The Madness of England Managers

09 June 2010 16:38

After Fabio Capello's outburst at local photographers this morning, football.co.uk takes a look at other England managers to have gone a bit mad over the years.

Glenn Hoddle

Following allegations about his religion and controversial faith healer Eileen Drewery, Hoddle decided to give an interview to defend himself against his critics.

But instead of portraying himself in a positive light, the England boss revealed that he had a highly contentious belief that disabled people were being punished for sins in a former life.

His comments were criticised by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Sports Minister Tony Banks among others, with a BBC poll claiming 90% of fans wanted him to leave his role as boss of the national team.

The FA agreed, dispensing of his services on February 2nd 1999.

Graham Taylor

What do you do when you're 2-1 down against Sweden in the European Championships and you need a goal to salvage any hope of making it through to the next round?

What you definitely shouldn't do is take off your most prolific striker and England's second highest ever goal-scorer.

But that's exactly what Graham Taylor did at Euro 1992, bringing on Alan Smith for Gary Lineker.

England went on to lose 2-1, leaving them out of the competition at the first hurdle.

Steve McClaren

After a rocky qualification campaign for Euro 2008, Steve McLaren's England side only needed to avoid defeat in their final game with Croatia to make it to the finals.

But after coming back from 2-0 down, they eventually lost 3-2, meaning no major tournament appearance for the first time in 14 years.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, McLaren decided it would be a good idea to wander around on the touchline holding an umbrella to shelter himself from the rain.

Hardly a great display of English fighting spirit from the 'wally with the brolly'.

Sir Alf Ramsey

He might be England's most successful manager ever but even the great man himself was prone to a bit of madness.

In the 1970 World Cup quarter-final against West Germany, England were cruising to a 2-0 victory.

But after Sir Alf decided to substitute the inspirational Bobby Charlton, the Three Lions fell apart, losing 3-2 and seeing their hopes of retaining the trophy crushed.

Source: DSG