Steve McClaren

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For the Ice Hockey player, see Steve McLaren.
Steve McClaren
Personal information
Full name Stephen McClaren
Position(s) Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 England and England B

Stephen "Steve" McClaren (born 3 May1961 in Fulford, York, England) is an English former professional footballer and the current manager of the England national football team, having succeeded Sven-Göran Eriksson on 1 August2006.[2] He is also a former professional footballer and former manager of English Premiership team Middlesbrough. At Middlesbrough he won them their only trophy to date, winning the 2004 Carling Cup, knocking out Arsenal over two legs in the semi-final, and took them to the 2006 UEFA Cup final knocking out the champions of Switzerland and Romania along the way.

Playing career

As a player, McClaren was a midfielder who spent most of his career in the lower leagues of English football. After leaving Hull City, he played for Derby County, Lincoln City (on loan), Bristol City and Oxford United before an injury forced him to retire in 1992 [3].

Coaching/managerial career

Shortly after hanging up his boots, he began his coaching career as reserve team coach at Oxford United, where Jim Smith was manager [3]. In 1995, he became first-team coach, and later followed Smith to Derby County, where he was his assistant manager [4]. In December 1998, he accepted the opportunity to become assistant manager under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, replacing Brian Kidd. His first half-season was distinguished by United not losing any games, taking the Treble in the process.

In the summer of 2001, McClaren was offered the position of manager of Middlesbrough by club chairman Steve Gibson. He achieved an FA Cup semi-final place in his first season, losing to Arsenal. He was then in charge as Middlesbrough won their first ever major honour, winning the League Cup in 2004 against Bolton Wanderers at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, taking them into European football for the first time and overseeing the recruitment of many big-name international footballers to the club, including former Chelsea star Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. He also has pushed the team to reach their highest finish in the Premiership, 7th in the 2004-05 season, which gave them another run in Europe. In the 2005-06 season, Middlesbrough achieved a semi final place in the FA Cup and they lost 4-0 to Sevilla of Spain in the UEFA Cup final in May [3].

England coach

From November 2000 to July 2006 McClaren held the position of senior national team coach to the England football team, first under caretaker-manager Peter Taylor before being given the position on a permanent basis by Sven-Göran Eriksson.

In February 2006, Eriksson announced that he would be quitting as manager of the England team, after the 2006 World Cup. McClaren quickly emerged as one of the favourites for the job, and joined Luiz Felipe Scolari , Martin O'Neill, Sam Allardyce and Alan Curbishley on the Football Association's shortlist [5]. After a long selection process, Scolari, widely seen as the FA's first choice due to his World Cup success, lost interest in the job due to media intrusion. Scolari who, although Brazilian, was the Portuguese coach also didn't want to go into the World Cup tournament, already lined up as the next England manager, a team which he might have to play against in that tournament. Indeed, this is exactly what happened in the quarter-finals, with Portugal winning 3-1 on penalties. McClaren was announced as the new head coach on 1 April 2006. He took over the job on 1 August 2006 with a four-year contract [6]. He soon appointed former England coach Terry Venables as his assistant.

England head coach

You should never say never. I would never do that.

Steve McClaren, in 2006, on the possibility of bringing David Beckham back into the England squad.

Though describing him as a good choice, pundit Alan Hansen was just one of many who claimed that the process of choosing a new manager had gone on too long [7]. He also thought that the FA had been overly swayed by Middlesbrough's good run of form during the second half of the 2005-06 season, which saw them reach the final of the UEFA Cup. However, he is still the last English manager to win a trophy, and his record with Middlesbrough, reaching four semi-finals, and winning a two-legged tie against Arsenal, probably makes him the most successful English manager over the period 2003-2006. His selection was praised by numerous other commentators, including Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Trevor Brooking. [8]

McClaren caused a storm on 11 August 2006 by dropping former England captain David Beckham not only from the first 11, but from the entire England squad.[9] However, McClaren had stated that there was still a chance that Beckham could be recalled in the future.[10]


Steve McClaren started well in his first game in charge of England - a friendly match against Greece on 16 August 2006 at Old Trafford, Manchester. England won 4-0, with newly announced captain John Terry netting the first. Then in his first competitive match the England team won 5-0 against Andorra on 2 September 2006 at Old Trafford. [11] On 6 September 2006, England defeated Macedonia 1-0 in a Euro 2008 qualifier, with Peter Crouch scoring in the 46th minute. In the return game with Macedonia, England drew 0-0. The English team was criticized for a poor performance. It was obvious that after not being first choice to be new England managed with the press or a lot of the fans as soon as something went wrong the media and fans would give him a lot of abuse and things did get worse for England. On 11 October 2006, in Zagreb, England were defeated 2-0 by Croatia after McClaren tested an unfamiliar 3-5-2 formation and came under intense pressure from many England fans. England's February home defeat to Spain in a friendly only served to highlight the problems that he has ahead after a dreadful performance. The pressure increased on 24 March 2007 when England drew 0-0 with Israel in Tel-Aviv, with the travelling Engish support chanting "What a load of rubbish" and "You don't know what you're doing", before booing the team and coach off dispite lots of talk from the England camp that there had been a team meeting and all the England players saying they were fired up [12]. McClaren's team received further abuse from supporters following their first half display in the European qualifier away against Andorra,[13] with the majority of the abusive chants being directed at McClaren.[13] England went on to win the game 3-0, however their performance was greeted by boos at the final whistle.[13] McClaren walked out of the post-match press conference following the Andorra game after only two minutes of questions, saying: "Gentlemen, if you want to write whatever you want to write, you can write it because that is all I am going to say. Thank you."[14]

"When he's playing well, there is no better right-sided player in the world. He showed that tonight."

Steve McClaren on David Beckham after his return to the England squad.

In May 2007, McClaren took a huge U turn by recalling David Beckham into the England squad. Beckham started in England's friendly match against Brazil on 1 June which resulted in a 1-1 draw, with John Terry scoring from a David Beckham freekick. Beckham started the Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia on 6 June, where he set up a further two goals for strikers Peter Crouch and Michael Owen.[15]

Managerial stats

Team Nat From To Record
G W L D Win %
Middlesbrough England June 12 2001 May 11 2006 250 97 93 60 38.80
England England August 1 2006 Present 10 4 2 4 40.00

International

References

  1. ^ "Second Choice Steve" - Wiki
  2. ^ "McClaren named as England manager". BBC. 2006-05-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b c "Rock solid Steve" - BBC Sport profile, 4 May 2006
  4. ^ "Jim Smith backs protege McClaren" - BBC Sport, 4 May 2006
  5. ^ FA's England manager shortlist - BBC Sport
  6. ^ "McClaren is the man" - The FA's announcement of McClaren's appointment as next England coach
  7. ^ "Hansen's view on McClaren" - BBC Sport, 4 May 2006
  8. ^ "Reactions to McClaren appointment" - BBC Sport, 4 May 2006
  9. ^ Sam Wallace (12 August 2006). ""Mac the knife ends Beckham era with a chat on the phone"". The Independent. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "Beckham gives Macca a problem". Teamtalk.
  11. ^ "England 4-0 Greece" - BBC Sport, 16 August 2006
  12. ^ McClaren admits to England failings - Football365.com
  13. ^ a b c "Mac cracks but he beats sack". The Sun.
  14. ^ "McClaren appeals to England fans". BBC Sport.
  15. ^ McGarry, Ian (2006-06-07). "Yankee doodle". The Sun. Retrieved 2006-06-09.

External links

Preceded by England national football team manager
2006- 		Succeeded by
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