Phil Neville: England Manager

[Patrick Thistle]

Apparently appointed as England Women's manager without actually applying for it and describing it as a "development role" in his interview.

Anyone want to hazard a guess how this is going to go?

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

You couldn't design a candidate more inappropriate - if I wasn't so certain that the FA management team are so fucking clueless, I'd suspect it was done to upset as many people as possible.

After the Eni Aluko investigations - was anybody else sacked other than Mark Sampson? What a bunch of cunts they are.

[3 Colours Red]

He didn't apply for the job, never expressed any public interest in wanting the job, has practically no relevant experience and has had to delete his Twitter account due to sexist comments.

And people wonder why women's football still has acceptance issues among the less enlightened.

[Ray de Galles]

Is it true that Neville’s (ridiculous) appointment was announced on the England men’s team twitter account rather than that for the women’s team?

[Kevin S]

So it seems, with @Lionesses then quoting @England.

https://twitter.com/Lionesses/status/955865298674036737

[Ray de Galles]

Christ, a small but telling illustration of how it is - “Stand back ladies, this is important news so it should be delivered by and for men”.

[Kevin S]

Couple of other Fizzer Zingers:

[Kevin S]

Incidentally, you can see a strong contrast in the replies to the @England tweet and the @Lionesses tweet.

[Tapiocahead]

So ludicrously stupid and easily avoidable that it's beyond belief.

[Kevin S]

Though somehow despite being almost unbelievable, it's also exactly what we would expect of the English FA.

Cushy jobs for the old boys.

[Hot Orange]

While I don't disagree with any of the above, what I hadn't realised is that the three short-listed candidates and Mo Marley all decided they didn't want the job. So it's not as if the FA have just gone straight to the old-boys network without considering more sensible options.

Of course, that doesn't alter the fact that Neville shouldn't be anywhere near 5th choice and it's a ludicrous appointment.

[Sean of the Shed]

The FA have gone from a racist sex pest to a misogynist with few qualifications and no experience. I personally believe this is a huge step forward by the FA and I reckon in four appointment's time they might actually appoint someone who is both appropriate and fully qualified.

[Sean of the Shed]

If you aren't already aware, Phil Neville does have previous experience in women's football.

[Jah Womble]

They're obviously being their usual woolly selves, but the BBC are continuing to describe Neville's tweets as 'controversial', like there might be some kind of 'debate' to be had here. They were on a par with the kind of repetitious garbage posted by the witless cretins that leave comments on any BBC report involving women's football - so where else do you go from there? (To an FA appointment, of course.)

There's so much wrong here it beggars belief. "Not a true and genuine reflection of either my character or beliefs." So whose were they, and how did you hope or imagine for the remarks to be received in a public arena? Even in the primordial swampland that was 2011, most of us had some idea that our social media footprint might exist beyond the now.

That ol' trailing left foot again, eh, Phil?

[Mr Beast]

Did Mo Marley decide she didn't want it? Reports in Guardian today suggest otherwise, but no idea myself.

[Mr Beast]

Should clarify, Marley applied and then withdrew, possibly once the FA made clear they were going with Neville.

[Hot Orange]

I only know what I read in the Guardian yesterday:

Since Sampson’s sacking in September the squad has been under the caretaker charge of Mo Marley. Another pro-licence holder, she decided she did not want the senior role long-term and will return to her previous post leading England’s development teams.

By last month, the FA had compiled a three-person shortlist but, ultimately, none of the trio wanted the top job. While John Herdman, the favourite, moved from coaching Canada women to that country’s men, Nick Cushing remained at Manchester City and Laura Harvey, the former Arsenal and Seattle Reign coach, accepted a new post with Utah Royals.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I don't know if this is necessarily an example of the FA undervaluing the women's game. They're every bit as bad at appointing managers for the men's team. Phil Neville is just a slightly different version of hopelessly unqualified, terribly uninformed and completely incompetent for the task in hand.

This one does have the added dimension of wondering how Phil Neville's name came up in a conversation for hiring coaches. I'm really curious. Is it that they reckon that he's too dimwitted to pose a threat to his charges?

[blameless]

I'd mock the FA for this ill-thought-out fiasco, but my own lot are dangerously close to appointing noted misogynist and racist Malky Mackay as our mens' team manager after the Michael O'Neill thing fell through.

[Lang Spoon]

Fucking hell they are going to appoint Malky? Ffs. Never thought I’d be upset that Paul Lambert just found a new job.

Neville is some cunt. If he had any sense of decency he’d have turned the job down. Scum rising everywhere.

[Gerontophile]

Dotmund (FOTP) has just tweeted that it is the poor intern who had to go through 7 years of Phil Neville's tweets, that he is most sorry for.

[Amor de Cosmos]

This appointment echoes — in a doppelganger-ish way — John Herdman's as Canadian Men's team coach. No interview, no warning, no experience coaching men at any level. You just give the coach of the fifth ranked women's team in the world the job of dealing with ongoing car crash that's the men's team. In both cases it says women's football is less important than men's. Whether it's undermining a successful program, or providing a pay-check for one of our mates, we'll do it. Just because we can.

[Lang Spoon]

Best hope is someone has an absolutely vile Me Too story on the fucker, and he’s gone in a wet week. He’s dull obvious stupid as Shearer on MotD, maybe even thicker than dead eyed Giggs. He doesn’t like zonal marking (of course!), probably thinks tactical preparation is overrated, it’s all about Geting The Best Out Of The Players. Though he seems to have the motivational skills of a dead fish.

But he worked under Sir Alex! Can’t buy that kind of experience.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Alex Ferguson, hate him or loathe him, was an incredible motivator. He demanded - and got - the best out of just about every player to fall under his command.

Phil Neville is a sexist twat who doesn't know how apostrophes work.

I'll give it a month, and I'm feeling generous at that.

[Jah Womble]

Jesus wept - somehow this is even worse than I realised. I'm probably way behind the curve here, but I've now seen/heard Neville's 'battering the wife' tweet on the news.

Who cares how long ago the posts were made? The guy's a f***ing moron who shouldn't be within five thousand light years of this position.