David Artell / David Artell / 07 December 2007 / Leave a comment

Morecambe's David Artell talks next England manager, foreign footballers' dress sense and the importance of good captaincy

I'll have to start this week's column with a bit of gloating. Birmingham's last minute win at Tottenham (8.8) was a nice little earner. Lets just hope this week's tip comes in too and I can continue as the site's leading tipster!

There was plenty of column inches filled this week about who's going to be the next England manager with Jose Mourinho now the favourite. He would be my choice for a few reasons primarily because he is the best man manager and tactician available. In his last job he was under enormous pressure and seemed to stand his ground with Roman Abramovich both of which will stand him in good stead for the England job.

The FA seem to be asking everyone and their uncle about who they think the new manager should be but I can't really see the point. I know if the German FA came and asked me who should be the next Germany manager I would say Carlton Palmer or Mark Lawrenson or any other unsuccessful manager. As regards to whether it should be an Englishman, for me the next manager could come from Outer Mongolia so long as he delivered results. I can see why English managers want an Englishman to get the job but the FA's judgement should not be clouded by patriotism. They should simply pick the best man for the job and Mourinho is the man.

I've never played under a foreign manager (unless you include my current manager who's Northern Irish) but I have played with a few foreign players. All the foreign players I've played with spoke English which helped enormously although that didn't make up for their appalling dress sense. When Roberto Martinez, the Swansea manager who I played with at Chester, entered the dressing room with an outfit that wouldn't look out of place on Worzel Gummidge, his staple response would be that his outfit would be the height of fashion in a couple of years time he was that far ahead in his fashion sense. I still can't believe that sombreros are going to be the height of fashion this summer though! I can't be too hard on him though as he was the best pro I've ever worked with. His attitude was second to none; always first and last off the training pitch, is teetotal and ate food bought in Harrods because it was the best available. 'You wouldn't put cherry diesel in a Porsche!' he would say about his approach to food.

Roberto was also a great captain but not quite as good as the one we have at Morecambe, Jim Bentley. He is the best captain I've played under. Both on and off the field he is a leader of men and I'm sure one day he will become a successful manager. Only this week he arranged a 'whip round' for our new daughter (without my knowledge) and I was bowled over when he got on the microphone on the team bus and presented it to me. Nothing like that has happened at any of my previous clubs and it's all down to Jim. He also is in the middle of organising our Christmas party and does numerous other jobs within the football club. On the pitch he is no different either and always has a last minute word of advise in the pre-match huddle. The fans quite rightly adore him.

We've now won our last three games, something that Liverpool did in this last week. Call me cynical but the squad rotation policy Raphael Benitez employs seems to have been put on hold with near enough the same team playing in all three games. Was this because he wanted to prove a point to the owners and he knows his best eleven players will win a high percentage of the games in which they play? Only he knows, but he isn't under as much pressure as he was before those three wins. That's one of the problems with predicting a team like Liverpool as they could put two teams out in the Premiership (and have both avoid relegation) but you never know which team Benitez might play. It's generally easier to predict Championship teams, as they don't employ squad rotation policies.

I still fancy Liverpool to record another victory against a struggling Reading side no matter which team Benitez picks. A victory margin of two goals (4) looks a good bet to me.

David Artell plays for Morecambe FC:

http://www.morecambefc.com/

Tags: David Artell, Morecambe FC, Premiership betting