Some would argue that, despite being given a considerable amount of money by Steve Gibson, McClaren was and unqualified failure at Boro and was definitely a failure for England. My question is, who would now want to employ a loser who is tactically naive?
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Les Reed
Bryan Kidd
Peter Grant
In answer No. He didn't deserve the top job, and i'll think he'll be tarnished with it for a while yet.
MacClaren has been a VERY well respected figure in football circles for a coulpe of decades now. As a coach at Oxford, and then Man U, he was regarded as one of the most forward-thinking, revolutional coaches in the game. At Middlesborough as a manager, he lifted them to a tier above their natural level, like what Alladyce did at Bolton. Its only now others are finding that that was harder to achieve than it looked.
On the flip side, he shouldn't of got the job because he was a major factor in the failing Ericsson era, a clean sweep was needed not continuity. He has made some poor decisions and the players have not responded as they should. He has been badly let down some players in my book.
Maclaren may well be no Alf Ramsey, but he is no Mike Bassett either.
So can't see how he was a failure at Boro to be honest.
But bear in mind that he wasn't first choice - that was Scolari, and the other applicants were Allardyce, Curbs and err...hardly an aspiring field to choose from.
Some here have talked about the influence of overseas players being picked in preference to English players, and therefore there is a smaller pool of players to choose from, but what is equally true is that no Englishman has managed a Premiership winning team since Howard Wilkinson, and that the top five/six clubs are all managed by foreign coaches. If there was an outstanding English manager out there, he'd be at Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal, Spurs etc...
Two of those clubs have changed managers this year, and I don't recall any English, or even British names being nominated to succeed them.
McClaren might have been a poor choice, but the the alternatives weren't much better.
Birmingham??
He's got a high-profile which is what they want
Valley, You nearly made me choke. Please give a warning if you are going to put up stuff like that. : -)
No. He'll obviously end up at a mid-level Premiership club like Brum or maybe even back to Boro if Southgate can't get it right after Xmas.
McLaren was given a "vote of confidence" during the winter break and at that time it would probably have been better for all involved to let him go and use the time to get a new man in and take advantage of the 3 weeks off league duties to bed things in.
However, he got the dreaded vote of confidence. They sold Dzeko for over 30 million euros and promptly gave McLaren all the money to spend re-building the squad (which he did by bringing in half a dozen new players).
A week later, after admittedly a poor 1-0 defeat, though one in which Diego inexplicably betrayed team orders, took the ball off of the appointed penalty taker and promptly missed the penalty... they sack him.
You honestly could not make it up.
For sure!
His record in the transfer market may have been mixed, but assembled a pretty good squad at Boro- the likes of Hasselbaink and Viduka were successful up there, whilst he also helped resurrect a few careers such as Zenden, Geremi and Mendieta.
As for England, not an excuse for his reign as he was a disaster but he did have to deal without the likes of Terry, Ferdinand, Hargreaves, Rooney (suspension and injury) and Owen for much of the 2008 qualifying campaign. Not saying he did not deserve the sack but there are a few mitigating factors which did not help his cause. In hindsight, perhaps it was too early for him to be England manager.
Cannot fault the Twente job, whilst there seem to be factors beyond his control which have led to his Wolfsberg sacking.
Therefore, yes I think he is very employable and would do a good job for 10-14 of the Premiership sides.
What he said plus he won the league in Holland with a club that wasn't one of the big three.
Personally I think we should sack Powell and get Stevie Mac in now.
(only joking but he is a proven manager)
1. Dutch title with Twente
2. Uefa Cup finalist with Boro
3. League Cup winners with Boro
Admittley failed spectacuarly with England, but then Cappelo despite qualifying for the World cup we may not have bothered even being there. Wolfsburg won the title last season and he probably should have done better.
Alot of clubs could do alot worse than appoint him and he won't be out of work for long, although I would prefer him to keep travelling round Europe and see how he fares
Dutch Mclaren