August 1 - Second-Choice Steve Succeeds Sven

TODAY in 2006 England fans were asking “is that the best we can do?”, as Steve McClaren turned up for work at Soho Square for the first time after replacing Sven Goran Eriksson as England boss.

When the Swede announced in January that he would be stepping down after the 2006 World Cup the FA began a torturous process of picking his successor. The usual debate of whether the job should go to a foreigner or not raged, Big Sam bigged himself up and McClaren plastered his toothy grin all across the media.

In April it looked like England had their man when Luiz Felipe Scolari was offered the post, but after he awoke to find half of Fleet Street’s finest camped on his doorstep he soon changed his mind.

Another month passed, with Stuart Pearce and Martin O’Neill emerging as popular choices, but eventually Brian Barwick and his FA cronies picked the man no-one wanted: Second-Choice Steve McClaren.

Macca even sounded like he knew he was up against it in his first press conference as he reasoned that “I don’t see it as a case of first or second choice” before reeling out the clichés and claiming “I am results-orientated and I’m here to do a job.” We should hope so too Steve.

McClaren attempted to break from Sven by dropping many of the older guard such as David Beckham, Sol Campbell and David James. And then recalling them all. After a bright start results got steadily worse, and the press were quick to get on his back.

After a particularly lacklustre showing against the part-timers of Andorra McClaren walked out of the post-match press conference, saying, “Gentlemen, if you want to write whatever you want to write, you can write it because that is all I’m going to say. Thank you.”

England hurtled towards a date with destiny against Croatia at Wembley Stadium, needing only a draw to qualify for Euro 2008. It was then that McClaren had the ingenious idea to throw Scott Carson in at the deep end, giving him his competitive England debut on a wet and windy night. Poor old Carson didn’t stand a chance. 90 minutes and one very soggy umbrella later, England had the next summer off and McClaren was given the boot 12 hours later. By wasting no time in ditching him, maybe the FA are learning after all.

The Steve McClaren era was the shortest of any England manager to date, lasting just 18 games in 16 months, making even Graham Taylor’s time look like a golden age. After taking the rest of the season off, McClaren will be found doing his best Goldfinger impression next year, as he begins his managerial resurrection at FC Twente. Presumably FC’s One to Nineteen turned him down. Boom boom.

See the floor come crashing out from beneath Steve’s feet against Croatia below and have a gander at what we were up to last year here. Make sure you come back tomorrow for a look at a man who’s about as popular as a British Gas bigwig.

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