After reading my last blog “48 days to go”, the FA sprang into action and the country got what it had been asking for. Roy Hodgson.
Wait, that’s not right. What happened to Harry?
Yes the FA’s best and brightest have thrown us again and announced they are in talks with Roy Hodgson for the role of England Manager.
Nothing wrong with Roy, he’s capable, experienced and a safe pair of hands. Only thing is, he’s not Harry Redknapp. For the last 3 months, every pundit, player, ex-player and fan had Harry as a “shoe in” as the next manager. The Bookies had him has 1/3 odds on favourite. So, how can we all have been so wrong?
Let’s leave aside the fact that Roy has a better record than Harry. Taking 53% of all points available in his Managerial career compared to Harry’s 49%. Let’s leave aside the fact that Roy has all his coaching badges and Harry has none. Let’s forget Roy’s experience of International and Foreign football and his pedigree of sitting on Uefa and Fifa Technical Committees.
Why oh why has the Bookies favourite and friend of the media been overlooked.
Consider 2 compelling reasons:
Could it be that even though England gave birth to the beautiful game, The FA has now realised that a mediocre team only needs a mediocre manager. Why cause friction by going all out for the best of the best like Capello and asking him to make world beaters out of also ran’s?
England are not perennial under-achievers, they actually do as well as maybe they should do. We are not as good as Brasil, Germany or Italy. We win about 50% of our games and that means we do well to get to Quarter Finals of tournaments.
Maybe the FA feel that England would benefit from a period of lower expectation allowing the players to find their feet and not worrying about winning every game and tournament.
Roy could preside over this Harry could not.
Just as likely is the possibility that Harry has just found himself the victim of very bad timing.
The FA were roundly criticised for “breaking the bank” for Capello. Not that anyone minded when he took us through qualification without a hitch and never stood in the rain with a giant umbrella. His era cost millions and his inevitable pay off added to the bill.
Harry would cost millions just in compensation to Tottenham and he would not come cheap even though International Managers elsewhere get paid a comparative pittance.
Maybe the FA wants to avoid making the same mistake twice.
The FA has also just completed the very expensive St. Georges Park, the highly regarded new home of English Football. They correctly want a Manager who will be heavily involved in the centre. Just like Capello, Harry would have little interest in this side of the job and would be happy to oversee the Senior Squads 9 or 10 games a year.
Even if he was interested (and he isn’t before you get all uppity) his current commute is admirable enough but a 400 mile round trip a day would just not work.
The FA cannot afford for St Georges Park to fail. The new Manager should be an integral part of its success.
Finally, Harry has just presided over a very poor run of results for Tottenham just when everyone was watching. Yep, probably all caused by the FA itself but nonetheless football is a results business and again, this is very bad timing.
We shouldn’t mention the court case but we all know about smoke and fire and maybe the FA wanted someone who can write their own team sheet and answer an email.
So, it could be a lack of expectation. It could be bad timing for Harry but, at the end of the day, it could be that Roy is better qualified, more experienced, less expensive and better at responding to email…
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