England and foreigners

IF you wanted an exquisite example of bad timing, you'd need to look no further than John Barnwell's ridiculous outburst immediately after England, under the aegis of the Swede, Sven Goran Eriksson, had thrashed Germany 5-1 in Munich against all odds and expectations.

Barnwell is the chief executive of the League Managers' Association. He has previously been manager of Wolves and an accomplished midfield player first with Arsenal, later with Nottingham Forest. When Eriksson was appointed England manager, the first foreigner to hold the job, Barnwell was bitterly opposed.

Now he has said, "We favoured an Englishman, and our thinking remains clear. International football is about pitting your nation's skill against another nation's skill. If you don't have the necessary skills, you have to work at developing it through your players, coaches and managers. We stand by our opinion. No other major country has a foreign coach. In Greece, it's even part of their constitution that they don't have one."

"When Eriksson was appointed, we said to the F.A., 'Fine, it's your decision. We far prefer an Englishman.' They were saying we had nobody good enough. We thought that was an insult. We had to set about proving them wrong, producing people they did think were good enough."

It would be nice to know who they were. But Barnwell, despite these inanities, has at least fallen in behind Eriksson since the Swede's appointment. He even made him President of his Association and now has said, "But he's doing a fantastic job. He's done things you would have thought were impossible in such a short time."

So what in all logic is Barnwell talking about? And why should he choose such a strange, infelicitous and inauspicious moment to do so? In the first place, just look at Eriksson's predecessors in charge of England teams.

Terry Venables was arguably the only one since Alf Ramsey, who of course won the 1966 World Cup, to have achieved anything of real note; and even he, in the 1996 European Finals, only pulled off one major victory; the 4-1 win against a Dutch team traumatised by infighting among coloured and white players which led to the banishing of the key midfielder, a rebellious Edgar Davids. Against the Swiss, the Scots and above all the unlucky Spaniards, England were anything but impressive. And in the semifinal they went down on penalties to a depleted German team.

When Kevin Keegan, again against Germany, made an unholy mess of his selection with the one paced centre back Gareth Southgate adrift in midfield, then scuttled off the sinking ship right after the defeat, who among English coaches could replace him? Venables was said to be the people's choice, but how could England re-appoint a man who had just been savaged in court by a judge and banned for years from being a company director?

Go back to Glenn Hoddle, somewhat unfairly saved after bizarre remarks about disabled people and reincarnation when in fact he deserved to be out after publishing that kiss and tell World Cup diary after the 1998 version.

Hoddle scarcely excelled as the 1998 World Cup manager, even if England were somewhat unlucky to go out of the tournament in that thrilling game against Argentina, when they held out for so long with 10 men. But his grudging use of the dynamic young Michael Owen early on was ludicrous. He seemed almost to have some kind of hostility towards him, criticising him quite gratuitously before the World Cup began. Yet, it was his opportunism which, when brought on as a sub, so nearly saved the game against Romania, and he who procured a penalty - with what did it is true look like a dive! - and scored a dazzling goal against Argentina.

Why Graham Taylor, of Watford long ball fame, was ever made manager of England was never rationally explained. Hopelessly out of his depth, he made one error after another, totally fouled up his tactics when England played Norway in Oslo in a 1993 World Cup eliminator, and began celebrated for his garbled remark in the dug out when England lost to Holland, "Do I not like that?"

Bobby Robson did a great deal better, but he was essentially a lucky rather than a shrewd manager. He was lucky to keep his job after England's wretched displays in the 1988 European Championship in Germany. In 1986, when the World Cup was played in Mexico, he inexplicably kept using his captain Bryan Robson even though Robson continually dislocated his shoulder. Indeed Robson admitted he lied about it when it was dislocated again in Los Angeles in a friendly versus Mexico. Only when Robson was hurt again and Ray Wilkins sent off against Morocco did Bobby change the team which then went on to acquit itself well.

In Italy in 1990 having for years insisted that he would never play with a sweeper defence, he did in England's second game in Cagliari versus Holland, allegedly at the insistence of the senior players. England did reach the semi-final and were unlucky to lose - penalties again - against Germany in Turin, but Robson was quoted as saying frankly, "We've got there, I don't know how."

How ironic though that one of the most successful team managers in the history of Sweden themselves was an Englishman. Little Yorkshireman George Raynor took the job in 1946 and quickly transcended scepticism with his successful tactics. He would go round the country finding and coaching such talents as Hasse Jeppson, a star of the 1950 World Cup, later one with Atalanta and Napoli.

Remember pray that before Eriksson took over England, the team was on its knees, abysmally managed for a game drawn in Finland by chief FA coach Howard Wilkinson who not only made a hash of tactics and choice but then announced that England should give up all hope of the 2002 World Cup and think of 2006!

Then think of Austrian Ernst Happel managing Holland all the way to the 1978 World Cup Final, Romanian Stefan Kovacs managing France, Lajos Czeizler the Hungarian taking charge of Italy for the 1954 World Cup.

And look how well the Frenchman Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and Gerard Houllier at Liverpool have done at club level in England: which for generations never had a foreign manager anywhere at all! Meanwhile, is there even now a strong English candidate in sight to coach England? If there is, then alas I cannot see him.