McClaren out and Holloway moves on

Regular readers of this blog (are you out there?) will know that I seldom comment on sport but I'll make an exception with this entry. The failure of the now ex England soccer coach Steve McClaren has unsurprisingly been the subject of much media attention in the last few days. I made the wrong decision and decided to watch what turned out to be a complete humiliation at the hands of Croatia. Congratulations then to Croatia who won by the odd goal in five, but if the winning margin had been two or three then that would be a fair reflection in my opinion. Yes England were international class, for all of about 5 seconds I would say. Beckham's pass and Crouch's finish for our first goal were worthy of a World Cup Final but as to the rest of the match we were so pathetic.

Once again our overpaid players and grossly overpaid manager were found wanting and have let the country down. This failure to qualify will have a knock on effect because when we enjoy modest success e.g. getting to the quarter finals then the excitement,hope and expectation is generally beneficial to the nation. And let's not forget that we invented football and a host of other sports that have an international following.

Of course after the debacle of the Croatia match it was obvious that McClaren had to go. So why didn't he do the right thing and immediately resign? My guess is that it was only by waiting to be sacked that he got his incredible pay off. So it would be money in other words. Now this is what absolutely nauseates me, the fact that you can be an absolute failure and then get payed a massive fortune on the back of it. I have to say here that there are many people in professional sport who get paid obscene amounts of money but am I envious? No! I recognise that is the way things are. If these people produce the goods and the market place pays them well then good luck to them. But it's when the very well paid are rewarded vast amounts of money when they totally fail (and I'm not just talking about sportsmen here) that really gets me. Yes I do get very angry about that.

At about the same time as the England International trauma local team Plymouth Argyle found itself in shock. Popular Argyle manager Ian Holloway who had been expressing his undying love for the team who are as I type seventh in the Championship has moved on to Leicester City. Money and gates seem to have been the motivation here. Fans feel very let down - expect him to get a bad reception next time Leicester visit Home Park.