With Sven Goran Eriksson’s days as England manager coming to a close after the World Cup, the jockeying for his position has become quite intense. Guus Hiddink, Stuart Pearce, Martin O’ Neill, Sam Allardyce, Alan Curbishely, Steve McLaren, Luis Felipe Scolari have all been interviewed.
The FA has apparently made it clear that this years choice would be a Brit. That would mean that ex-Celtics manager Martin O’ Neill chances rests much on whether he is willing to drop his brogue and drink Newcastle ale. Guus Hiddink is now close to signing on as Russia’s new manager. And Luis Felipe Scolari is out.
The front runners are Sam Allardyce, Bolton Wanderer’s manager, Steve McLaren of Middlesborough and Alan Curbishley, of Charlton Athletic.
As of this moment there is speculation that Curbishley’s chances are waning.
The recent Bolton- Charlton Athletic encounter that Bolton won easily 4-1 had lots of impilcations for the manager’s position. In the match Allardyce took a gamble and inserted Ricardo Vaz Te and Jared Borgetti who responded with goals, along with a brace from Kevin Davies. Warming the bench was captain Kevin Nolan and potential match-winners Stelios Giannakopoulos and Jay-Jay Okocha. Curbishley was caught flat footed with an injury depleted side and the late insertion of substitutes Jonathan Fortune and Jay Bothroyd. Charlton Athletic has failed to win away from home in 13 matches.
My opinion is that this current line up of Brit managers is they have pretty thin CVs when it comes to international matches. The FA is supposed to be close to making its decision but I would think that if they let Gus Hiddink get away, they’re brain dead.