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The farce that has been the McClaren era

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Jon Ski's avalanche of abuse is today directed at the current England boss

Football is full of opinions and they usually don't get much more diverse than when talking about matters relating to the England team, or at least that's how it used to be.

Times are a changing though as Bob Dylan once sang and these days some fans profess not to be all that bothered about the England team and that club football is where it's at. A sentiment I do not share. For me the vitality of the National team is crucial to the overall success of the game and indeed the Premiership itself.

One opinion that does seem to unite all though is that Steve McClaren is not up to job as England manager and this is a sentiment I can certainly agree with.

Tarnished with being the deadly dull Sven's number two, and party to the decisions and fiasco that was the last World cup campaign, has meant we have had no real new direction or influx of talent into the national team as a result of the managerial change.

Indeed the one major break McClaren made with Eriksson's reign was the dropping of David Beckham, a decision that he has now spectacularly back-tracked on. Not only has he re-instated Beckham into the fold but he is now chasing around after Jamie Carragher trying to persuade this highly effective defender that he should still make himself available for England, despite "smiling Steve" over looking the Liverpool stalwart for the highly ineffectual and inconsistent in an England team including Wes Brown and Ledley King.

Oh yes, strong management style and no mixed messages from the manager there then!
Even Terry Venebles, "smiler's" number two is trying to distance himself from the debacle that is becoming the McClaren era.

A bit of honesty would not go a miss from Mr McClaren, the two games in the European qualification group in March saw many fans rise up and state yet again that Lampard and Gerrard could not play together effectively in the same side.

McClaren continued to defend this selection of the two in the same side, picking both in the draw with Israel which saw the usual lacklustre performance, especially by Lampard in this game.

Against Andorra a few days later, in what had become a must win game for the side due to the draw with Israel, Lampard was left out of the side and Gerrard played a blinder. Was Lampard dropped? No, says McClaren, left out due to injury. Strange then that he was back in the Chelsea side three days later!

Little wonder that England are currently trading at 1.67 to qualify from Group E, favourites being the mighty Croatia at 1.1, England are also only 4.1 to win the group, and 11.5 to win the tournament outright.

This article was written by Jon Ski, editor of the Vital Huddersfield Town website, who can be found at - http://www.huddersfield.vitalfootball.co.uk/