England need two managers – an elite manager on a short-term contract for major tournaments and another manager for all the other games.
The FA are looking for a new manager and the best person for the job is Pep Guardiola.
Instead of complicating the issue and forcing Guardiola to decide whether he wants to swap the glory and riches of club management for qualifiers and the Nations League, make him an offer he can’t refuse – manage England at the World Cup in the US in 2026 and the Euros in the UK in 2028.
Let’s get real, managing England would not be a full-time job for someone like Guardiola and taking charge of England between tournaments would be a waste of his talents.
Why do England need Guardiola now anyway? To make sure they qualify for the 2026 World Cup? FIFA have made it almost impossible for any half-decent national team not to qualify by expanding the tournament from 32 to 48 teams.
And in any case, England have not lost a World Cup qualifier for 15 years. The last time it happened was in Ukraine in 2009 and that 1-0 defeat didn’t stop England qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
England have lost only three World Cup qualifiers this century and the other two defeats – against Germany in 2000 and Northern Ireland in 2005 – didn’t prevent qualification for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups respectively.
As for the Euros, England don’t need Guardiola to make it to the 2028 finals because they will almost certainly qualify as hosts.
Since the Euros were expanded from 16 to 24 teams for the tournament in France in 2016, England have lost only one qualifier – against the Czech Republic in 2019. They would have had a 100 per cent record in qualifying if it wasn’t for that 1-0 defeat in Prague. As it was, they finished top of Group A with seven wins and 37 goals in eight games
Losing to the Czech Republic was England’s first qualifier defeat for more than 10 years, so it’s obvious that England don’t need a generational manager like Guardiola to qualify for major tournaments – they just need one when they get there.
The club game has overtaken internationals in terms of quality and prestige and that is why fewer top managers are tempted to take charge of national sides until the twilight of their careers.
That all changes though if you offer someone like Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp or Carlo Ancelotti the top job for six weeks every other summer.
In the meantime, Lee Carsley has proven he is more than capable of managing England between major tournaments.
