Do You Still Believe In Steve?

Rejoice! The disbelievers are silenced – we are better than Israel and Russia at home. And well done to Steve for making the brave decisions that won the day – and that includes picking Emile Heskey twice. The back pages are full of praise and the qualifying table has swung round to balance in England’s favour.

I hate to be cynical, it’s just something is niggling in the back on my mind. We’re in second place. One point behind Croatia. Maybe it’s the modern pressures of the drive to win that’s flooding the Premiership, but I really want England to win Euro 2008. Or, at the very least, make the final – give us something to be proud of. Will we win against France, Germany, Italy or suchlike in the quarter- or semi-final stage? With the current look of things, the answer is no.

Before the Israel game, my mind was made up; McClaren must go, even if England were to win both games. Now that they actually have won them, the task of convincing has been made all the more difficult.

The first factor in wanting McClaren to go is the reason mentioned above; if we manage to scrape through, do we really believe we have a chance of winning the Championship? It’s simply not good enough to get by with the minimum of decent performances and perhaps even finish second in qualifying on head-to-head on goal difference against teams we really ought to be rolling over with ease. If we’re struggling to do that, what hope do we have when it comes to the big games?

The FA made a big mistake in rushing to ask Luiz Philipe Scolari if he’d take the England job just days after he made it public knowledge that he had a gentleman’s agreement with Portugal. Obviously part of their criteria was to employ Sven’s replacement before the start of the World Cup in 2006, but if they’d made an exception to the rule with Big Phil, we would’ve steamrolled this group. But I gripe.

The second argument for keeping the pressure on Steve is because he needs it. Despite looking thoroughly browned off with anyone with a Dictaphone in their hand after the Andorra debacle, he rose to the challenge and, finally, the results are in full bloom. In the run-up to the World Cup in 1998, the respected sports magazine l’Equipe piled a ruthless, unrelenting hate campaign against national coach Aime Jacquet, calling for his resignation numerous times. For the most part, it was pretty unfair; France had no qualification games to have to contend with, as they were in the finals automatically as hosts. They gained maximum points from the group phase and battled to beat Paraguay and Italy after extra time and on penalties respectively. They eased past a tricky Croatia semi-final and, after spotting that Brazil can be a little slack on set pieces, the rest is Zinedine.

Perhaps it was that torrid pressure that helped Jacquet through. We heaped the same pressure on Sven, but he managed to brush media attention aside quicker than you can lay Ulrika. Sorry, that should be say Ulrika. With Steve, the hate mob appeared to get to him at first, but this is a man who sees things through to the end – he’ll never jump before he’s pushed.

So McClaren’s job is safe and all we can do is hope he’s got things right. England has an excellent new depth in midfield with Sean Wright-Phillips, Gareth Barry and Joe Cole. Many are worried that having an excess of choice is bad for the English game – I welcome it with open arms. If these players really want to play for their country, let them prove their worth. And even if we end up with Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and company on the bench, opposition must be quaking in their boots, and the tactical options at our disposal will become a huge weapon in McClaren’s hands.