right. Instead he chose an unused formation to help the two compliment each other. The resulting chaos which ensued was the first of two shambolic performances against a very classy croatian side. Common sense continued to allude the gaffer as a couple of dreadful displays against Israel and Andorra saw the players being booed off against the latter at half time. Incredibly Mclaren continued to use the friendlies not for experimentation but to prove his misguided notion relating to the center of midfield which ended up failing against both Spain and Brazil. It was prior to the game against Brazil where the boss really showed his mental fragile he was. Less than a year after giving Beckham the axe, he recalled him for a meaningless friendly and a game they were likely to win anyhow against Estonia fully well knowing that he was about to join a pub side aka The LA Galaxy.