'Arry is not the answer

The cries across England have been for Harry Redknapp to save us from our Anglo-Italian age and bring about an era of English dominance. But is he the right man for the job?

In my opinion – no.

My doubts are not based upon Redknapp’s ability: I believe Redknapp has a great knowledge of the game, is a very shrewd dealer in the transfer market, and can get a team to play to more than the sum of its parts. He’s improved every side he has ever been at – with perhaps an exception being Southampton – and he has rightly earned a reputation as a great British manager.

My problem is that he is not actually a winner. When Fabio Capello began his ill-fated attempt at international management, he was described as a “winner with a capital W”. Of note, Redknapp has won an FA Cup with Portsmouth in 2008. Prior to that, he had won a Football League Trophy and Division Three (Bournemouth), an Intertoto Cup (West Ham), and Division One (Portsmouth). Even counting these, for a man who has been in management for almost 30 years, five trophies is not an impressive haul. Although he undoubtedly improved these sides, I am confident in saying England fans will not be satisfied with seeing improvement, because we weren’t with Capello.

Nore Staat wrote:I believe 'Arry is the not the answer for a different reason: we don't have the players to win a major international tournament.

We need to have quality players in each of the team positions, we need to have quality back up in case of injury, we need to have players that are fit during the tournament, we need to have players that can play as a team and we need to have players that play with pride.