Barry's Beef

Guardian Unlimited Football headline: Steve McClaren to change for Zagreb. About time. England will be a much better outfit when McLaren ditches the suit and goes back to the Little Blue Shorts with White Socks look. That's what he wore when he was Sven's tactical adviser and it's what got him the top job.
I am sorry if I am sounding a bit unfair in calling for Macca to be dumped, but my reasoning is two-fold: firstly, I don't think McLaren is good enough and secondly, and for me more importantly, is that there exists a massive gulf between club and national team supporting. You support your club through thick and (mostly) thin. You owe them. You don't boo your players, you try your best not to boo your manager and board because it's your club. It means something to you that is totally different from your nation. Basically, your national team represents you. They should succeed for you. You take the risk of having your best players taken off you at very inopportune moments (African Nations Cup for instance) with the permanent risk of injury (i.e Michael Owen and Dean Ashton). Your nation owes you, you owe your team. So if England play crap, which they have for years now; I don't see why they deserve continued patience. Should the Republic of Ireland clap Steve Staunton for leading them to an embarrassing 5-2 defeat at the hands of the mighty Cyprus? I think it was the nation rather than the railway station on the Docklands Light Railway, but to be honest the way Stan has got Ireland playing it doesn't really matter. And Toshack presiding over Wales getting dumped on 5-1 at home by Slovakia?
Macca proves me (or is it us?) wrong. Because as England manager, you owe the people of England. Rant over.