?�Stuart Pearce named caretaker manager
? FA say preference is for next long-term manager to be English
Hello everyone. And goodbye Fabio. So what now for England? The FA will begin answering that at a press conference scheduled to kick off at high noon today, but naturally plenty of people have already weighed in with advice. Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney have already tweeted to endorse the presumed candidacy of Harry Redknapp (while Roy Keane has chipped into tell Rooney "keep his nose out of it, he never did enough on the pitch when Capello was manager") and David Cameron has said something designed to make him appear with it but I just can't summon enough energy to find out the precise details of his utterance. Ferdinand's exact words, meanwhile, were: "I think we need an English manager now, we don't need anything else lost in translation....Harry Redknapp would be my choice by a distance." You don't have to be English to speak English or understand English football, of course, which is why there is also some support for respected foreigners such as Guus Hiddink and Rafa Benitez; but Redknapp is by far the most popular choice and, unlike Newcastle's Alan Pardew, he did not rule himself out of the running this morning when accosted by reporters. "I've not even thought about it, my focus is on Tottenham," was all he would say on the matter. In the past, of course, he has said that he would find it impossible to turn the job down if offered it and given the public clamour for him, the FA may well find it impossible to avoid offering it. So Harry seems set to be swept to power on a wave of popularity. Just like Kevin Keegan, who ultimately resigned in a toilet.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Kenny Sansom reckons Stuart Pearce - supervised by Terry Venables - should take charge of England for the Holland friendly later this month before Redknapp accedes to thr throne at the end of the season. Heck, if they're looking for a caretaker boss, surely there's only one man to turn to: come on down, Tony Parkes.
Obviously if you're looking for advice onw how to bring succcess to England, the first person to turn to is a Scot, so here are Craig Brown thoughts: "[Installing a part-time manager] should be do-able up until the Euro championships in the summer. But not in the longer term. It would not be ideal. It would devalue the job of national team manager. Harry Redknapp seems to be the obvious choice for the job and I would agree with that. But I wouldn't envy any other manager who got the job. It would be, 'what if Harry had been in charge? So it is inevitable that they go for Harry. He is ideally equipped to do the job and he has a number of terrific players at his disposal."
Here's an email from Gunnar Gunnarsson, who, despite his name, comes across as more of Tottenham fan than an Arsenal fan. "So 'Arry is now being publicly tapped up by not just every newspaper in the country (that part's predictable) but also every other tweeting footballer who also happen to play for rival clubs, as well as current and former managers. Maybe Daniel Levy's first utterance post-Capello should be that Fergie should immediately replace Levein and Mancini should take over from Prandelli right now."
"[Clearly the job is Harry Redknapp's if he wants it, but what if he decides to stay at Spurs?" wonders Alex Bell. "Personally I'd go for Hiddink on a short-term deal up to the Euros, then if he succeeds you can extend it, but if it doesn't work out we can either re-visit the Redknapp option or go for Stuart Pearce (who will doubtless be riding a wave of Olympic Gold medal euphoria)." I must admit that I don't get the Hiddink love. He has achieved fine things in the past but his most recent feats were to preside over a dismal campaign by Turkey on the back of spectacular failure with Russia. On the other hand, it would be quite amusing if Redknapp was overlooked in favour of someone who has been found guilty of tax fraud ...
This, as Doro Pesch might say, is a three minute warning. The big press conference that will determine the future well-being of the nation is due to kick off as soon as Sky comes back from a break ...
It's a kick-off time and on the platform at Wembley are ... three empty seats. Poignant.
"You can see Nick Collins there, his questiosn are ready," gasps Sky's anchorman, valiantly filling the air as we await the arrival of the FA (which is something I would never do, obviously). Meanwhile, Jim Burke emails as follows: "If we accept England are no longer a "Top Tier" Footballing nation (Which as a Scotsman I've been happy to do since 1973) then you need a man with a proven track record of success in the second tier, a Proud Englishman, a motivator, a character, a man to deal with the inflated egos in the dressing room ... step forward Neil Warnock."
The four-man FA delegation has arrived and is ready to address the press.
The FA chairman begins by thanking hrte FA board, whom, he points out, "have huge knowlefge of football", which is nice. He then thanks Fabio Capello, who, he says, "has always behaved with dignity and honour ... any reports of storming out [yesterday] are not true and a misrepresentation of fact."
Bernstein: "I do agree that the manager is the most important person in a football club or an organisatsion from this but there are moment when the board have to step up to the plate."
Bernstein: "We all believed that the John Terry case would be dealt with by March or April and when it was postponed we were all taken by surprise. We then made a very quick decision ... Fabio wasn't happy but accepted the board's authority on the matter." This all happened on Saturday, but then "on Sunday [Capello] conducted an interview with an Italian broadcaster that caused conjecture and huge public debate and was frankly an unsatisfatory situation." So the FA, feeling undermined and possibly betrayed, and Capello had a meeting yesterday, which was adjourned for an hour before Bernstein and Capello reconvened by themselves and the Italian offered his resignation, which Bernstein accepted.
FA announce that Stuart Pearce will manage England against Holland later this month.
Bernstein: "at the end of the meeting he [Capello] decided he had to go, I can't really add to that."
Bernstein: "The squad don't get together until May [for the Euros], there is pelnty of time for a new man to get in place and do what he needs to do, so we're actually in a much better place than it may appear."
FA refuse to discuss any potential candidates but say they "will not rush" the appointment. "We will be putting together a shortlist of people."
Bernstein asked "were you considering ssacking Capello anyway?" to which he replies: "that didn't arise."
Bernstein reiterates belief that the decision to strip Terry of England captaincy was correct, reasoning that given the "totemic" nature of the armband, "going into a major championship with this issue hanging was not what we wanted."
The FA refuse to disclose whether Capello was given a pay-off.
The FA stress that they got Capello's interview with Italian TV professionally translated to be sure that the press had not twisted his words in translation. Speaking about that interview, and Capello's English language skills in general, Bernsteins says: "The backing [by Capello] of John Terry clearly wasn't helpful in the way it was communicated and the way it came across," says Bernstein, who also says there was "a degree of an issue" about Capello's poor linguistic skills, mentioning that "telephone conversations, for example, were not the easiest."
Throughout this press conference Trevor Brooking has been sitting in silent irrelevance at the end of the table. A symbolic representation of his role within the FA?
Bernstein speaks of his admiration of Pearce: "When I talked to him he just said "if you would like me to do it, I will do it ... I was very impressed". The chairman also says it is not definite that the long term replacement will be English.
FA general secretary Alex Horne says that all the operational planning for the Euros are in place so "any manager coming into the role will be able to hit the ground running very quickly." Emailer Mike Gibbons, meanwhile, says: "Capello had just qualified for Euro 2012, gone unbeaten for a year and plotted a victory over european and world champions Spain, albeit in a friendly. All the while he'd been incorporating new players - Young, Jones, Wilshere, Parker, Hart - with the end goal of his new team bearing fruit at the Championships. Whatever anyone thinks of him that's what he was building towards, and now people expect Redknapp to come in at the end of the season, have a fortnight with the players, one friendly, pick the final squad and have a successful tournament because he speaks better English and has triffic passion? Bizarre."
Bernstein denies that Capello was a waste of money, saying "no one's going to defend the South African World Cup performance but the qualification campaigns have been perfectly acceptable." He also praises England's away record under Capello and suggests the part of the new man's (or woman's) remit will be to "imbue additional confidence in the side" so that they perform better at Wembley. Which will obviously be significant during the Euros.
There ends the FA press conference, in which theyconfirmed that the trigger for the chat that lead to Capello's resignation yesterday was the FA's anger at him denouncing them in the Italian media after they had informed him of their decision to remove the captaincy from Terry. The FA maintain they were right to take that decision against the manager's wishes, with Bernstein saying that he understood that although he understood Capello's frustration, the manager was obliged to respect the decision.
So, Stuart Pearce will manage England. Would anyone like to cast their minds back to last summer, when he took a highly-fancied English team to the European Championships ... and failed to win a game. Sturridge, Welbeck, Jones, Smalling, Walker - they were all there but England went home after the first round.
It is perhaps worth repeating that Pearce has distanced himself from his brother, Dennis, who three years ago stood for election for the BNP.
Here is a link to an old edition of the Observer's Said & Done column, featuring some comments from Gordon Taylor following a spat between Paul Ince and Stuart Pearce. As far as I know, Pearce has never commented publicly on the matter.
Fabio Capello has released the following stataement: "I would like to thank the players, the staff and the FA for the professional approach they have shown during the years I have been manager of the national team. I would like to send a special greeting to all the fans who have backed the team and my work. To all of them I hope they achieve their highest sporting goals."
Arsene Wenger has been talking to arsenal.com, to whom he has expressed his sadness over the "extreme situation" that led to Capello's departure. "When the decision came out from the FA, I said that the choice of captain is down to the manager," said Wenger. "You [the manager] pick your team, you choose your captain. I did not expect such an extreme situation but it looks like there was already some turbulence there and that was just the final straw. I am sad that Capello leaves four months before such an important competition, it is a big blow for England and I am sad for him."
As for the Italian's successor, Wenger position remains the same. "I have always been straight in [suggesting an Englishman should be next] - not because I think an English manager can do a better job than any foreign guy, just because you represent your country and it is better if the manager is from there. Especially in a big football country like England. It's now down to the FA to make the right decision and you will not be surprised when I tell you I do not want to interfere with that!"
Meanwhile, in other news, Aston Villa have failed in their bid to extend Robbie Keane's loan. The Irishman will, therefore, return to the Los Angeles Galaxy after the clash at Wigan on February 25 ... and before hooking up for his national team, who are going to the European Chamapionships with an elderly Italian manager who can barely speak English. How irresponsible, eh?
There has been something quite odd about today. All this talk of the image and pride and glorious future of English football. All this talk of representing the nation with class and reflecting everything that makes England noble. And there has not been a single mention of David Beckham.
The end: We'll wrap it up there, folks. Thanks for tuning in and contributing on this momentous day. We should do this again some time. We will certainly have plenty of opportunities. Bye.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/09/fabio-capello-england-harry-redknapp-live
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