We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
posted by gatorbob @ 8:02 AM
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
13 Comments:
Without any research and completely off the top of my head, I would say Martin O'Neil(Northern Ireland)
It's a good guess to, mate. But Martin is only third on the list, with 64 appearances for Northern Ireland, during which he scored a mere eight goals (not a very good return, really).
Keep guessing.
Psycho? He must have a bundle, no?
O'Neil wasn't a goal-scorer, but he was a damn fine stopper. Look at any of those NIre matches from their World Cup adventure and I'm sure you'd concur.
Bingo! Yes, it's our fair Stuart Pearce, who had 78 appearances during which he scored 5 goals. (Shame that it wasn't 77 with him crocked for the 90 semifinal- that penalty miss probably still haunts him.)
Any guess who's at #2 with 72 appearances and 16 goals for Wales?
Mark Hughes
Yeah, Sparky's the one. Interestingly there are only seven Premiership managers with any international experience. You've got three - any idea who the others are?
Chris Coleman, Stevie Coppell, Gareth Southgate for sure. David Moyes?
Not Moyes, but you've got the other three. Chris Coleman had 32 caps for Wales, Stevie Coppell had 42 for England and Gareth Southgate had 57 for England (and another semifinal penalty miss).
You've missed one foreign coach who played three times for his national side.
Martin Jol
Oh flippin' hell, it's Martin Jol isn't it? Total football, my backside.
Can't believe that the nation of Van der Kerkoff, Rensenbrink, Van Basten, Rep, Neeskens, and Cruyff would ever stoop so low, but it's him, isn't it?
Yeah, it is. Hilarious, eh? You wouldn't think it to see his incredible bulk today, but he had three caps for Holland.
So, here's the thing. There's always been a lot of blather about how ex-pros don't make terribly effective managers. Proponents of that theory often point to those like Fergie or Arsene who had indistinguished careers at clubs like Strasbourg, to say nothing of "The Special One" who never played professionally at all.
But it was interesting to see that those who have flown the flag for boring, Route One football in the Premiership like Big Sam, Warnock and Adrian Boothroyd learned it in the lower divisions as players and never rose to international level. I have the sinking feeling that Dennis Wise might be in that camp as well. (sigh)
Big Sam played in the First Division with Bolton
As I was saying, he Big Sam must have picked up the bad habits while playing at the lowest levels of English football. ;-}
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