FA wasted a decade trying to buy success

A shameful era, in which the FA have hired expensive foreigners with all the dignity of an over-ambitious club (Peter Ridsdale, then of Leeds United, was on the board that appointed Sven-Goran Eriksson) should be cast into the dustbin of history when Harry Redknapp, as appears likely, becomes Fabio Capello's successor.

What a waste of a decade. The money unnecessarily thrust at Eriksson and Capello - even Steve McClaren got £2.5million a year - could have built St George's Park in a fraction of the 10 years it has taken. The game would already be feeling the benefit of the national football centre rather the international embarrassment of yet another foul-up.

Nor can the clock be turned back: Redknapp will want a Capello-style £6m, or around 40 times the salary Terry Venables received. But inflation and cost-ineffectiveness are not the worst of it. Who can blame Eriksson and Capello? The fault is the FA's for trying to cheat, for throwing money about in a way other countries - not just Capello's Italy but Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany and Spain - would not.

The Germans thought about it once. They were in the doldrums and sounded out Roy Hodgson, who had distinguished himself with Switzerland. A few weeks later, they came back and apologised for troubling him, explaining that consultations had convinced them the engagement of a foreigner would affect morale within the internal coaching structure. Look at Germany now.

The English and Russians apart, most major countries observe the convention that you should choose a manager on the same basis as his players. They believe it is better to fall short under one of your own than to buy success. And, in the long term, it truly is.