Feeling a Little Better Now
Most of us Anglo Saxons have had a pretty dismal week after being dumped out of the European Championships by the Croatians. The predictable domino effect took place, and the coach of the English national football team, Steve McClaren, has been booted out.
He said, “I am not one to sit around on a beach”, before promptly scooting over to Barbados to enjoy some of the 2 million pound compensation. So, the hunt is now on for a new boss. Most people have already ruled themselves out of contention: Martin O’Neill is busy with Aston Villa, Lippi can’t speak the language, Wenger is far too French and even Steve Coppell of all people has ruled himself out of the running. All a bit of a joke really.
This got me thinking back to my childhood, when something similar occured with the England manager of the time, Graham Taylor. Taylor has an even worse time of it than McClaren and made the cardinal sin of losing a football (not soccer) match to the USA. Very bad news. He, of course, ended up out on his bottom a year later after failing to qualify for the World Cup. However, looking back at the video below, he seems much more palatable than Steve McClaren. He had a little bit of passion and didn’t survive on a wave of different sound bytes. He even had the good grace to resign.
Have a look at this little video, an extract from a documentary made during the last couple of years of Taylor’s reign.