Felgate: tennis needs a football-style boss

As the field of candidates for the post of performance director of British tennis shuffle towards the start line, eyeing each other warily like 5,000 metre runners, you can almost hear that old stand-up comic line, "It's déjà vu all over again, chaps". Has it really been four years since the Lawn Tennis Association's chief executive, John Crowther, hailed the appointment of Patrice Hagelauer as "our Pied Piper"?

The 55-year-old Hagelauer is on his way back to France and a coaching post with their Davis Cup squad, and nobody can blame him for that. But mutterings are in order, not only about a job unfinished but not even halfway there.

Now the Pied Piper has tootled off into the sunset the search is under way for Superman, possibly wearing a Union Jack jockstrap. The word from LTA headquarters in Barons Court is that Crowther is "very pleased with the calibre of candidate". Interviews will be held over the next month, an appointment is due by the end of March and, we are informed, the new man will be in place by Wimbledon. By then, of course, the 2003 season will be half over, but no matter.

As the only home-bred player of any calibre, Tim Henman is in a position to wave the sort of baton guaranteed to make the good folk at Barons Court jump about a bit. He has already done so a couple of times, most notably over the knee-jerk sacking of Hagelauer's predecessor, Richard Lewis, following the Davis Cup disaster against Ecuador at Wimbledon, and the conductor has been at it again over the past few days.

"It would be the best for all concerned if [the Performance Director] is British," said Henman. "However, it would require somebody well versed with the world game and yet equally conversant with the workings of British tennis and how things can be improved. As far as I am concerned, there is only one man with appropriate credentials, and that is David Felgate."

Currently employed by the sports agents IMG and based for the past 14 months in Cleveland, Felgate said he has been monitoring what is going on. So would he like the job? "Never say never," was the answer. "But it depends what the role is. I know what the title is and I believe a lot of the work Patrice has done should not be dismantled or changed.

"We fail to capitalise on juniors going into the senior ranks but I refuse to believe we can't be better as a nation at tennis. It's not about turning somebody into a world beater. Ten years ago we had three guys in the top 150. That's how you start to build a base. Now big chunks are missing in the ladder.

"The new man has to be responsible and want to be accountable, like Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsène Wenger. You don't hear people talking about their clubs, they talk about them. And when people criticise the LTA, they should criticise the person, and that person should be up for criticism.

"He should also be British, if the right person is there. Look at the foreigners we have had so far – Olga Morozova, Ian Barclay, Warren Jacques and Hagelauer. I'm not saying some haven't done good jobs but it's not like we haven't tried that route."

As manager of men's national training, Jeremy Bates is one level down from the vacancy. So hashe applied? "I don't want to say, but it is a role immediately senior to my present one and I am an ambitious person." Bates also believes British would be best: "It's always interesting to have input from foreigners, but I don't see why we can't do the job from within the UK. You need an inside knowledge of tennis in this country, not just what is happening within the LTA.

"There are lots of high-profile names you could consider but I don't go along with that thinking. It should be somebody with a track record, but I don't think you necessarily have to get a John McEnroe type."

The straight-talking Tony Pickard, long a scourge of the LTA, also happens to think the appointment should be British. He was invited to talks in London with Crowther, who apparently was seeking advice. "I have heard nothing since," Pickard said. "But they would never come and ask me to do it. Whether or not they take my advice is another thing.

"I have a gut feeling they will screw up again, because they have this vision that one man can do the job. He can't, it's impossible. The business side of it is one thing, the playing side is another. We need somebody without an ego, prepared to go out and get their hands dirty."

Somebody, in other words, like Tony Pickard? David Lloyd considers Pickard the best-qualified Brit, but feels the job ought to go to an outsider. "You can't have someone who has already been around a system that has so basically failed," said the man whose sacking as Davis Cup captain three years ago was so embarrassingly bungled. Never known to be short of an opinion, Lloyd offered the names of Bob Brett, Brad Gilbert and the Dutch junior tennis director, Stan Franker.

"Gilbert would be interested if you paid him well, while Bob is excellent all-round and would be brutal. He would bring in his own team, like a football manager. That's what Patrice should have done and that was his mistake. Eighty per cent of the present coaches will have to be kicked out, and if you don't know them personally it is less difficult to do. The new man should be able to make his own decisions and not have to go through Crowther.

"The way things stand, anybody with real bottle will never get much implemented, which is why it could be an internal job, possibly David Felgate. And he is not the right guy. If I was Jeremy Bates and Felgate came in I would be pissed off, and you don't want to lose people like Jeremy.

"We could end up with a second-rater again, which is very sad. To make this work you have to prune the tree down to its roots and give the guy a clean sheet of paper. And I mean clean." Over to you, Barons Court.