But why didn’t they sack the players?
OK, let me get this out of the way right now: I don’t like football, I don’t watch football, and I don’t really know anything about football.
But does it seem a bit odd to anyone else that Steve McLaren has lost his job today? I mean, I know the team lost their match last night, but isn’t that the point? The team lost the match. Are they firing the players? You know — the ones that were actually on the pitch, kicking the ball around? No, somehow, in international football, when the team loses a match, it’s always assumed to be the coach’s fault. As though somehow they’d have won, if only they’d been coached a little better. Sounds like nonsense to me.
But why didn’t they sack the players? by Will Goring, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.
The players are picked from the various league sides, so they can’t actually be fired. Instead the (next) manager gets to decide whether he will pick the same players again or opt for some new “talent”.
The manager is responsible for choosing the players in the first place. If he chose muppets, then he himself must be a muppet. Still, it’s a bit harsh. Croatia is a strong contender with an impressive team… or something.
Obviously, there’s nothing to stop the various club managers deciding that the player was so rubbish that they’re going to drop him from his league team.