The internet was once again up in arms earlier this week when the idea was raised that, if the England men’s national team opted for a non-English manager after Gareth Southgate’s tenure — which, the FA announced on Sunday, will extend to at least Euro 2024 — it would be “cheating.”
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The word was a loaded one, and the argument even referenced Sarina Wiegman, the Dutch manager who led the England women’s national team to a Euro 2022 title, but more than that, there’s a concerning undertone to the thesis. What matters more than the nationality of the manager is their suitability and fit for the role.
It is true that neither former managers Sven-Goran Eriksson or Fabio Capello achieved much on paper with the England men’s team, though the latter seemed to do a sterling job of alienating most by the time he left. This doesn’t highlight needing someone from that nation to lead the team so much as it hammers home the importance of having the right person for the job — this is the conundrum of coaching anywhere, at any level. On the men’s side, for instance, it was always unlikely that Spanish manager Unai Emery was the right person to lead Arsenal men, yet the two persisted until their unhappy divorce, and we see such disjointed appointments all the time throughout the football world.
Yes, international management is a very different beast than league coaching, as it requires an entirely different day-to-day setup that keeps the person in charge away from their players rather than working on the finer details week after week. And to be fair, yes, things are different when it’s national pride on the line — when the team you put together is there to represent an entire nation.
