Did England’s Euro 96 Squad produce the worst team of managers ever?

February 9th, 2009 | by: Rob | View Comments

Bought to my attention by the brilliant Guardian Football Weekly Blog, following Tony Adams sacking from Portsmouth, did England’s almost glourious Euro 96 squad produce the Worst set of managers ever?

Out of the squad, which you can see here, six have turned their hands at football management since retiring. None have been particuarly big successes.

After the Jump I’ll run through each – but a quick thought first. Alan Shearer should never crumble and become Newcastle manager.

So, Tony Adams is first up. Captain of the squad in 1996, he has managed two teams, Wycombe and Portsmouth and has been sacked by both after short spells after picking up very few wins.

Stuart Pearce famously buried his demons of 1990 by scoring a penalty against Spain in Euro 96. His largely indifferent spell at Manchester City has been counter-balanced by his role in the England U21’s as well as a coach for the main England squad.

Paul Ince did a fairly good job at lowly MK Dons, but his step up to the Premier League didn’t last long, with Blackburn Rovers sacking him within months of his appointment.

Gareth Southgate has done better than some might have expected (considering he didn’t have the proper qualifications for the job) in his first managerial role, at Middlesbrough, but finishing 13th season after season isn’t inspiring stuff.

David Platt is still loathed by Nottingham Forrest fans, after his two-year tenure at the club plunged the team into debt, isolated many long standing players at the club. They failed to recover from a relegation from the Premier League, and have been sleeping giants ever since.

Paul Gascoigne rounds of the six. His short spell at Kettering Town was marred by his own personal problems, and alcoholism, unfortunatly his tenure lasted 39 days.

Has any other squad produced such a massive amount of non-entities manager wise?