167: Alan Curbishley, Charlton Athletic, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 05 Official Sticker Album, Autograph Edition

Mat Jolin-Beech addresses the elephant in the FA’s room at the moment with a look at some of the runners and riders for the vacant England men’s team job. Our subject did great things in South East London once upon a time and, as an aside, his brother has been manager of The Who since the 1970s so clearly has the necessary skills to deal with rockstar attitudes. Over to Mat to plead his case.

Now the dust has settled on another England failure, although getting to the Euro 2024 finals and being beaten by a promising and already good Spain team, the Three Lions are looking for a new manager. Gareth Southgate, for all the hate he received, did a decent job with the national team. Two finals, a semi-final and a quarter. Not bad for a national that failed to qualify for the Euros only back in 2008.

Yes, he probably should have been more adventurous with his tactics, style, and substitutions. Yes, the football was the most turgid and stodgy thing I have seen in a long, long time, and remember I have witnessed the Moyes, van Gaal and Mourinho Manchester United eras, as well as the joyful 2023/24 league campaign. And yes, with the talents of Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Kobbie Mainoo, Bukayo Saka, and the goal scoring prowess of Harry Kane, we perhaps should have done better. BUT, from a nation that hasn’t made a final before Southgate since 1966, I think you can call that progress. Plus we now know how to win penalty shootouts! Where am I going with this you might ask? (I am doing the same myself). The list of potential replacements.

It’s a big decision for the FA and one they need to get right to maintain that progress and hopefully go that one step further. The candidates though are not the most exciting, not the realistic ones anyway once you take Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp out the frame. U21 boss Lee Carsley is probably front of the queue by being the man closest to it and already in the system. Exciting? No. Then you’ll get English managers from the top flight who have a record of doing ok. Graham Potter and Eddie Howe. Potter is more realistic than Howe, but both could be good appointments. But again, exciting? Not really.

Then you get those who still believe it is 2004 and that good players automatically make good managers. And I am genuinely shocked, but sadly not surprised, when I’ve heard comments from fans who genuinely think Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard would make ideal appointments. Why? Their records are appalling. Almost getting Everton and Aston Villa relegated, only to be replaced by managers who with essentially the same players have performed much better with Villa taking top four and a Champions League spot.

But, I have noticed a pattern, one I have seen before in about 2008-2010, roughly. There are some names that always are linked to jobs. Mauricio Pochettino is also one of them. Whenever a half decent job crops up with a Premier League team, these names are automatically towards the top of the bookies’ odds list. Back in the late noughties (I hate that phrase by the way) those names were normally Sam Allardyce (we saw how well he did with England – 100% win record), Alan Pardew, and Alan Curbishley.


I was going to state that they also fall into the category of managers who did ok once, but were generally a bit rubbish, but somehow always get good jobs or are linked to them. ‘Curbs’, as I’m sure some Charlton Athletic fans called him, took over the top job with the Addicks in 1991 in a joint role, before becoming sole manager in 1995. He masterminded two Premier League promotions and established the club as a stable(ish) top flight club. He left in 2006 after not extending his contract.

After a thankfully short stint in the TV studios, he returned to manage West Ham United between 2006 and 2008, saving them from relegation and then obtaining a top ten finish. Things soured and he left but he was always top of potential new manager lists for a long time even being named as a potential England manager after the whole Steve McLaren debacle. But he never returned to management – although he had a stint with Fulham’s backroom staff between 2013 and 2015.

Despite only ever middling the Premier League, I’d still take Curbs and his ten years out of the game over Gerrard or Lampard. Even if the latter would be funny.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

N/A: Chris Kamara, Sheffield United, Chris Kamara’s Street Soccer, Midas Games

Image
In November 1972 the arcade game Pong made its debut and the gaming industry was born. While not the first attempt to make some computer pixels do not very much for the amusement of the masses it was by far the most commercially successful and, by the end of the decade, the first ever football game was unleashed on the world in the form of NASL Soccer. Judging by the YouTube footage it seemed to involve lots of brightly coloured stick men over hitting through balls and running in the opposite direction to oncoming forwards which may well be what the likes of Trevor Francis , Johan Cruyff and Gerd Muller were getting up to over in the US at the time. Throughout the 1980s the games became more realistic and a host of star players and managers put their names on products of variable quality. Peter Shilton’s Handball Maradona (not that he is anyway bitter about being out jumped by a midget) gave youngsters the opportunity to fulfil their goalkeeping fantasies in a range of scenarios with r
Read more

138: Gennaro Gattuso, Italy, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, England Collector Binder

Image
We are finally responding to a request from the excellent Anglo Italian Pod for a post on a member of Italy’s victorious 2006 World Cup squad. Mat Jolin-Beech may have already covered Francesco Totti and missed out on the opportunity to cover Alessandro Del Piero or Marco Materazzi but there were a host of exceptional footballers he could have chosen from their inspirational captain Fabio Cannavaro to the impossibly handsome Mauro Camoranesi. This blog being what it is though Mat has decided to focus on a loveable shithouse and his time in Scotland. We hope this does the trick lads. This is the first that may end up being a series of pieces from me with the theme “I forgot they played there” and the opening salvo in this possible theme is Gennaro Gattuso. The midfield hardman is synonymous with AC Milan where, in no particular order, he claimed two Champions League titles, the Coppa Italia, two Serie A winner’s medals, two Italian Super Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, and a FIFA Club
Read more

269: Trifon Ivanov, Bulgaria, USA ’94 World Cup, UK and Eire Edition

Image
The 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA was my introduction to football and, nearly thirty years later, probably the international tournament I remember most fondly despite the fact that I realistically don’t remember too much about it. I can attest to having witnessed Ray Houghton’s wonder goal/flukey lob in the Republic of Ireland’s shock victory over Italy as it was the centrepiece of a First Holy Communion celebration my family was attending. The joy and shock experienced by the predominantly Irish and Italian guests crowded around what seemed like the world’s biggest telly spilled over into the garden for all of us kids present and led to an inevitable kickabout. A few weeks later the quarter finals coincided with a primary school barbecue which, again, saw lots of people crowded around a telly watching Italy take on Spain . I remember very little about the game as my primary focus was the kickabout in the school playground and trying to digest ropey veggie burgers but one parent said
Read more