Why do English football fans seem to have a death wish – a perpetual desire to relive our most painful, harrowing moments of the years since 1966? Why is there an innate wish to go backwards instead of forward, to seek out those who will embrace the past instead of the future?

This has come to mind with regard to the vacant position for England manager since the resignation/sacking/’mutually agreed departure’ (delete according to point of view) of the latest man to try, and then fail, to make the English national team look like a halfway competent collection of international footballers.

Fabio Capello was by no means a radical innovator, but his attempts to introduce such outlandish concepts as more mobile central defenders (Gary Cahill), some tactical fluidity (changing shape when England had the ball), and the completely alien notion of some actual discipline (eating meals together and good timekeeping), meant that when push came to shove, Capello got shoved. This, however, isn’t the point of this article – it just serves to illustrate that when it comes to the next man to put his head on the chopping block, a little thought needs to be put into the process.

Thought, however, doesn’t appear to the strongest suit of the English FA. At the time of writing, there are two ‘flavour of the month’ contenders, neither of whom have much to commend them aside from a legion of media admirers and the peculiarly English label of ‘motivator’. Reams and reams have been written about Harry Redknapp, and I don’t think there’s much else to add here – but I think there is something to add about Martin O’Neill, who took over at Sunderland in December 2011. Whilst there is much to commend about the job O’Neill has done at the Stadium of Light, he is without a shadow of a doubt totally and utterly unsuited to being England manager. In fact, O’Neill would just be a return to the days of Kevin Keegan.

Let’s start by looking at tactics, which in O’Neill’s case shouldn’t take too long. As a club manager, he’s a relic of the days when a little man played off a big man, when wingers played with chalk on their boots, and when the ball spends more time in the air than John Terry spends giving tours of his training ground for cash.

Whilst effective up to a certain point for O’Neill (witness Sunderland’s upturn in form, three successive sixth place finishes at Villa, and three SPL titles with Celtic), international football is a whole different arena; the best teams are set up either to soak up such a simplistic approach and then punish teams with pinpoint counter attacks – see Germany or Brazil for this approach – or to keep the ball for what seems like an eternity, pulling your side out of any recognisable shape, then landing a knockout blow on a dazed, confused and dishevelled defence.

There is no evidence in O’Neill’s managerial career that his tactical plans could blunt these higher level sides, or that those plans could shape the players at England’s disposal into an effective unit able to overcome their technical deficiencies; in the Premier League, Villa often rolled over for the regular top four of the time under his tenure, with performances against Manchester United in particular being described by many as ‘rolling over and having their tummies tickled’.

As Capello found in the 2010 World Cup, there are no second chances for teams unable to cope with tactically superior opponents – an O’Neill England would just be more of the same. Keegan found out that the blood and thunder approach was of no use in Euro 2000 as well, with the defeat against Portugal being the obvious case in point.

O’Neill’s major plus point according to the media fan club is his ability as a man manager, someone who can coax performances out of those who previously seemed disillusioned and disheartened. His effect upon Sunderland since his appointment in December 2011 has reignited the O’Neill flame amongst his admirers, with a new vigour in the performances of players like Nicklas Bendtner and Stephan Sessegnon leading to a rise from 17^th to 8^th in the current Premier League table.

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