Cock-Up Watch (part 2): Steve McClaren

Is the manager of the inadequate England football side a scapegoat? Or is he a sheep, a bellwether leading a motley bunch of air-heads around in ever more pointless circles?

Steve McClaren has failed because he has failed to secure what most supporters of this dismal game assume is a minimum requirement: to qualify for each of the two big football tournaments, the World Cup and the European Championship.  In any sensible reading of the situation he is only partly to blame. Yet to listen to supporters now, and in recent weeks, it would appear as if all England's football woes lie at the door of the luckless Mr McClaren. In the sense that players produce - or in this case do not produce - the goods, McClaren is a scapegoat.

Such is the lot of any manager, perhaps. But managers set apart from those they organise are surely on to a hiding to nothing. McClaren may argue that this is not his fault. His obligations to England supporters (or, more powerfully, England's commercial sponsors) means he has to put himself in the media spotlight. But invisible managers - or those who are joined at the hip to those they lead - are more assured of success. This difference may lie at the core of remarkable success won by Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United; and explains why some of the most successful directors of FTSE companies are people nobody has ever heard of...people like Robert Wilson, John Buchanan, Mary Francis, Susan Murray and Oliver Stocken.

Football has many problems...far too often it is fundamentally boring as a spectacle. Base tribal instincts account for its popularity. It pays its stars far more money than is healthy and it relies on appearances more than reality. It also takes itself far too seriously. It was Bill Shankly, the legendary manager of the Liverpool football side, who said: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." Shankly was wrong. Football is sport and England players may always look like a flock of aimless sheep until they rediscover the fun, and the innocent enjoyment, that lies at the heart of the game to which they dedicate their lives.

Cock-up watch (part 1): Alistair Darling

Comments

[Carly Chynoweth]

The other question raised by McClaren's departure is around who comes next. I have no idea whether the FA has some sort of succession plan in place, but this sort of "perform or get out of here" culture is causing problems for managers on Wall Street. CEOs are getting so excited about sacking managers who miss one of their performance targets that companies are running out of potential replacements. See the whole story at CareerJournal.com