Wigan boss Dave Whelan thinks that the Premiership should take over running the England team. It’s a bit of an off the wall idea that won’t go down well with those who think the Premier League is the problem not the solution. But I suppose there is a kind of crazy ‘world turned upside down’ logic to it. Certainly he has a point when he talks about the Football Association being an amateur body running a professional game.
Wigan boss Dave Whelan thinks that the Premiership should take over running the England team. It’s a bit of an off the wall idea that won’t go down well with those who think the Premier League is the problem not the solution. But I suppose there is a kind of crazy ‘world turned upside down’ logic to it. Certainly he has a point when he talks about the Football Association being an amateur body running a professional game.
Howveer, as sports minister Hugh Robertson and David Davies have argued, what one needs is a more considered look at the problems after the dust has settled and some of the pain has eased. In that respect it is sensible to delay any decision about Fabio Capello’s future for two weeks, although to many commentators he looks like a dead man walking.
In football the tendency is always to focus on individuals (agency) and not on structure. Changing the manager gives you an apparent short-term fix. But most of the problems are longer-term and structural and don’t admit of easy solutions. Owners, players, managers and even many fans do not necessarily put country before club. When Wayne Rooney was asked a snap question about whether he would prefer to win the World Cup or the Champions League, he replied ‘Champions League’.