McClaren sacked – your say

Thursday 22nd November 2007, 11:45AM GMT.

Out - Steve McClaren at WembleySteve McClaren’s was today sacked as England manager after the national team failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

We want your opinions about last night’s performance, the players and the coach. Use the comments box below.

England needed a draw to qualify but were 2-0 down inside 15 minutes, with a nervous Scott Carson exposed and vulnerable in goal.

A second-half Frank Lampard penalty and a superb volley from Peter Crouch appeared to have done the job before Mladen Petric spoiled the party with a screamer of a shot.

McClaren was sacked following an emergency meeting of the FA board this morning.


  1. 1
    Martin Robinson

    We were great the best ive ever seen good work lads…..oh hang on…England..nah they were rubbish..

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  2. 2
    Denis

    We will never be good enough. Why as an England player are you going to give your all when it is the Premiership where you make the big money. It will make no difference who is appointed manager, the job is “A poisened challice”.

    We are third rate and always will be.

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  3. 3
    tony russell from devon

    replacement managers drip off the tongue er mourrino, megson,peters,
    ian holloway,. nah start again. no matter who the fa choose and it is interesting to know what fa stands for, oh surely not, the only way england will be fit for purpose is when all premiership teams are restricted to 2 overseas players, otherwise we labour in vain!!it matters not a jot who manages the team until this is sorted

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  4. 4
    Andrew

    Probally about right, but there are plenty of the players who should take a long hard look at themselves too.
    Too many of them are overpaid, un-motivated and lacking pride.

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  5. 5
    Neil

    Was there last night , no idea , no passion , clueless what to do when went behind ,why wait till half time , need a manager who is not afraid of the players. The we will come good

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  6. 6
    BoroGeoff

    Restricting overseas players will not sort out this problem, all it will do is allow mediocrity. Don’t forget we failed to qualify for world cups in the 70 when there were very few overseas players.

    The problem is that the current crop of players are told and believ that they are ‘world class’. Sadly they are not…

    As for McClaren any Boro fan would have told you he wasn’t the man for the job…

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  7. 7
    Mark Higgins

    I am lost for words, it sums it up when we have/had a manager standing on the sideline with an umbrella and a cup of hot coffee while his team are currently loosing, while the Croation manager is in a wolly hat, balling at his players when they are winning 2-0. The drive, passion and commitment comes down from the manager. The current crop of players need a reality check and realise that as a collective group of players they are not as good as they are being made out to be by the press. There are certain players who think it is their “right” to play for England and dont need to try hard. As an experiment the FA should tell the manager for the next friendly to pick a team from Championship down, then you will see a team with pride and players who want to earn their shirts.

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  8. 8
    Mark Higgins

    The FA will never restrict the amount of overseas players in the Premier League due to £££. The only reason it is the best league in the world is down to the quality of players it attracts. The FA need to decide whether they want a good International Team or a good League week in week out. Mourinho and Sam Alladyce are my choice of management team. Not tweedle Dee and tweedle Dum they have just sacked

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  9. 9
    Denis

    It will not make any difference who is appointed “Tweeddle Dum and Tweedle Dee, Uncle Tom Cobly and all etc etc. The outcome will always be the same. We are just third rate.

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  10. 10
    Andy J

    What can you say? Only one player did anything like a job and that was Peter Crouch, and we all accept he just is not “World Class”.
    To sort the situation out doesnt mean cutting foreign players in the premiership, it is much more simple than that:
    1/ Hire a manager with a shred of intelligence and tactical instinct
    2/ Hire a manager who has actually won something
    3/ Allow, and this goes for the press as much as the FA, that manager to manage as he sees fit. If someone wants to throw their rattle out of the pram at being dropped then let them rot, they are not team members.

    We must remember that football is a team sport, so it doesnt matter how many primadonnas you have if they dont gel you dont win anything. How many Stevie G’s or owen or Rooneys do Greece have?

    As for choice of manager from what I have just said you probably have already guessed it: Morinho. give him a 6-8 year contract and a complete free reign, then we might actually win something!

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  11. 11
    TF7

    We have won nothing since 1966, you dont need to be a mathematical genius to understand 41 years of hurt is painful enough.

    The problems starts at Grass Roots, Look at our own County FA, There are people who have served for 40 years or more and the local standards are now appaling, repeat that on a national scale and you can return the blame to the FA in general.

    Kids dont play competitively from aged 11 upwards at school level and develop a winnning attitude yet the County Associations have governence on this issue ?.

    Any youngster witha reputed ability? is often scouted and then placed in an academy where they are wrapped up in cotton wool and years later they are then unleashed as the next superstar!

    The FA should take on board there proportion of the blame, they sack McLaren then they should rid themselves of the amateur element within there ranks.

    Rant over

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  12. 12
    johnny watson

    don’t know what all the fuss is about – he was the best England manager since Sven young Ericsson

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  13. 13
    davew

    Awful Manager
    Awful Team
    Awful Pitch

    Nuff said!!

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  14. 14
    TFI

    totally agree any player that is english should have a right to play mybe a behind closed doors match between the england team and a champ select team would be good to deflate there egoes a bit

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  15. 15
    Richard

    Should of left him where he was at middlesbourgh…

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  16. 16
    AB

    What can you expect when the guy in goal is 22 years old and on a season long loan, the 3 guys that were given a stab up front can’t get a starting place in their respective teams, the 2 guys at centre half’s teams can’t keep clean sheets for toffee, and the less said about Lumpard, JustNotRight-Phillips and Joke Cole the better. So much for Cole’s pre-emtive strike at the Wembley crowd earlier in the week, the crowd turned up, the players didn’t. Awful. They talk about hurt, disappointment etc. How about SHAME and EMBARRASSMENT?

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  17. 17
    julie. the rock

    The sun has risen this morning and oh look the world is still turning “who cares”

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  18. 18
    Adam Calverley

    The day after the night before and we all wake up not only with a hangover but the realization it was not dream.
    It is impossible to blame one man, yes he made dire tactical and selection decisions but it is the SYSTEM in this country that has led us to this bleak epoch. The inept FA fat cats appointed an incompetent manager in the first place, whether it was on the cheap due to the payments to Sven is a different issue. The Fans and media never fully got behind him and the players are now too comfortable in the ‘pro-evo’ culture created for them.
    Even the old foreigner argument is a large factor in the disappointment, managers such as Wenger and Benitez should take a leaf out of Ferguson’s book when it comes to giving something back to a nation of footballers that pays them such lucrative wages.
    I now believe that this small, arrogant island that we live on will wake up to what is really happening before its too late (maybe giving us an idea on global warming too!). The ‘Americanziation’ of the game in this country has led to us sacrificing our football heritage in the name of entertainment, celebrity and business; we even have the US franchise team in MK dons. It is impossible to have the best league and the national side in the world, look at Brazil.
    Do we want entertainment or success? Any decent football fan knows the correct answer. Sven wasn’t really that bad was he?

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  19. 19
    Adam

    Julie; I’m sure many will care when considering the £2billion lost from the economy even if they don’t care for football or national pride

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  20. 20
    Shrewforlife

    It is now time for the old men at the F.A. to go and be replaced by people who have actually played the game !!

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  21. 21
    Game Eddo

    It all started badly prior to kick-off. Whilst the Croatians “belted” out their national anthem, shoulders back, chests out and with pride, our lot….drooping shoulders and lips hardly moving. They need to take a leaf out of the little red-headed kid’s book – He was belting out our National Anthem.

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  22. 22
    markyb

    Blimey…has someone died or something? It’s just a game. I enjoy watching any international game whether footy, rugby or cricket but it’s just a game. The “£2bn” lost from the economy will b e for booze, replica shirts and those stupid car flags…big deal.

    ;0)

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  23. 23
    Clive

    This was a very important match, and not a time to start experimenting with a third choice goalkeeper and reintroducing a player from a Sunday league in the USA.The foriegn players everybvody complains about are playing in our Premier league and should raise our standards, not lower them. Where were the fighters in this match, in the BLUE shirts

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  24. 24
    Andy

    There is just 2 things missing from our england side.

    1. Pride
    2. And that pure desire to win!

    Look at players like Ian Wright, Alan Shearer, David Beckham… They couldn’t care about the cash they get, they Just want to play for their country, being given the change to play for their country is everything to them, and have the desire to win!

    We need more players like this!!

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  25. 25
    groundsman

    If you look at the top 20 fifa rankings every team is capable of beating each other.No one team really stands out that includes england.Neally every nation trying to qualify for euro had some poor results we just had one to many.The result last night didnt make us a poor a footballing nation.Just poor decisions some goalkeeping blunders(which happen to everybody)and some dire results against lesser teams(which also happen to everybody)contrived to our downfall.Our star players are still as good as the foreign stars in the premier,we just had a catalogue of injuries and didnt have time or depth in present talent to make it through.Our style/systems and mentality dosnt help in these national comps but talent is still there.we just need to find the right people and formula to sustain consistancy rather than relying on one last gasp result to get through. Easier said than done and unfortunately its a long time to wait till we blow it all again.

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  26. 26
    chas

    mclaren has walked the plank but as most people are sayng the FA itself is rotten to the core. who do they answer to? why did mclaren need terry venables in support if he wasn’t able to do it himself?it needs a complete clearout. ken bates knows more about the busuiness side of football than most . he should be chairman, trevor brooking to be chief exec, stuart pearce to inject a bit of passion as head coach, and joe hart in goal and start building up a new team

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  27. 27
    kevin hardy

    The Croatian team stroled round with a confidence that stemmed from their ability to control the ball easily in any situation,an the only chance they gave England was when they got complacemt.Too many English players get the title of World Class when in reality on A world stage they are at the most just very good.I concentrated on 1 player Wayne Bridge last night and noticed how often he looked clumsey due to his 1 footedness.England to me played little better than a Sunday pub team and mostly ended up lumping the ball hopefully into Crouch,s direction,in fact for years how many of their goals have come from a superb move,goals are nearly always set pieces deflections or shots through legs, part of the game i kwow,but we are 3rd rate and it showed through last night.

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  28. 28
    Morgan

    You could tell Carson was very nervous, Bridge just come back from injury, Beckham not fully fit, 3rd and 4 choice centre backs with 3rd choice striker. We did have a lot of injuries but still, as most of the above has stated there was no passion to win the game. Not sure what I’m going to do in 2008 now!

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