England's Gullibility

Photo credit BBC - Steven Gerrard picks up the whiff of decay from the dead body of management capability in the English Football Association














Am I missing something? I've looked out of the office window and life seems to be going as normal here in Olde Englande, even though David Beckham claims that England is in mourning Maybe I've got it wrong and he was referring to mourning the death of English soccer management capability.

Beckham's claim is surely the perfect example of what is wrong with the principles that drive the world-views and management of the National (should that be Notional?, or even No Show Null!)game. Yes, we lost a match and yes, it's not nice to fail to qualify for a major competition, however Mr Perspective's claim hints as something far more profound.

Self-absorbed, self-referencing. A Sport that is 'managerialised' by managers who lack deep management capability. A sport that has been 'rationalised' into techniques,systems and accompanying jargon. A Sport that is deluded in it's belief that the outcomes of a chaotic and complex process can be controlled and conditioned. Rational, Logical, Scientific, and guess what in a supreme irony of method...the empirical evidence shows it hasn't worked!!

Alan Hanson said something profound as a throw away line on Wednesday's post game dissection and that was "England and McClaren were out-thought". How right he was, and how even more right if this applies to beyond mere match tactics. Gullible people reside in a world of so called 'single loop thinking' where they can only understand the problems they have, and the solutions they believe are possible, within the limits of their thinking and the 'system' as they see it.

Double Loop Thinkers step outside and see problems and solutions in a new light. The FA would be gullible not to!