Taylor's ire at England committee

Graham Taylor yesterday criticised the Football Association's decision to "follow fashion" in appointing a foreign manager and demanded that all seven members of the selection committee should resign if Sven Goran Eriksson fails as England coach.

Graham Taylor yesterday criticised the Football Association's decision to "follow fashion" in appointing a foreign manager and demanded that all seven members of the selection committee should resign if Sven Goran Eriksson fails as England coach.

Taylor, the Watford and former England manager, believes the FA has mirrored the trend of Premiership sides in courting a coach from abroad.

Although he admits his tenure of the national side during the early 1990s was far from successful, Taylor feels his experience and that of other recent England managers - Bobby Robson, Terry Venables, Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan - has been "wasted".

Taylor believes the FA should have arranged a meeting with the five to ascertain their views on what is required in international management. Despite the idea being touted, the forum failed to materialise and the selection committee, led by Adam Crozier, the FA's chief executive, took the step of appointing the Swede, Eriksson, as England's first foreign coach.

The other six men on the selection committee were the FA's technical director Howard Wilkinson and executive director David Davies, Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein, Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale, Liverpool director Noel White and Premier League chairman Dave Richards.

"If this doesn't work out every one of them should resign," said Taylor, on the day he received his record-breaking 29th Nationwide manager of the month award. "Who are they? What do they know? I'm not saying we should have decided who was to be England manager, but we do have the experience of international management and that has been wasted."

It is not the appointment of Eriksson that is wrong, according to Taylor, but the structure of the country's approach to the international game with club football ruling the roost.

"It doesn't matter that he is a Swede, it doesn't matter what nationality he is," Taylor said. "The FA may not like what I say but I'm telling them: 'If you think you are running football in this country, you are kidding yourselves'. The six people who run football in this country are the six chairmen of the most powerful Premiership clubs.

"It's just a fashion thing. We get it in football all the time. At the moment it's foreign coaches. If there is not one single English person who you consider can do the job, you have to look at what you are doing."

The money and the hype of the Premiership has further devalued the England side, Taylor says, with club sides not keen on releasing their multi-million pound players.

"Why are we so surprised when we are so club-orientated that from 1950 to 2000 England have won nothing, whoever the manager is? We ought to be looking at our structure and all this business of 92 in a council, 14 committees.

"What Adam Crozier should have done is said Bobby, Terry, Graham, Glenn, come on get together and let's have a good couple of hours thrashing it out.

"Now if this goes wrong they should all resign, they should all go. They took it upon themselves to be 'the people' when the people wanted someone else - Venables."