FA take safety-first option

SO, after three months of short-listing, interviewing and bewildering farce, the FA at last have their man.

Steve McClaren is the England football manager.

Not first choice, nor second, nor even third. But quite possibly fourth in the mind of FA chief executive Brian Barwick, behind Arsene Wenger, Martin O’Neill and of course Luiz Felipe Scolari, who turned down the offer of football’s most high-profile job last Friday.

At least, however, the madness is over, even if there’s no getting away from the fact that McClaren offers a safety-first stewardship rather than the prospect of an exciting new future for English football.

This is not the big prize Barwick had dreamed of landing.

But after the sheer incompetence of the FA’s recruiting process perhaps we should be thankful that there is method in the appointment.

The FA have settled for continuity and diplomacy. They have sought to cash in on the experience gleaned by the Middlesbrough boss in his four-and-a-half years working as assistant to Sven-Goran Eriksson.

They have also appeased the many factions who believe British is best and English even better when it comes to running the national team.

There will be no hissy fits from the volatile Martin O’Neill to deal with. No unappealing assistants to accommodate on the FA payroll.

No need to rein in the excesses of Sam Allardyce.

No need to explain how Alan Curbishley’s 15 years at Charlton in which he had won nothing qualified him for the toughest job in football.

And no chance of being burned by another foreigner.

It is hardly a ground-breaking appointment. But it would be wrong to dismiss McClaren’s talents just because he is the ‘devil we know’.

After all, the FA’s long-term preference had always been continuity. It was Adam Crozier’s dream five years back when he tried to talk Kevin Keegan out of resigning in the dilapidated toilets of the old Wembley.

McClaren will allow them to keep in place key parts of the back-room team which has been an essential part of the international set-up.

They also get someone with European experience who has worked with big-name players, knows the England squad intimately and is liked and respected by them.

In so many ways it would have been foolhardy to ignore what he brings to the party.

Such as the lessons learned from the timidity which cost England against Brazil in Shizuoka at the last World Cup, the lack of concentration against France in Euro 2004 and the lack of imagination against Portugal when Wayne Rooney was injured.

The problem is that while those lessons hopefully have been learned he cannot get away from the fact that he was at least partially culpable for those abject England performances.

He was the man on the touchline, waving arms, conveying orders, having a major input into team tactics.

That is worrying because if we have learned anything under Eriksson it is that when it comes down to the business end of the big tournaments, England require a man who can think on his feet, one whose subs can change the ebb and flow of a match.

McClaren has proved himself at club level, winning the League Cup with unfashionable Middlesbrough and this season re-energising a side which appeared to be sliding towards relegation but instead reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup and next Wednesday’s UEFA Cup final.

He has the palliest of relationships with England’s key players, particularly David Beckham with whom he was close when a coach at Old Trafford.

That suits the FA. The last thing they want is sponsors upset by someone who might jeopardise the involvement of England’s biggest shirt-seller and global commodity.

The biggest problem presented by the FA’s rush to name their new man before the World Cup might just be the events of the coming summer.

Do well, and that means England reaching the semi-finals at least, and McClaren’s stock could only benefit.

But what happens if England, without the injured Rooney, should go out in the group phase?

Eriksson would be gone with another chunk of FA compensation while McClaren’s appointment would be blighted from the off by failure.

He could even become the first England coach to visit the turnip patch before he even began.

The job’s tough, but it should not have to be that tough.