Sven for England

You can hardly blame McClaren, a man with little football management experience and none at the highest levels. The FA are to blame for making such a ridiculous appointment in the first place. Hopefully the FA have phoned McClaren already and given him twelve hours to resign, if not they have to sack him.

What England need is a manager with some Champions League or international experience. Unfortunately that rules out most English managers. An unemployed former Chelsea manager comes to mind as one possibility.

Another man with Portuguese connections is Luiz Felipe Scolari. His insistence on honouring his contract with Portugal means he may well have turned down the England job before McClaren was offered it. His contract with Portugal runs out after Euro 2008 so it may be possible to get him to agree to take over after that competition. England could then make a temporary appointment of an English manager like Terry Venables with Stuart Pearce or Peter Taylor as assistant.