IF FIRST impressions are anything to go by, the new boss is not the same as the old boss. In fact, to judge from his declarations on his first day as England head coach yesterday, Steve McClaren is desperate to dissociate himself from the failed Sven-Göran Eriksson regime, a process that he intends to kick-start with the appointment of Terry Venables to his coaching staff.

The involvement of Venables, whose precise role has still to be determined, will be a significant step in defining the new England set-up, but it will not be the only one. While the other obvious priority is to appoint a new captain — almost certainly John Terry or Steven Gerrard — to succeed David Beckham, McClaren also cited the importance of building relations between the FA and the top clubs and managers, hinting at the tensions that existed between Eriksson and, among others, Sir Alex Ferguson.

Even in a snatched interview on his way into the FA’s Soho Square offices, where he arrived 45 minutes late after his flight from Teesside was delayed, McClaren cut short the pleasantries to state that he would be no clone of Eriksson, whom he served as an assistant for most of the Swede’s 5½ years in charge.

“It’s going to be totally different,” the former Middlesbrough manager said. “I’m going to do it my way. It’s going to be different from Sven.”

Cynics may suspect the hand of Max Clifford, the publicist whose new role as a consultant to McClaren’s advisers, Key Sports Management, has attracted intrigue, but Clifford announced yesterday that he will have no direct involvement with the new coach. McClaren, in any case, is wise enough to know that distancing himself from Eriksson’s failures, by which he was tainted in many eyes, is the way forward.

Later, speaking to the television cameras inside the FA’s headquarters, he shed a little more light on the changes he planned. He did not talk about potential captains or recruits to the coaching staff — although, in addition to Venables, he will speak to Peter Taylor, the Crystal Palace manager, today about his involvement with the Under-21 team — he talked of the need to build bridges with the leading clubs in order to unify the country behind his team, who play under him for the first time in a friendly against Greece at Old Trafford a fortnight today.

“I will look to make a few changes and freshen a few things up,” he said. “Initially I have to assess the players. We want to develop good relationships with the clubs, so we will be speaking to their management, coaching staff and medical staff and trying to bring the nation closer together, bringing the England team closer to the clubs and bringing the England team closer to the fans.

“I think they’re the main priorities and what we need to do is build a team that can achieve something and give the fans something to be proud of.”

That was rarely the case in the later years of Eriksson’s reign, when hazy planning and a lack of tactical inspiration were reflected in disappointing performances at this summer’s World Cup finals in Germany.

McClaren is eager to address that by bringing in a fresher approach that should be reflected by the identity of the other members of his coaching staff, whom he hopes to have in place by the time he announces his squad to face Greece at the end of next week.

Decisions must be made on whether to retain Sammy Lee and Ray Clemence, members of Eriksson’s coaching team, but Taylor will find out the extent of his future involvement when he meets McClaren today. “As it stands at the moment, I’m taking the next game against Moldova at Ipswich,” Taylor told The Times. “I don’t know any more. I would like to carry on, but all I know officially is that I’m doing that next match.”

That is symptomatic of an air of uncertainty hanging over Soho Square, not only with regard to the national team but also the national stadium, with Multiplex, the Australian company behind the construction of Wembley Stadium, announcing yesterday that the complex may not be ready to host events until June next year.

The FA hurriedly put out a statement saying that it expects the FA Cup Final to be played there next May and that “we could still even play an England fixture in February”.

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