Your Next England Manager Doomed To Fail: Roy Hodgson

From afar, you have to appreciate the utter ineptitude of the England national soccer team. Despite loads of talent, they fall short in every major competition and bungle every coaching hire.

Since Fabio Capello left in February, Tottenham's Harry Redknapp was the frontrunner so obviously England went in another direction by naming West Brom's Roy Hodgson as its new manager.

The 64-year-old Hodgson received a four-year deal with his home country and he'll manage West Brom in their final two English Premier League games before leaving the club and turning all his attention to England and Euro 2012. The Three Lions are in a tough Group D with Ukraine, France and Sweden. To prepare, they'll have friendlies with Norway and Belgium before Euro 2012 begins in June.

My general rule of thumb for national team coaches is that you're best served to hire a native, that is if you're from a country with at least a decent soccer history (Jurgen Klinsmann being a special exception for the U.S. men). In that way, England did nothing wrong by hiring Hodgson who also used to coach Liverpool. The part that worries me as a bandwagon England fan (from studying abroad there) is that his previous national team coaching experience came with Switzerland, Finland and United Arab Emirates. Not exactly three powerhouses that have ever done anything globally.

I want to see him succeed but like cheering for the Chicago Cubs, you know that eventually England will find a way to screw it up no matter what the circumstances. God speed Roy!

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Only In England: Fabio Capello Resigns A Mere Four Months Before Euro 2012

It's times like these that I wish I was still studying abroad in London for a semester.

The England national team is a constant source of drama and gossip but today it was bombarded with some wild news as head coach Fabio Capello resigned.

Apparently, he was upset with England taking John Terry's captaincy. Really Fabio? Please tell me there was more to it than this. Whatever the case may be, England is left without a manager only four months before Euro 2012 starts. Gee, do you think they'll do well in that?

The good news for English fans is that it sounds like Tottenham's Harry Redknapp is the frontrunner to get the position; not to sound xenophobic but why did they overthink it so much the last two times (Capello, Sven-Goran Eriksson) by not hiring an Englishman?

One of my main beliefs for national teams is that if you're a power, you should hire one of your own. Be that a former star player or a coach in your domestic league. So while it makes perfect sense for a place like the United States to reach out to somebody above its weight class (Jurgen Klinsmann), countries like England, Brazil, Spain, Italy, etc. should keep it simple and get somebody that understands the culture, speaks the language fluently and most importantly, can relate to the players.

Capello left England with a 28-8-6 record with the Three Lions. That looks great until you quickly remember that he didn't win any trophies and those numbers are padded from playing the dredge of Europe and losing to most worthy opposition.

As always, covering English soccer has to be one of the greatest writing jobs in the soccer world. You could devote a blog just to their national team and all the stuff that happens with them off the field.

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