Pardew, Clark or Powell: who will be the next England manager?

Okay, if the next England manager has to be English, who do we choose?  Here are some of the English manager currently employed as football managers (seems like a good filter), in order of preference (some rational, some not):

Alan Pardew – hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Lee Clark – knows how to win, was a good player, should be a dark horse, but ideally would have managed and succeeded in the Premiership. In that sense could’ve done with the Newcastle job.

Sam Allardyce – much as I hate the stereotyping of Allardyce as a manager, there’s obviously substance in the complaints about his style.  He is good at what he does, but this would send out the wrong messages to England fans. When sam hangs up his jacket he’ll look back on a strong but under-appreciated career. If he wants to be an international manager, though, I think he’ll be disappointed.

Chris Powell – interesting. I’d appoint him. Former Chairman of the PFA, actually played for England, and, much as I hate to say it (it should be – and will be – about merit) there’s the minority angle. His Charlton side are going well and it would be a welcome shift from the ‘famous person’ approach to hiring

Roy Hodgson – probably not after Liverpool. He was fantastic with Switzerland though and absent any other strong candidates the FA could do a lot worse.  They won’t go down this road though because Hodgson’s image has been tarnished by what happened at Anfield. Also England needs to be younger, more dynamic, and I don’t know if Roy’s the man for that.

Tony Mowbray – nice man, good football, but has he learned to defend? (this view may be out of date)

Brian McDermott – done surprisingly well at Reading and by all accounts very likeable. Not the sort of appointment we’d ever make but could do worse.

Nigel Clough – would be nice but hasn’t shown he can win

Ian Holloway – would be fun but probably lacks requisite sophistication. Should probably start wearing glasses or something.

Harry Redknapp – Keegan all over again (a motivator, not a tactician), but with added ‘character’ question marks. I wouldn’t…

Nigel Adkins – doing well at Southampton

Phil Brown – underrated – he achieved a lot at Hull – but obviously a no.

Simon Grayson – not setting the world alight at Leeds is he?

Paul Jewell – no.

Eddie Howe – no.

Micky Adams – nice as it would be, no.

Steve Bruce – doesn’t really seem to have a clue. Buys his teams and no obvious plan. No.

Neil Warnock – ha, no.

Nigel Pearson – won over half his games when in charge of Leicester, but otherwise his CV isn’t glittering

 Others to throw into the mix: Steve Coppell wouldn’t do it, Steve McLaren… oh, no, Gary Lineker (!), Paul Ince… oh I don’t know.  It’s not great is it? 

A lot of these names will never be considered.  But it’s not like the famous people have done better, is it?