Q&A: Howard Wilkinson

Do you have any sympathy for Steve McClaren?

We missed out on Euro 2008 by one point. I don’t know what is fair or not any more. There is no fair in football. The problems we have had over the past six or seven years can’t be heaped on the head of one man.

Are the players to blame?

They’re not footballers any more, they’re Hollywood stars. They exist in the same stratosphere as film stars. Some of them have started developing airs and graces that don’t sit well with the concept of being a professional sportsman.

Should the next England manager be English?

It would send out the wrong message if he wasn’t. If we are going to tackle the problems in the game then we have to be committed to developing our talent and that includes coaches. British managers have no chance of getting the top jobs nowadays, so how can they prove how good they are? If Arsène Wenger left Arsenal, do you think David Moyes would get his job? No chance. Steve Coppell? No chance.

You were the last English manager to win the title, with Leeds United in 1992. Do you think you will have that claim to fame for long?

My record is safe unless an Englishman gets one of the top jobs and I can’t see that happening for a while. Fifteen years ago, if someone had told me that no other Englishman would have won the title by 2007 I would have laughed. I didn’t think about it until 2002 or 2003, but that’s when it really started to hit home.

Was winning the title the proudest moment of your career?

No, I don’t think so because I’ve done a few things in my time. Helping Notts County reach the first [top] division and then keeping them there took more doing than taking Leeds up and winning the title. Leeds are a special club, though, and I’m absolutely delighted that they’re doing well again. Leeds is a Premier League city and it deserves a Premier League club.

You have been the England caretaker manager. Is managing England an impossible job?

No. Why should it be? Managers know what they’re letting themselves in for when they accept a job. The intrusive media interest has always been there, but you have to handle it. It hasn’t got any worse over the past six or seven years.

You were the FA’s technical director in the late 1990s. What happened to your blueprint for success?

You tell me. When I started working at the FA I forecast what is happening today — the explosion in money from TV, the explosion in the import of foreign players, the decrease in the number of English players in the top flight. I didn’t need Wednesday’s result at Wembley to tell me what’s wrong with the game. Everything that I said was going to happen has happened and the FA failed to do what was necessary. I told the FA that we needed to invest in training coaches, we needed to invest in youth development. That’s what was needed then and that’s what needed now.

Were your recommendations ignored because you had a reputation for being a long-ball manager?

That’s all in the past. It’s all gone. I don’t want to talk about it.

Interview by Kaveh Solhekol