McClaren in talks over Blackburn job

[Red Chilli]

hapless: adj.
Luckless; unfortunate

I think fredo is right you can't say McLaren is luckless or unfortunate. He's very lucky and very fortunate to be offered another job after his feckless performance as England manager.

[spud_gun]

Just announced on SSN that talks between McClaren and Blackburn to start today.

someone where in Blackburn........

- McLaren , yeah i've hard of him - Why?

- What? What he's? What he's in talk for the Blackburn job.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkqqMPPg2VI

[The Erectile Banana]

I'm looking forward to seeing that winning smile lighting up the league again.

[Neil Young]

I think fredo is right you can't say McLaren is luckless or unfortunate. He's very lucky and very fortunate to be offered another job after his feckless performance as England manager.

OK Mr Pedantic:

unlucky; luckless; unfortunate.
[Origin: 1560–70; hap1 + -less]

—Related forms
hap·less·ly, adverb
hap·less·ness, noun

—Synonyms miserable, woebegone, wretched, forlorn; pathetic, pitiable.

I think he qualifies for most of the terms I've highlighted.

[Red Chilli]

OK Dr Pedantic:

[Neil Young]

[Parm]

oh dear, why havent they taken a punt on Ince? or picked a manager who can manage?

[Joe King]

What's the scientific evidence that McLaren is hopeless ?

From what I hear, he looks like you and you seem to be a failure. Thats enough for me

[Jaymo]

Step back for Blackburn then,

[Guest]

Stop being argumentative. McClaren was abysmal as England manager - totally out of his depth. I defy anyone to argue the opposite coherently.

Who wasn't a failure as England manager other than Alf Ramsey ?

[Guest]

Well the best evidence is hi previous performance as a manager, which was England. He obviously was below the required standard as the results have shown. Now stop being a tit.

Who wasn't a failure as England manager other than Alf Ramsey ?

Results isn't the only basis to determine if a manager was successful or not. There is an element of time which goes into this. You're all obviously jumping the gun (like the press there) a bit too quickly.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that McLaren is a great manager, just emphasizing the fickle nature of English fans.

On the same note (deeming that McClown is indeed a clown), Rafa has been a failure if we take into consideration his record in the league ? Obviously not.

I state again, time is essential in order to properly judge a manager, not just by results. The English national team is a poisoned chalice. It's a no win situation.

[MrMichael]

Who wasn't a failure as England manager other than Alf Ramsey ?

Bobby Robson.

Considering that, as an international manager, there is only 1 trophy available every 2 years, actually winning a tournament can't be entirely what defines success and failure (unless managing Brazil of course).

[Guest]

Bobby Robson.

Considering that, as an international manager, there is only 1 trophy available every 2 years, actually winning a tournament can't be entirely what defines success and failure (unless managing Brazil of course).

Robson did well but he had exceptional players to call upon, and there was a real team spirit in the England camp at the time.

Gascoigne was at the peak of his powers and it counted a lot in England's push into the semi finals.

The current England team is just a team of individuals. I can't see anything more than that.

[MrMichael]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/may/05/sport.comment3

Friday May 5 2006

Of all the descriptions applied to Steve McClaren over the past few days - meticulous, innovative, ambitious, dull, English - perhaps the most pertinent came from Jim Smith, the man who set him on the path that yesterday led to his elevation to the position of England manager. "Most of all," said Smith, "he's the luckiest coach I've ever worked with."

McClaren has not risen from youth coach at Oxford United to managing England in the space of 11 years through luck alone but good fortune has played its part, particularly, it could be argued, in the last week. Last Friday morning the Football Association thought they had secured Luiz Felipe Scolari as Sven-Goran Eriksson's successor; McClaren, who had been favourite, was simultaneously licking his wounds and basking in the afterglow of Middlesbrough's Uefa Cup semi-final triumph against Steaua Bucharest the night before.

Scolari's U-turn meant McClaren went from preparing for a home game with Everton on Saturday to his former position as England favourite. By Wednesday night, when McClaren returned from Middlesbrough's 1-1 draw at Bolton Wanderers, he was able to tell his assistants at the club he would be appointed by the FA - and that none of them would be coming with him.

Their reaction must have been interesting. McClaren brought Steve Harrison and Steve Round with him when he arrived on Teesside five years ago and stipulated they must be part of the new deal he negotiated recently but they will remain at the Riverside while McClaren takes up residence at Soho Square. So on he goes, two days past his 45th birthday, weighed down by nothing more than his own career.

It is not a unique trajectory but part of the interest in McClaren's rise from tidy midfielder at Hull City, Derby County, Lincoln City, Bristol City and Oxford United, where he became youth coach - then assistant at Derby and Manchester United to manager at Middlesbrough - lies in the failure to accumulate warmth and endorsement. At Boro this reached the stage where fans were openly hostile despite the club's success. There was also an absence of praise for McClaren from Sir Alex Ferguson in his autobiography while Smith tempered acknowledgement of McClaren's attributes with the mention of luck. What Smith is prepared to accept is McClaren's brightness.

Born in York in 1961 to parents Margaret and Brian, McClaren went to Nunthorpe School and excelled at sport. From there he became an apprentice at Hull, where he won promotion to the old Third Division in 1983. Two years later he moved to Derby and was part of the team that won the Second Division under Arthur Cox in 1987. Within a couple of years and a couple of moves his playing career was curtailed by injury. He embarked on coaching and Smith, by then at Derby, recalled "hearing good things" about him.

When Smith sought a new assistant, £30,000 brought McClaren from Oxford. "Steve made an immediate impact with a wonderful, fresh approach that went down well with the players and the rest of the staff," he said. "He introduced innovations such as regular stretching exercises, massages, diets, technical data and fitness routines." Such features are commonplace now but in 1995 this approach was new.

McClaren, not considered a tactical analyst in the manner of Terry Venables, for example, also impressed with training sessions that were "high-tempo and stimulating". Smith credited Bill Beswick, the sports psychologist who has assumed guru status to McClaren, with positive changes to Derby.

Smith became godfather to McClaren's son Josh but that was no pull when Ferguson and United came calling in February 1999 - just as McClaren's contract at Boro was no pull when vacancies arose at Leeds, Newcastle and Chelsea.

Derby received £250,000 in compensation; United received a successor to the much-loved Brian Kidd who won over the players quickly. Phil Neville has testified to McClaren's "attention to detail" and he also singled out Beswick. "At the time Steve arrived we were always just losing out in the semi-, quarter-finals in the Champions League," said Neville. "Then Steve came and all of a sudden, probably with the help of video analysis and more in-depth preparation on the opposition, we won the Champions League that year.

"I'm not saying Steve was the reason we won the Champions League, we had a great team, but his fresh ideas were well received. He brought Bill Beswick in and people said 'why do Man United players need a sports psychologist?' But if you can improve a great player by one per cent, that's all we're looking for. That might just give you the edge."

McClaren has not had great players at Middlesbrough but he has had a lot of money. Players he has tried to sign include Emile Heskey, Nigel Quashie and Seth Johnson. Pound for pound, his best signings have been Gareth Southgate and George Boateng.

McClaren has also had an exceptional crop of youngsters and has been prepared to play them. But he is not responsible for them being at Boro. Nor, according to Southgate, can McClaren claim credit for the club's renaissance this spring and one cannot foresee tears at the farewell party, if there is one.

As the Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson said of McClaren: "He has a lot of talent, in given areas." And, as many within football were saying this week, a lot of luck.

McClaren's coaching class

1992-95 Youth and reserve-team coach at Oxford

1995-99 First-team coach/assistant manager at Derby

1995-96 Derby promoted to Premiership

1999-2001 Assistant manager at Manchester United

1999 Helps United to unprecedented treble of European Cup, Premiership and FA Cup

November 2000 Takes joint charge of England as caretaker manager with Peter Taylor for friendly against Italy

2001 Part-time assistant to England's manager Sven-Goran Eriksson

June 2001 Appointed Middlesbrough manager

June 2002 Part of the coaching set-up as England reach World Cup quarter-finals in Japan before giving up role to focus on club success

2004 Boro win the Carling Cup

May 2004 Returns to the England fold for Euro 2004 only to see the team exit in the quarter-finals

2004-05 Boro finish seventh in the Premiership, their highest placing

2006 McClaren endures a terrible start to the year in the Premiership but Boro reach the Uefa Cup final to enhance his reputation

[Neil Young]

Who wasn't a failure as England manager other than Alf Ramsey ?

I'd say not making the finals of the European Championships can be readily construed as a failure. So did the FA fortunately.

In those terms he was a bigger failure than many England managers.

Anyway even though he was under any meaningful definition of the word, I didn't say he was a failure. I said he was out of his depth and he was - tactically, media-wise, in man-management terms...He was dreadful. He may do OK at a mid-ranking club but he was massively over-promoted to get the England job and he was quickly found out as his record proves.

Now puss off.