The Sports Frog

Italian Fabio Capello will be the next coach of the English National Team. Tremendous hire, looking in as an outsider.

Apparently, however, the insiders don't care for it much. Those insiders being English managers.

When I played (for England) under Sven I felt it was all right to have a foreign coach but I have changed my mind since then,' Middlesbrough manager Southgate told British newspapers on Friday.

'I don't think an England team should be coached by anyone other than an Englishman.'

Southgate's views were echoed by Reading manager Coppell, another former England international.

'I am sad,' said Coppell. 'I am a proud English manager and would have loved an Englishman to have been in charge.

'You look at the list of contenders and what he (Capello) has done ticks all the boxes but I just wish he was English. We have now created a situation where it is very hard for an English manager to get to the top of the tree.'

I understand that it makes some sense to have a homegrown manager. Unfortunately, England is lacking in top quality domestic-born managers.

Steve McLaren was qualified and failed miserably. The top teams in the Premier league are led by a Frenchman (Arsene Wenger),a Scot (Alex Ferguson), an Israeli (Avram Grant), and a Spaniard (Rafa Benitez). Skip 'Arry Redknapp at fifth-place Portsmouth and you have a Swede (Sven - Man City), another Scot (David Moyes - Everton), then the Northern Irishman Martin O'Neill. Seven of the managers in the Top 8 of the table hail from outside jolly old England. If that doesn't tell you something about the state of your managing quality, what does?

What England needed, as a soccer federation, was a coach who wasn't a part of the currently failing system, who could come in with a reputation that allowed him to put his playing style in place and pick players to fit that style, not players who were living on their reputation from succeeding in another's style (another foreigner's style, mind you).

It remains to be seen if Capello can take England to the heights they expect. He does have the credentials, though, no matter where he hails from.

A recent addition to this space is our finally getting with the times and adding a blog roll. The sites there are a collection of blogs that we find valuable and entertaining in a variety of different ways. A cruise through some of my favorites among them this morning yields these recommendations:

---A solid dissertation on the ludicrous nature of the rumor that if Matt Millen doesn't get to seven wins next year, he will finally lose his job. The excellent Detroit centered blog The Wayne Fontes Experience calls bullshit on that, as historic losing hasn't cost him his job up to now. Six wins would be damn near reason to throw a parade given how low Millen has taken Detroit's standards...

---Braves & Birds Blog has been in the zone with regard to soccer thoughts in the last few weeks, but last night's paragraph on the unholy convergance of bad things happening to favorite teams and programs in general is a highlight among always solid stuff.

---Dave Sez, also in the zone with the college basketball season deep into its year, with a thought on where this year's ACC frosh class stacks up with the great ACC classes of all time. Well worth it if you care about college basketball even a little.

---Airing of Grievances, sourcing constant Frog fave Mighty MJD, for a compilation of greatest dunks from Vince Carter. And Chiles' take on some of the unfairness of the criticism of Carter is well taken. By the way, I assume most of you have seen it, but if you have not, please check out MJD's latest in his "Letters from Pets" series for the thoughts of Ron Artest's very hungy Great Dane. Brilliance.

Enjoy those and the others we have on the roll. Quality stuff all around.

I have been playing Hardball Dynasty on What if Sports for a couple of months now. It truly is "fantasy baseball" as even the players are make believe. You control an entire organization from international scouting to your ML starting rotation. It can be a lot of work, so think about that before you join.

The initial learning curve is large and playing with veteran HBD guys can put one at a disadvantage. After deciding how to spend your annual 105 million dollar budget you then spend time hiring coaches for your organization before proceeding to spring training.

With both NL and AL leagues the make-up of your team can be critical. There are 32 teams in each league with each ballpark having different hitting/pitching factors. Players tire and get injured, but none have been arrested as of yet.

The graphical interface is fairly easy to negotiate and the HBD staff continues to update the game once or twice a month. They have promised that soon we will be able to play live games. If you are a Strat-O-Matic freak-like person (perhaps Mr. Delaware or BF Hood*) you will love playing. The season lasts about 2 months as they sim games every 8 hours.

Perhaps we can set up a Frog League if there is enough interest. The cost is $24.95 per season with a $15 introduction. I highly recommend the game and I have definitely gotten my money's worth. If you have interest, send me a PM.