Bringing Back Venables Bad Move

England will it seems welcome Terry Venables to the coaching staff. This is disgraceful, OK there may be no convictable proof he was corrupt at Palace and Portsmouth but utter incompetence is the only other reasonable answer. It is also an insult to the fans of those two clubs.

Far more worrying is what does it say about the New England manager? That he is so bankrupt he has to enlist the support of a man whose last success was probably just about saving an expensive Boro side from relegation years ago? Who has been fired from 3 of his last 4 club jobs - and would need body guards to go back to 2 of them. Whose reputation for truth and probity has been dragged through the sewer by judges on more than one occasion?

On any level it is an appointment of staggering proportions reflecting exactly what Gareth Southgate said about McClaren as a preparer not a leader. It shows a staggering lack of imagination which he applied in buying every striker who he could get - Ricketts, Christie, Viduka, Yakubu and Hasselbaink and no doubt others costing vast wages where big fees were not also involved.

The suspicion I had was that McClaren was Sven with a Mask but more like Sven without any personal confidence or front. It was bad enough the thought of 4 years of this tedious man's press conferences. I always feel if someone knows something or has something to say they will give some indication of it as Ferguson and Mourinho do sometimes - often in throw away remarks.

Added to that we have Alan Shearer, a man who was last seen on national TV acting like some punk in the pub rattling on about how one man should punch another, being touted for a role. What is Shearer's qualification to coach? Does it further reflect McClaren's insecurity at not being a top player? He should consider the playing careers of Jose Mourinho, SAF and Rafael Benitez.

Whilst who lays the cones out may or may not be a great moral matter the undercurrent of what it says about the manager is more worrying. Shearer and Venables both failed to win anything as England players and managers in the past. So did McClaren as Svennis's number 2. Is it reflective of McClaren realising as he sat next to the inept Swede that that was all he could do? That in reality his tactics and ideas have already failed 3 times?

However it is looked at and however charitable one is about all 3 people named here it must still raise flags in people about whether we have bought 4 years of a bigger lemon that the (almost?) unbroken chain of them since Ramsey.