Why Sunderland have to hope England resist the urge to go English to replace Roy Hodgson

If England are to replace Roy Hodgson with a home-grown manager, Sunderland's Sam Allardyce appears to be the only contender

Sam Allardyce, manager of Sunderland

Sunderland’s hopes of keeping Sam Allardyce as manager might rest with the Football Association opting for a foreigner to replace Roy Hodgson.

For much of Hodgson’s reign the feeling was the FA would like him to be succeeded by an Englishman and while that is still the case, now the time has come to make a decision alternatives are thin on the ground.

According to reports, it leaves Allardyce as the solitary home-grown candidate.

Like David Platt and Stuart Pearce before them, Gary Neville and Gareth Southgate have been groomed for the role, only for the FA to get cold feet when it became vacant.

Mike Egerton/PA Wire

England U21 Manager Gareth Southgate

Southgate had his job in charge of all England’s under-age teams stripped back to just the under-21s last summer after a disappointing European Championships of his own and although he led them to the Toulon Tournament in May, it has not been enough to reassure the decision-makers about his qualities having failed in club management with Middlesbrough seven years ago.

Hodgson’s assistant Neville was building a good reputation until taking a job as Valencia coach in December. He was only appointed until the end of the season but was sacked in March on the back of a terrible run of form at the Mestalla. England’s defensive failures at Euro 2016 have also reflected badly on the former right-back.

The only English managers to complete the last Premier League season led their sides to places 15, 16 and 17 in the table.

Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace and Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth hinted at much better, only for their form to fall away alarmingly in the second half of the season.

Howe is only 38 and 2016-17 was his first year of top-flight football, raising concerns about his inexperience.

That leaves Sunderland’s Allardyce as the only English front-runner.

Mike Egerton/PA Wire

England manager Roy Hodgson during a press conference in Chantilly, France

At 61 years-old, seven years Hodgson’s junior, his experience is a better fit for the demands of the most high-profile job in English football.

The FA are fortunate that a number of former and current international managers have experience of the game in this country.

Ex-France boss Laurent Blanc played for Manchester United, and former Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann, now in charge of the United States of America, played for Tottenham Hotspur.

Slaven Bilic had a spell in charge of Croatia and the former West Ham United and Everton centre-back is now managing the Hammers.

Arsene Wenger has no international experience but is fast approaching his 20th anniversary in the Premier League and out of contract at Arsenal next summer.

Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italian Fabio Capello were appointed England manager in the 21st Century. Germany/West Germany has never appointed a foreign manager and rightly or wrongly, England sees itself as being of similar stature.

Arsene Wenger manager of Arsenal

Allardyce was interviewed for the job in 2006, but the FA went with Steve McClaren instead.

Now, as then, he had an image problem in some quarters, with his direct brand of football not to everyone’s tastes.

Ashworth’s pet project as FA technical director has been to design a “DNA” for English football to recover an identity that has largely been lost in the chopping and changes of coaches and approaches in recent years.

Part of that is that “England teams aim to dominate possession intelligently, selecting the right moments to progress the play and penetrate the opposition.”

While Allardyce’s teams are not as unsophisticated as his critics make out, he would not seem to be the best man to instil that approach. But England have just been knocked out of the European Championships by an Iceland team displaying similar qualities to those normally associated with Allardyce teams, and the work he did in saving Sunderland from relegation last season has not gone unnoticed.

In his favour is that Sir Alex Ferguson is a long-standing fan of Allardyce’s work, and Ferguson is also close to FA vice-chairman David Gill who, along with chief executive Martin Glen and technical director Dan Ashworth will make the decision.

Allardyce said before the tournament began that he had written off his chances of landing the job because he was not a “sexy” enough choice for the FA.

Sunderland will certainly be hoping they go for one of the more urbane foreign candidates because Allardyce has had such a positive impact since arriving at the Stadium of Light in October.

The Black Cats changed their entire management structure to sign him, abandoning their failed model of coaches and directors of football. Since then he has revamped the club’s whole recruitment and sports science departments and more importantly their results.

When Dick Advocaat resigned in October his side had yet to win a league game that season and he claimed the squad was not good enough to stave off relegation. Allardyce proved him right by making changes in January which transformed their fortunes.

This summer he is looking to overhaul the squad.

England’s World Cup qualifying campaign starts in Slovakia on September 4 but it is thought the FA will take their time to make an appointment and are prepared to install a caretaker such as Glenn Hoddle or Southgate while they do.

Jermain Defoe’s suggestion that Allardyce “could do both” is unlikely to be taken up as a long-term solution.

CREDIT TO:http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sunderland-hope-england-resist-urge-11564281