David Beckham, asked by The Times to sum up the strength of Fabio Capello, the
England manager, came up with the perfect, pithy phrase. “He makes you sit
up straight in class,” he said. For tutors, however, instilling discipline
is only half of it. The pupils must wish to learn as well.
Education is a partnership. First, the teacher must be motivated to do the job
properly. Sven-Göran Eriksson became lazy as head coach and England
stagnated as a result. Steve McClaren wanted to coach new ideas, but lacked
the authority to make his players listen. Neither of these flaws will affect
Capello’s regime; but it is the second part of the equation that is the key.
The teachers must teach, but the pupils must listen; and this is where
English football has fallen down.
We look enviously at Guus Hiddink’s success with Russia and wonder what might
have been, but this presumes that any coach attempting to push English
players beyond their comfort zone would be given a fair hearing. Hiddink
still plays a version of three at the back, very similar in style to the way
Terry Venables set up his England team at the European Championship in 1996.
Russia use four defenders, but when the full backs push on, a holding player
drops in to make three. The whole system is very fluid and flexible, and
Russia’s movement is probably the best of any team at the tournament.
So what would have happened had Hiddink tried that in England now? Venables
was fortunate to be favoured by open minds, but that has not been the case
of late. How long before it would be decided that three at the back is an
outdated system; and English players are comfortable with only the straight
lines of their beloved 4-4-2; and you can’t coach international players
anyway because you haven’t the time to apply new ideas; and better to let
them do what they know? These are all statements that have been regularly
trotted out during the past decade whenever an England manager has flirted
with a progressive concept. And where has it got us? Watching from home.
Heaven forbid somebody tries to instruct Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard on
how to play together. God help us if a coach looks at Rio Ferdinand, Micah
Richards or Ashley Cole and sees potential beyond stalwart defence.
Hiddink has exploded the myths of English football with what he has achieved
at this tournament, because in two years he has radicalised a group of
players, by refusing to entertain the idea that all an international manager
can do is make the best of what he is given, rather than taking this raw
material and refining it. Capello had it right when he talked of his team
needing humility. England does not have bad players, but it does have
players that have got out of the habit of learning. Their clubs are so
strong, and so successful, that they would appear to believe there is no
other way. Challenged by any different approach they retreat to the
familiar. No group from the elite end of the Premier League should have had
the difficulty that England experienced with an alternative system in
Croatia, or previously, in Northern Ireland, playing 4-3-3. It was
intellectually weak. Hiddink has had Russia for two years and has built a
team that can play five different ways in a single campaign.
He has not lucked out with a new set of players, or inherited a golden
generation. Of those Hiddink used against Holland on Saturday, six — Igor
Akinfeev, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Andrei Arshavin, Aleksandr Anyukov, Roman
Pavlyuchenko and Sergei Semak — also featured in the last competitive game
Russia played before his arrival, a 0-0 draw with Slovakia in Bratislava on
October 12, 2005. Another two involved that day, Aleksei Berezutski and
Vasili Berezutski, are also in Hiddink’s squad. The Russia team that Hiddink
has coached to one game from the European Championship final is, then,
largely the same one that finished third in World Cup qualifying group three
under Yuri Semin, roughly 2½ years ago, losing 7-1 to Portugal on the way.
Nobody was talking about Arshavin as one of the best midfield talents in
Europe after that. Russia players could not have shown such dramatic
improvement without instruction.
As the manager that introduced Vladimir Bystrov as a substitute after 46
minutes against Spain, and replaced him after 71 minutes without a second
glance, because he was not doing as told, no doubt Hiddink gets his class
sitting up straight, too. It is what is written on the blackboard that is
most important, though, and that, each day, his boys are prepared to take
these lessons down in their best, neatest handwriting.
Portugal's pitfall
Portugal are out of the European Championship because they did not have a
world-class ball-winner in central midfield capable of giving Deco the
platform to play. That is why, for all this talk of the beautiful game at
Chelsea under Luiz Felipe Scolari, his priority should be to make totally
sure that he is happy with the future, after Claude Makelele.
Jô's transfer problems
The transfer of Jô, the Brazilian striker, from CSKA Moscow to Manchester City
has hit a few contractual snags. Jô is subject to the same ownership issues
as Carlos Tévez, meaning his move is being monitored very closely by the
Premier League. This is interesting as we will now see what might have
happened had Tévez’s third-party agreements come to light at the time he
joined West Ham United. This is how it will work out.
Jô will sign for Manchester City, after club lawyers, his third-party owners
and the Premier League legal team agree on a contract that fits league
regulations. In reality, he will be no more wholly owned by Manchester City
than Javier Mascherano was by Liverpool until the club stumped up £17.1
million to purchase him outright, or Tévez is by Manchester United now. The
reason the Tévez scandal is not the crime of the century that some would
have you believe is that, subsequently, making a similar deal legal has
merely been a matter of semantics.
No to fixtures fixing
Manchester United will play away from home after all six of their Champions
League group games next season, according to the Premier League fixture
list. Arsenal must play five of six matches away on those dates, too. The
clubs are said to be furious, but what is the alternative? To doctor the
schedule to suit the European ambitions of the elite would be prejudicial to
their competitors. The league would rightly be accused to conspiring to
preserve the status quo.
Sometimes the fixtures give you a good break, sometimes a bad one. When José
Mourinho was manager of Chelsea, he complained about the Saturday game after
European commitments, too. He said that, in Portugal, Porto were given less
taxing matches around Champions League dates to help them in Europe. Of
course, we also know the other things that Porto were given by officials
eager to please. Is that the kind of league we want in England?
Webb pays penalty
I bumped into Howard Webb, the English referee, at Zurich Airport last Friday.
He was on his way back to Manchester, having not been retained for the
knockout stages of Euro 2008, after his controversial decision in the final
minutes of the match between Austria and Poland. Webb was no different to a
lot of other Englishmen at leading tournaments, really, in that he was
eliminated by penalties.
Kroenke in the box seat
Stan Kroenke is to be invited on to the Arsenal board and will be given first
option on future share purchases, putting him in the box seat to eventually
control the club. Alisher Usmanov, his rival, is still on the outside and
can only run interference.
Left to its devices, however, the business appears to be ticking over nicely
and could certainly do without a messy and protracted takeover battle. So,
when will David Dein, Usmanov’s most high-profile supporter, realise that,
far from being Mr Arsenal, he is rapidly becoming Mr Nuisance?
Mandaric boosts tally
Sorry, my mistake. When I heard Nigel Pearson was the manager of the month, I
thought his efforts staving off relegation at Southampton had been belatedly
acknowledged, but it turned out he had merely accepted a job from Milan
Mandaric at Leicester City.
League rules miss point
Luton Town will start next season with a 25-point deduction. Bournemouth will
be minus 15 points, as will Rotherham United. Will a club have to be driven
out of existence before the Football League acknowledges that its policy on
entry into, and out of, administration needs to be reviewed?
If God was a gambler
A great many online posts after Turkey’s victory over Croatia invoked
God as a guiding force in the victory. May I just say that I find it risible
that the Almighty takes sides in sporting encounters, although, if he does,
it would certainly be worth following his Betfair account.
