That TV Programme And SGT's Last Stand With Ingerland - 20 Years On

[Toronto Villa]

To be ridiculed endlessly because of a game is another in a long line of reasons why England will never again be anything on the world stage.

I don't really see that as having much to do with it. The scrutiny placed on the manager of Italy or Brazil in those countries is absolutely huge from the media and they seem to cope alright.

Do they stick turnips on their heads too? I'm not for a moment saying that the manager of the national side should not face scrutiny but what happened back then was beyond that. By a long way. It was made very clear that they didn't want him and taking the piss was the best solution.

[Damo70]

I watched the programme when it was originally shown but I will never watch it again. It is just a reminder of England being cheated. It is also a reminder of SGT being cheated, how he reacted on camera (probably a lot better than most of us would) and the subsequent ridiculing of him.

[Chico Hamilton III]

how he reacted on camera (probably a lot better than most of us would)

Exactly. Imagine a warts and all documentary on, say, Arsene Wenger after Arsenal have been dumped out of the champs league again? Or Fergie when he failed to get his own way.  They’d look like absolute babies.

In fact, I reckon most premier league managers behave worse every week than Taylor did in that documentary.

[eamonn]

There's a bit in it - quite uneasy to watch, (as, the whole programme largely is) of him trying to be cordial with the press while also making clear that he's nobody's fool. And the camera pans to Brian Woolnough, with a look that suggests he's sharpening his knife.

[Damo70]

I remember SGT light heartedly trying to get Rob Bishop to cheer up and be optimistic before one game. Bishop remained stony faced.

[AV82EC]

The trouble for Taylor was he took over as England needed to transition from the 80's with a group of new players. Gascogne for all his promise was slowly going off the rails and the whole thing was being held together by Platt. Ultimately though I don't think he was up to the job and for all the cruelty of the press which was way over the line I believe he was just a very good club manager who got dealt a really bad hand when he tried International football.

[Richie]

To be fair to SGT as well, Gascoigne was probably one of the best players in the World when he was Manager of England.

Things would probably have been very different if he hadn't knackered his leg in the 91 Cup Final.

I'd be interested to see how many England matches Gascoigne played under SGT. Not many I wouldn't have thought.

[dave.woodhall]

He also had Alan Shearer out for most of his final year and because of the European ban few of the players had grown up playing foreign opposition.

[Dave]

To be ridiculed endlessly because of a game is another in a long line of reasons why England will never again be anything on the world stage.

I don't really see that as having much to do with it. The scrutiny placed on the manager of Italy or Brazil in those countries is absolutely huge from the media and they seem to cope alright.

Do they stick turnips on their heads too? I'm not for a moment saying that the manager of the national side should not face scrutiny but what happened back then was beyond that. By a long way. It was made very clear that they didn't want him and taking the piss was the best solution.

I seem to remember that Dunga got phenomenal amounts of abuse from the media when Brazil were knocked out of the 2010 World Cup and was getting a lot of stick from them a long time before that.

I don't think Mano Menezes fared much better after the Copa America and Olympics.

[Toronto Villa]

The majority of the stick Dunga got was because he somehow managed to convert the most flamboyant team on the planet into Scotland.

[danno]

I saw an article recently called top six tactical blunders.

It cited Gascoigne being dropped for Cowans, then went on to say
how as a consequence England got a decent 1-1 draw away to Ireland.

how can that be classed as a blunder?

[Legion]

They probably meant blinder.

[danno]

found it

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2007/jul/31/newsstory.sport1


I remember it because I stumbled onto it after reading alot of those "on second thoughts" articles.
There was a really good one on that famous rapper John Barnes.

[bertlambshank]

I was thinking of posting this, I thought the way the media treated Graham after the debacle in Rotterdam was disgraceful, shame he did not stay at the Villa instead of taking over England's poison chalice.

I have never met Graham, but I bet he is a really nice fella.

UTV
The Doc

I have had the pleasure twice and you are right.

[SoccerHQ]

Never seen this programme, would love to (watching Youtube for about an hour would knacker my internet costs a fair bit).

In those days just the group winners went through, there was no play off reprieve for teams who finished 2nd. Looking at that line up, Holland had a pretty decent team (think they reached the quarters of USA 94) England were very much in transition.

What probably amused me more from looking at that campaign was how on earth England actually fell behind after 7 seconds or something to San Marino?! When you watch England play the minnows now they barely even cross the halfway line so that just amuses me a fair bit,dunno how much footage of that game is on there.