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The Benefit of Englishmen Coaching Abroad
The image of Steve McClaren standing forlorn on the Wembley touchline as Mladen Patric scored the goal which ensured England would not qualify for 2008’S European Championships threatened to be iconic of his managerial career.
Stood on the touchline with only an umbrella to shield him from the torrential rainfall and criticism of a nation, it would have been all too easy to presume that a once promising coaching career had came to an abrupt end. Then, 30 months later, there is an altogether different iconic image. This one sees him hoisted high above his victorious Twente squad, the Eredivisie trophy held aloft. Whilst England rubs its collective eyes, a small University town on the German border revere him. This time his exit is glorious rather than acrimonious.
His conduct at Twente is incongruous with the media-obsessed parody of himself he became whilst managing Middlesbrough. In spite of presiding over Middlesbrough’s halcyon period, taking the team to their first ever Carling Cup triumph in 2004 and reaching the UEFA Cup final in 2006, there was coolness between McClaren and the supporters. His overly prepared, clichéd media sound-bites which often patronised the supporters, coupled with overly cautious tactics and a reliance on individualism rather than a cohesive unit never really endeared him. The same disorganisation, the same Colgate grin irked English supporters long before his inevitable dismissal.
The McClaren England came to know is dead. Gone is the rigid conservatism, replaced by an almost zealous adherence to the 4-3-3 formation. His wide attackers, Brian Ruiz and Miroslav Stoch, are every bit as potent as Blaise Nkufo. Although their tally of 63 goals this season was dwarfed by Ajax’s 106, his adventurism earned praise from Johann Cruyff. He has showed an ability to learn and adapt which is all too rare in the current breed of young English managers. Gone are the team of trusted assorted back room staff and advisers. The first man he went to see upon accepting FC Twente’s offer was Sir Bobby Robson – perhaps the most successful proponent of Englishmen managing abroad. “I never took anybody to work with me and I never bought an English player all the time I was away,” he said.
Such is the reverence that Sir Bobby Robson remains held with in this country, it is easy to forget that he too was forced into working abroad. His eight years as England manager were often, like McClaren’s, fraught with Tabloid insinuation and criticism. Going abroad offered him the opportunity to rebuild his career and, most importantly, to develop as a coach and tactically in new, unknown environments. Working with players such as Luis Figo, Ronaldo and Romario, he won domestic championships in Holland and Portugal, as well as adding a European Cup Winners Cup to his name at Barcelona. He remains the last English manager to have lifted a European trophy.
That fact came agonizingly close to being changed by Roy Hodgson, a revelation at Fulham finally earning the recognition his cosmopolitan career deserves. His trajectory has taken him to titles in Sweden with Halmstads, an outpost with the United Arab Emirates and the San Siro dressing room. As cosmopolitan a coach as the Premier League can boast, there is an organisation, an astute preparedness to his Fulham team which remains sorely lacking within the Premier League’s lower reaches. There is no doubt that his Fulham side is tinged with continental influence. There is patience in possession and tactical rigidity out of it borne of his time with contemporary Bobby Houghton in Sweden. Perhaps our suspicious attitude to English coaches abroad is not so much emphasised by our surprise to Steve McClaren’s success, rather by our ignorance of pioneers like Houghton and Hodgson, and before that Jimmy Hogan and Vic Buckingham, who soon learned that the English way was not the only way.
It’s therefore a breath of fresh air to see Roy Hodgson’s name linked with the Liverpool and England job - although with the latter one hopes that it’s later rather than sooner. However, A Different League argues that, given the foreign competition for managerial jobs at the pinnacle of the Premiership, more English managers should be willing to take the risk of working abroad, progressing their careers and challenging for honours rather than wallowing in secure mid-table mediocrity. If it has worked for McClaren, it can work for anyone.
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