McClaren is the victim of our sneer culture, says Ferguson

The management brotherhood closed ranks behind Steve McClaren last night with his old boss, the Godfather, to the fore. The Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, said he was confident that the England coach, his former assistant at Old Trafford, was strong enough to deal with the vitriol he is enduring, but criticised the "mocking culture" which encouraged it.

Arsenal's Arsène Wenger and Portsmouth's Harry Redknapp also defended the beleaguered coach with Wenger and Rafael Benitez questioning whether England should be playing Andorra at all.

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"What's happened in the last week is incredible," said Ferguson. "When you look at the behaviour of some of the fans at that game, dearie me.

"We live in a mocking society now. Even on television, with shows like that skating programme [Dancing on Ice] where the panellists criticise, mock and ridicule the contestants.

"I don't think anyone can enjoy what Steve's going through. He will be feeling it. But he's a man, he'll get on with it. The only answer to me, it seems, is winning 5-0 every game."

Ferguson also defended Wayne Rooney, who was booked for petulant behaviour in both Israel and Andorra, substituted in the latter, and has not scored a competitive goal for England since Euro 2004.

"You can't put all the responsibility on one player like Wayne," said Ferguson "I don't think the whole England team is playing well. I'm sure they'd all put their hands up and admit that.

"Since Wayne joined us as a young lad, that added weight has been placed on his shoulders. But his enthusiasm is always there."

Wenger, for once, was in agreement. "I feel sorry for McClaren because it's unfair. If he doesn't perform against Russia or France you can criticise, but the way this competition is organised is not serious. You should have pre-qualifiers. We have Andorra, Gibraltar wanting to come in. Why not Barnet? It's the same.

"You know before the game starts it will be a boring game. People do not expect England to struggle against Andorra but the players are not fresh and maybe psychological factors are coming in. It is in their subconscious that you will win 1-0, 2-0 or 5-0, whatever. You know before the game what Andorra will try to do: nobody comes out of the box, nobody comes past the halfway line. They think 'if we can survive the first 20 minutes we could get a 0-0 at half-time and we can last as long as possible'. But it's not football, you cannot continue to convince people that that is the future."

As for the eternal question that dogs McClaren: Can you play Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard together? "Of course. You can always play good players together," said Wenger.

Benitez echoed Wenger's view of the minor nations. "People talk about football being for everybody but how can the manager of San Marino, Liechtenstein or Andorra be happy with losing 0-3?" he said. "The manager of the other team is unhappy with winning 3-0. The supporters who lose 0-3 are happy and the supporters who win 3-0 are not. How can you explain this? Who wants to read about this or watch these games on television? This is not promoting football."

While Wenger said the criticism would not put him off doing the job, were he ever available (and the Football Association would soon dump McClaren if he was) Paul Jewell said: "I wouldn't want his job for all the tea in China. There's no denying England weren't anything other than average. I don't think Steve or the players would deny that.

"But some of the stick he and the players have had has been over the top. It's gone past passion now. It's reached the point of hatred. That's sad but it's the way football is going."

Redknapp agreed. "I've never really fancied that job, especially with what is happening to Steve. Every manager has to take flak but this is too much. Besides, I couldn't have a job where you spend most of the time sitting around in an office.

"When I started at Pompey as director of football the highlight of the day was a cup of tea and a cake with the chairman."

The most radical, supportive idea came from Adrian Boothroyd, Watford's manager. He suggested that England should learn from South Korea who gave Guus Hiddink three months with the squad before the 2002 World Cup. They reached the semi-finals. "The English preparation is to finish the League season slightly early, play the FA Cup final, and travel to the tournament a few weeks later. Then, we all ask why we didn't win," said Boothroyd.

"The way South Korea prepared is something we need to look at, but I would be very surprised if the Premier League would accept it." So would everybody else.