Steve McClaren’s short reign as manager ended when the FA board unanimously decided that the crushing defeat to Croatia at Wembley in the Euro 2008 qualifier would be his last game in charge.

The axe also fell on Terry Venables who will now be free to take up the offer of a position as manager of the Republic of Ireland. McClaren will be in the record books for all the wrong reasons, his tenure is the shortest so far, and in percentage terms he also lost more games than any other manager.

Resignation v Pay-day

Fans & pundits alike expected McClaren to fall on his sword, and resign but as usual in modern football the manager held out for his pay-off. Just 15 months since the proudest day of McClaren’s managerial career came the worst when his reign was labelled an ‘embarrassment’ by Geoff Thompson. Brian Barwick felt obliged to ‘apologise to the fans personally’.

New Manager Selection

There will be another protracted selection process before a successor is appointed and a few of the early favourites have stated they do not wish to be considered for the position, probably because their situations have changed since they were unsuccessful in their previous application.

World Cup 2010 South Africa Qualification Draw

England will discover who their opponents will be in the 2010 World cup qualifiers on Sunday but they will be pitted against some of Europe’s finest as failure to qualify for Euro 2008 will put them in the second pot.