England, My England.

The dust has settled on the English Football teams debacle against Croatia, Steve McClaren has been spared the ignominy of falling on his sword and quite rightly shown the door by the F.A, all the players who played on Wednesday night (and even some that didn't) were roundly booed in their premiership matches today and the merry go round that is, has begun to find the next England manager.

All the usual suspects are thrown into the mix and a few new candidates.

The England managerial position is considered to be one of the best in the world, lets face it, its not that difficult, about 12 games a year, the best (English) players to pick from and a pretty solid coaching structure right down to grass roots level.

McClaren should never ever have been given the job, he was a decent coach at Man Utd but there is a lot of decent coaches at a lot of clubs, many of whom the average football fan will never have even heard of.

As a manager, he was nothing short of a joke, his tactical awareness was naive at best and his man management skills left a lot to be desired, it was plainly obvious that he didn't have the respect of his players.

So, who is going to replace him. Once again there are a few footballing luminaries clamouring for an English manager, are they having a laugh, who?

Sam Allardyce is currently heading for the sack at Newcastle, he did a decent job at Bolton, but did they ever win anything? ditto Alan Curbishley, Harry Redknapp would be very interesting but seriously, after that we start to run out of candidates.

So we need to go foreign, if (and its a big if) hes interested, the FA should be hammering Jose Mourinhos door down (assuming Wengers not interested).

If these two are crossed off the list then Fabio Capello has to be a contender, his record is impeccable (his English not so apparently). Martin O'Neill would be a good choice (at least hes British) but I'm not sure hes quite got the passion for it. Jurgen Klinsmann? give me a break.

Football is now more than ever a global game and although Sven had his critics, his record as England Manger was actually extremely good, he was criticised mainly for his lack of passion but tactically he was a very astute manager and his knowledge of the game was spot on.

This is what England need, not a British bulldog who would die for his country but a clever tactician who can read his opponents and can get the best out of the current decent crop of English payers.

And does the English Football system need a complete overhaul? The answer is a resounding no, we just need a decent manager.

Out Of Africa

Once again, it time for The African Nations bandwagon to roll into town.
The opening match kicks off on the 20th January next year and the tournament finishes 10th February, the venue, Ghana.
More than a few years back this wouldn't have meant much to European Football but in an age of multi cultural teams and a great many Africans playing in the Top leagues in England, Spain, Italy and the rest of Europe, it is time for the bellyaching to begin.
Many of Europe's top managers have already gone on record bemoaning the fact the tournament kicks off bang in the middle of Europe's domestic season.
Avrim Grant and Chelsea will lose four first team regulars and has joined a long list of managers ruing the nations cup.
Senegal captain and Bolton forward El Hadji Diouf has recently gone on record asking the administrators to review the timing of the event.
Since 1968 the Nations Cup has been held every two years and although it is rarely played without its lions share of problems it is a major spectacle in the World footballing calendar.
European clubs have in the past laughably said they will stop signing African players and may demand that their top players take up international retirement. This isn't going to happen so what is the solution.

The Conféderation Africaine de Football reckon the tournament is held in January and February because it is the rainy season in June and July and much of Africa is under water in that period.

Now I'm no meteorologist and I don't wish to sound flippant but this is Africa we are talking about, its a big place, is the weather really that bad that it would mean you couldn't play football matches for two months and just when is the South African World Cup due to kick off, that's right, 11th June.

Money must (as always ) come into the equation, if the Nations Cup moved to summer it could quite conceivably be competing with the World Cup,European Championships or the Summer Olympics and this would hit the Africans TV rights and the like.

Surely the answer then would be to move it to an odd year and we could then look forward to a Football tournament every summer.

Whatever the outcome, you can see both sides of the coin, Europe's top managers are well aware of the situation when they buy African players and football squads (especially in England) are usually big enough to cope with any forced absentees, but when it comes round to May and some top club has once again failed to fulfil their potential, you can bet your bottom dollar that the absence of vital players during the African Nations Cup will be high on most managers list of excuses.

Fantasy Football Update,The Smear Campaign

Just a quick update on my Fantasy Football season, I am now leading the league at work (and have been for a few weeks now). I am actually into the top 2000 now, 1936 to be precise so I am chuffed to bits.

There has been a few accusations thrown at me over ultra negative tactics, I currently have (8 including the goalie) defensive players in my side and a midfielder up front but they keep clocking up the points.

I have also been accused of poaching players that are playing well for other teams and putting them into my line up, Clint Dempsey (above) been an example.

All I can say is I'm top of the league and no-one would be bleating if they were above me