Iceland knocked England out of the European Championships in France. Following the same, the Three Lions boss has resigned. Who’s gonna take the hot seat? We have a prime candidate for that position and it should be Slaven Bilic.
The 68-year-old Roy Hodgson has been in charge of the Three Lions for four years after replacing the Italian Fabio Capello. Roy Hodgson took charge of just three of 11 games in major tournament finals and in total, he won 33 of the 56 games he took charge of.
After the latest bummer, elimination from Euro 2016 competition by Iceland, the 68-year-old Roy Hodgson has decided to step out: to resign as England manager.
“I’m sorry it will have to end this way but these things happen,” Hodgson said.
“I hope you will still be able to see an England team in a final of a major tournament soon.
“Now is the time for someone else to oversee the progress of a hungry and extremely talented group of players. They have done fantastically, and done everything asked of them.”
If we take a look at ratio of some ex-England bosses, we can see that Hodgson’s ratio is on the bottom.
% – Best England managers by win ratio:
Capello: 66.7%
Ramsey: 61.1%
Hoddle: 60.7%
Greenwood: 60%
Eriksson: 59.7%
Hodgson: 58.9%
So what’s next for England? The FA have tried with both domestic coaches and international ones. We have a tip for them: if you want results, find the middle ground and appoint the West Ham United boss, Slaven Bilic.
Here are 5 reason why England should opt to that move.
1. Although Slaven Bilic is a Croat, he knows and understands the English mentality. Bilic played in the English Premier League back in the day and his current position with West Ham makes him a great candidate for the job.
2. Roy Hodgson took the team in a new direction — he called off some seniors and opted to go with England’s future instead. The average age of the English side against Iceland was 25. Slaven Bilic knows how to manage young players. Before taking the job as the main national coach of Croatia, he coached the youth team, under 21, with which he had great results. This was the primary reason why the HNS (Croatian Football Federation) moved him to the main team.
3. Bilic played for the national team of Croatia during their Golden Generation era, which gave him experience both on the pitch and outside it. In 2008, Bilic at the helm of Croatia, won twice against England, a victory that left the Three Lions at home during the Euro 2008 competition.
At the same tournament, Croatia beat Austria, Germany, and Poland in the group stages to reach the quarter-finals with maximum group points for the first time in their tournament history.
However, Croatia’s campaign ended dramatically when they lost a penalty shoot-out to Turkey and the Bilic’s boys left the tournament with records for fewest goals conceded (2), fewest games lost (0).
In 2010, Bilic and Croatia missed their train for World Cup, and the main reason for that was due to injury problems of the key players and not to shortcomings on Bilic’s part.
In 2012, Croatia booked their place at European competition and before the start of the same, Bilic formally agreed to a deal to manage the Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow after the end of the same competition. At the group stage, Croatia celebrated a win in their opening game against the Republic of Ireland 3-1. They later drew with Italy 1-1, before unfortunately losing to Spain in the last round, 1-0.
4. On the bench of Lokomotiv Moscow, Bilic performed well, but he failed to grab the Russian league title.
A year later, he took the job in the Turkish Super Lig where he made a good bond with the fans of Besiktas in 2 years, and was very close, right until the end to snatching the league title. With the same team, Bilic earned some good results in UEFA European league, beating out some English teams as well.
In the 2015/16 season, Bilic was appointed manager of West Ham United. With the season recently ended, the Hammers’ impact is fresh in everyone’s minds. Bilic formed a solid team which has beaten all EPL top clubs. At one time the Hammers were close to first place and to securing the Champions League place, but in the end West Ham secured the Europa place.
5. For the final reason why England should hire Slaven Bilic (sorry West Ham United fans!) we will sum up all of them. Whenever Bilic left a team, fans were not happy at all. Bilic made connections and friends wherever he was playing or coaching.
He’s a charismatic and lovable person who brings his Croatian demeanour wherever he goes. He’s a kind and intelligent person who enjoys football and everything about the most popular game in world.
Most importantly, he has exactly what England needs right now: he has the whole package (experience as a player and as a national coach), on the pitch and off the pitch
to be the right man for the Three Lions. His teams play with a magnificent offence and they get results. Why not call Super Slaven? Still, the question remains as to whether he would accept the job, considering the improvement he has made with the Hammers in just one season.