My mate Shearer could end up in charge of England you know...

Players Under The Microscope / Gary Speed / 23 November 2007 / 2

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Bolton's Gary Speed runs the rule over the failure over the home nations' collective Euro 2008 failure and debates whether Big Al is the man for England

So I was wrong. I thought all the way through the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign that England would somehow end up scraping through. I was even expecting Andorra to suddenly conjure a miraculous goal against Russia in the three minutes that followed the final whistle at Wembley. But it hasn't happened and even as a proud Welshman I'll take no pleasure at all from a summer tournament when none of the home nations will be there.

At the end of it, though, the qualifying tables don't lie. Just like the Premier League is always won by the best team over 38 games the campaign to reach a tournament is always won by the best team, in this case over 12 games. And in this case the most important word is TEAM.

I don't think there's any doubt that England have better players than either Croatia or Russia but what they didn't have was the collective spirit and togetherness. Watching the events on the pitch afterwards was surreal. I might be way off the mark but it seemed to me that there was just no team ethic either during the game or after it. When poor Scott Carson made that early blunder you didn't see a single player try to lift and help him.

People are debating this morning whether that's down to the players or the manager, and Roy Keane has come out and had a go at the players. But in my view the spirit in the dressing room and the dynamics of team spirit is always down to the manager. It's like in any other business. The person in charge has the job of recruiting the right people who will work together in the right way and get the job done. He gets the plaudits when it goes well so he has to take the responsibility when it doesn't, and to be fair to Steve McClaren I think he knew that. He was unlucky with the injuries to his back four but it was still his job to make sure that the people who came in had the right ethic and spirit to fit in and get the job done.

I've been interested to see the idea put forward that one option for England now is to put Alan Shearer in charge. That's based on the model that seems to have worked for Holland and Germany who put Marco Van Basten and Jurgen Klinsmann in charge with no club management experience. Alan's a big pal of mine, but it's not something we've talked about. I've got to be honest in spite of our friendship I think it would be a massive call by the FA to do something like that. Of course it could work, but how can you make an objective judgement? If you went for somebody like Jose Mourinho, Martin O'Neill or Steve Coppell then you have evidence of the work they've done before with clubs. Alan would certainly have the enthusiasm and knowledge to do it, and would start with the respect of the players. But I don't think anybody could say with certainty it would work.

I just hope it all falls into place by the time the World Cup qualifiers begin. I'll be watching the draw this weekend to see who Wales get, and wondering just what we might achieve. A draw in Germany was a very encouraging result, and you just hope that John Toshack is starting to make some progress with what is a very young and new team. I do think he's right when he says Jason Koumas could be the key player.

I've watched Jason for a long time and played and trained with him, and in my view he is one of the best midfield players around. It's no disrespect to Wigan but I think if he went to a bigger club with better players you'd see the true depth of his talent. He's got the lot. He's talented on the ball, can pick a pass, and even though he's not quick he can go past people with a shuffle of his feet. He's outstanding on dead balls and gets goals. People criticise his work rate but with better clubs that doesn't matter. At a club like Wigan you need all 11 working for the team but top clubs can carry a player who will unlock a defence and I think if anybody took a chance on Jason they'd find a matchwinner.

On the subject of team spirit I was interested to see Ian Holloway take over at Leicester last night because you can be sure he'll pull them together pretty quickly. I fancy they could be worth backing at [12] for promotion because in that division you can climb very quickly.

I think there's another good odds bet crying to be taken this weekend and that's my old club Newcastle to win at home against Liverpool at [4.3]. I do remember when I was there getting thumped one year when Michael Owen scored a hat-trick but beyond that I think Newcastle always had a pretty good record in this fixture. And you can't know what problems Liverpool might have with their internationals all coming back at different times.

You also can't tell who Rafa Benitez will pick with his rotation policy. That must be especially hard for Peter Crouch who gets so few chances. I thought he played really well on Wednesday night for England and he's not done much wrong for them or Liverpool. He may not be pleasing on the eye but every time I see him play I think he's a danger and I can't see why he couldn't play in the same team as Fernando Torres. Okay they are both tall but Torres is a different type of player, and I know if I was a defender waking up on matchday the thought of facing both of them would terrify me!

That said I still think Newcastle are a great bet to win this one. Having worked with Sam Allardyce I know how he'll have them fired up after the disappointment of losing so heavily to Portsmouth at home in their last game at St James'.

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apal | 23 November 2007

Don't be putting thoughts like 'Alan Shearer for England manager' into the heads of the FA.

A great player as he was (in his prime) the poor bloke does not appear to have any management skills, is a little thick and has as much charisma as a hat stand.

I hope he gets the Newcastle job:)
Mike Norman | 24 November 2007

.... and don't be using your mobile phone in the studio when working for Sky - well not when the cameras are on you anyway ;-)