If I Were In Charge: 10 Things I’d Change About England

By: Rob | September 10th, 2008

So England have a massive game away to Croatia, and effectively Don Fabio’s first test as coach of the national team. As a result club talk has gone quiet, so to celebrate, here is a list of ten things I would change to the England Team if I were in any kind of position of power. Leave me yours in the comments.

1. Let’s Have An English National Anthem. Technically England does not have a national anthem, God Save The Queen is the national anthem of Great Britian. Well, no-one else is using it. It sounds dated, its sounds horrible, no-one enjoys the sentiment anymore. For goodness sake, lets just make Jerusalum our National Anthem and be done with it.

2. Make The Players Care. Jamie Carragher said in his book that playing for Liverpool meant more than playing for England. This is why England don’t win at things. Sort out this attitude, and we could be quite good.

3. Make The Shirt Stand Out. I’m fine with the white home shirt, tradition and so forth, but why not have a bit of a fun with the away kit? I suggest we take a small patch from each of the 20 EPL teams and create a shirt out of them. Think, you could have nine squares on the front, representing nine clubs, the coller could be another, and Arsenal’s sleeves could be used. Then another nine squares on the back. I realise it would look ridiculous, but it would be fun.

4. Make The Press Have A Positive Attitude. In wartime under British Law, freedom of the press is taken away and they are made to write really positive things all the time to get morale up. This should be the case for England. The press seem determined to knock the England team before we’ve even started, and the confidence disapears and the players don’t enjoy it.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Experiement. We invented 4-4-2 in 1966, and the “wingless wonders” won us the World Cup with that little experiement. So what do we do? We play 4-2-2 unsuccessfully for the next 50 years. Get that experimental spirit back and England could win things again.

6. Write Good England Songs Again. The country was in raptures when World in Motion came out because it was an awesome football song, everyone was positive and England got to the semi-final in 1990 and probably should have got through. Ditto 1996 when Three Lions came out for the first time. Don’t wait for a major tourney, someone write a Qualifying Campaign song that is awesome!

7. Actually pick Aston Villa Players. My grandad has been supporting Birmingham City for 50-something years, and even he can see that Gabriel Agbonlahor should be in the squad.

8. Club Managers Should Have No Say. Whatsoever. That’s right, sod what Fergie, Wenger, Scolari and company have to say about anything to do with the national team. If a player is picked, he plays. Which leads me on to…

9. Stop Players Being ‘Injured’ During International Breaks. Steven Gerrard might have recovered from his operation in time to play Man United on Saturday, so effectively all he will have done is rule himself out of two England games. This must stop. Sol Campbell would have won about 40 more caps had he bothered to be ‘fit’ for England friendlies.

10. For Goodness Sake, Give Them A Chance. We all want England to do so well, we get upset if things don’t go the way we’d want them to. But we lose sight of the fact that its the same on the continent – look at the first round of results in this qualifying round – give them a chance, and don’t ever employ Steve McClaren again and we’ll be fine.