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Which of these candidates would have made the best England manager?


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Old 04-01-2017, 03:07
Jason C
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This is completely apropos of nothing but I'm currently watching one of those Premier League Years programmes that Sky fling out as filler several times a day - specifically the edition covering the 1993/94 season.

Now as well as covering the Premier League happenings, it's featured a little piece showing the ignominious climax to England's World Cup qualifying campaign and, more notably, Graham Taylor's tenure in charge provided by Davide Gualtieri of San Marino after 8.3 seconds.

Included in that piece is a shot of a teletext page showing William Hill's odds for Taylor's replacement as England manager - which I think are quite intriguing with hindsight:

5/2 Steve Coppell
4/1 Howard Wilkinson
5/1 Gerry Francis
10/1 Ron Atkinson
10/1 Trevor Francis
10/1 George Graham
10/1 Glenn Hoddle
10/1 Kevin Keegan
14/1 Joe Royle
14/1 Ray Wilkins
20/1 Bryan Robson
20/1 Mike Walker
25/1 Alex Ferguson
25/1 Kenny Dalglish
1,000,000/1 Screaming Lord Sutch

Now some of the managers in the above list have gone on to become England manager - with mixed results at best - but there are a lot that haven't despite building up a fairly respectable reputation in English football management, so you can't help but wonder quite how they would have done had they been given the chance to take charge of the national side.

Take Ron Atkinson, for instance; he was a mainstay in English management throughout the 90s, and although his stock fell as the decade wore on (and that's not a reference to the racist comments) he still nearly won the Premier League with Aston Villa and got the most out of the players at his disposal at that time, so would he have been able to do that with the mid-90s England side if he'd had the chance?

Anyway, whether it be Atkinson or someone else, who do you think would have made the best England manager out of that lot above?

(And what had Steve Coppell done in 1993/94 that made people think highly enough of him to make him the bookies' favourite?)
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Old 04-01-2017, 04:51
AshMan123
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This is completely apropos of nothing but I'm currently watching one of those Premier League Years programmes that Sky fling out as filler several times a day - specifically the edition covering the 1993/94 season.

Now as well as covering the Premier League happenings, it's featured a little piece showing the ignominious climax to England's World Cup qualifying campaign and, more notably, Graham Taylor's tenure in charge provided by Davide Gualtieri of San Marino after 8.3 seconds.

Included in that piece is a shot of a teletext page showing William Hill's odds for Taylor's replacement as England manager - which I think are quite intriguing with hindsight:

5/2 Steve Coppell
4/1 Howard Wilkinson
5/1 Gerry Francis
10/1 Ron Atkinson
10/1 Trevor Francis
10/1 George Graham
10/1 Glenn Hoddle
10/1 Kevin Keegan
14/1 Joe Royle
14/1 Ray Wilkins
20/1 Bryan Robson
20/1 Mike Walker
25/1 Alex Ferguson
25/1 Kenny Dalglish
1,000,000/1 Screaming Lord Sutch

Now some of the managers in the above list have gone on to become England manager - with mixed results at best - but there are a lot that haven't despite building up a fairly respectable reputation in English football management, so you can't help but wonder quite how they would have done had they been given the chance to take charge of the national side.

Take Ron Atkinson, for instance; he was a mainstay in English management throughout the 90s, and although his stock fell as the decade wore on (and that's not a reference to the racist comments) he still nearly won the Premier League with Aston Villa and got the most out of the players at his disposal at that time, so would he have been able to do that with the mid-90s England side if he'd had the chance?

Anyway, whether it be Atkinson or someone else, who do you think would have made the best England manager out of that lot above?

(And what had Steve Coppell done in 1993/94 that made people think highly enough of him to make him the bookies' favourite?)
That really is one depressing list. What,s more interesting is that the man who got the job isn,t Evan on there so presumably you would have got odd,s of greater than 25/1 on it being venables. For me the one who should have got it would have been the one who never did he late great Sir Bobby Robson
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Old 04-01-2017, 08:20
celesti
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Ron Atkinson would have had Kevin Richardson as England captain, balls to that.
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Old 04-01-2017, 09:04
batdude_uk1
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That really is one depressing list. What,s more interesting is that the man who got the job isn,t Evan on there so presumably you would have got odd,s of greater than 25/1 on it being venables. For me the one who should have got it would have been the one who never did he late great Sir Bobby Robson
Am I missing something here??

Sir Bobby Robson did manage the England team, and very successfully at that.
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Old 04-01-2017, 09:14
celesti
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Venables not being on the list doesn't necessarily mean his odds were longer, he just wouldn't have been in the discussion at that time. Can't imagine him having longer odds than the two Scottish managers.
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Old 04-01-2017, 09:16
Nova21
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Mike Walker... One hit wonder... His first time at Norwich.
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Old Yesterday, 10:45
owenmahamilton
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Am I missing something here??

Sir Bobby Robson did manage the England team, and very successfully at that.
I'd go as far to say that Bobby Robson was the second best England manager ever after Alf Ramsey and if it wasn't for some bad luck and blatant cheating by Maradona and Koeman, England could well have done better than they have.
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Old Yesterday, 11:45
celesti
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Unless I'm thinking of something else entirely, Koeman was during Graham Taylor's USA 94 qualifying campaign.
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Old Yesterday, 11:56
carefree_blue
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Koeman was in the team that beat England in the 88 Euros during Robson's reign, but I too think he's mixing it up with the WC qualifier in 93.
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Old Yesterday, 11:59
Sattrega
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(And what had Steve Coppell done in 1993/94 that made people think highly enough of him to make him the bookies' favourite?)
Might have been favourite as he was out of work at the time. He'd resigned at Palace after the season finished in '93 and Taylor left England 6 months later.
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Old Yesterday, 12:48
BomoLad
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Out of that list it's Ferguson, no question. He'd never have taken the job but if he did he'd have probably been better at it than the others.
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Old Yesterday, 19:21
dearmrman
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Wouldn't have made any difference...still would have the same pool of players to pick from, all of them could have had success as an England manager...oh wait what success.
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