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Allardyce on borrowed time

Stoke were the better team last night against Newcastle and were unlucky to have to go back to St James' for a replay. But for me Sam Allardyce provided proof that he's not making the right decisions in making Alan Smith captain. This is a guy who gives 100% but who doesn't have anything to make him standout from the average Premier League player - it implies a team who want to battle it out in the bottom quarter of the table, rather than a team pushing for Europe. And that's what Allardyce has got.

Appealing decisions post-match

Unsurprisingly, there are some appeals taking place following the Chelsea v Aston Villa match yesterday in which, depending on who you talk to, there was a penalty given that wasn't (on Ballack), a free-kick given that wasn't (which Ballack scored from), and a second penalty given that wasn't (Cole's "handball"). Here's an idea...why don't we resolve some or all of these decisions at the time rather than wasting time afterwards. If, for example, the ball is found to have hit Cole in the chest, he may not be banned, but Chelsea don't get the extra 2 points back.

At what point is the appeals panel going to suggest that they could view the appeals at the time ensuring that decisions are correct and saving all this unecessary and unfair retrospective guff.

Allardyce plays dangerous game

I can't help feeling that you're playing a dangerous game if you walk into a new job and start telling the team that they aren't good enough as Sam Allardyce has done. He has 27 senior players to choose from, barring injury, so is he really saying that he can't find a match squad that he's happy with? Admittedly his preference, I'm sure, is to have bought the whole squad himself so that they are his own choices, but no manager is ever in that situation unless he first buys himself time with the current crop of players, like Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have done. By leaving Bolton he forfeited that, but it was his choice to go to a bigger club and, presumably, make more money.

I'm sure he came in with a brief to strengthen the squad, but he is under pressure and he's lashing out at the players, many of whom will have a say in his future - hardly the most sensible of moves. He needs to quietly manage those players he doesn't want out of the club, while bringing in some he does, but publicly slating them means that he won't get much out of them before they leave, and it doesn't exactly enhance their value in the transfer market.

English advantageous but not mandatory

I can only imagine that the job description for England manager doesn't ask for English to be mandatory as Capello's English is limited at best. How's he meant to motivate his players when he can't speak to them in their own language? Half-time team talks are going to be farcical!

He has a great record for sure, and he could still be very successful, but not being fluent in English, or even competent in English, is going to make his job very much harder. Good luck to him.

Was Sven that bad?

Now that Steve McClaren has gone, the time has come to reflect on some glorious ineptitude. Yes, I am referring to the players, but the manager has also made some clangers too. Back when we had Sven in charge, I thought he took some unfair stick, and when McClaren took over it seemed like a step backwards. A few highlights of Steve McClaren's reign:

1) Dropping David Beckham. Desperate to make his mark, Beckham went from England captain to not in the squad at all. A case of listening to the press, or just poor understanding of the fact that goals tend to come from quality passes? Either way, a catastrophic mistake.

2) Playing Scott Parker in a competitive England match. Let's remember, at this point Beckham still wasn't considered good enough for a place in the squad, so how does Parker get in?

3) Playing Joey Barton. OK, it was only a friendly, but there can be no excuse.

4) Managing to push Jamie Carragher into retirement - a quite amazing achievement, and McClaren was made to pay after injuries to Terry and Ferdinand.

5) Not sorting out his goalkeeping position, culminating in the picking of Scott Carson for last night's vital match. How is Robert Green not even in the latest squads?

So going back to the Sven theme, how does McClaren compare? Well he's worse, far worse. In fact, in terms of losing percentage, he's got the worst record of England managers at 29%. Sven was equal second best in terms of avoiding losses, along with Alf Ramsey, losing 15% of matches. Only Terry Venables record is better in terms of loss percentage.

And Sven's win percentage? 60% - the equal 2nd best win percentage with Ron Greenwood. Top of the list are Alf Ramsey and Glenn Hoddle - believe it or not - on 61%. This compares to McClaren's 50%.

So Steve McClaren may be a nice guy, but unfortunately he's not the man for the job, as proven by his selections and, consequently, his results. I'd love to see Jose Mourinho take the job but I'm not sure how it would go - he thrives on close relationships with his players so how would he cope with only seeing the players occassionally? Unless another top quality alternative emerges, and there are none from the UK, it could just be worth a shot....unless we ask Sven back? :-)

Unlucky Scotland

There is just no way that the "foul" that led to the second Italy goal was a foul against the Italian. 'Nuff said.