Who's the worst appointment you've seen as England manager?

Matthew Upson has just become England manager on my game, at the age of 35 he had only just retired and had taken part in the tournament before that had seen the last England manager sacked. He spent a couple of weeks after the tournament as a youth coach at West Ham before becoming the England manager.

Doesn't seem like he'll last long, 1-1 draw with Andorra, 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland, and a 2-1 win over Andorra and a 6-1 defeat against Italy in a friendly.

The AI appoints recently retired players too much on this game. It happens sometimes in real life but, once again, there's a balance issue with FM.

All or nothing approach, as usual.

Paul Jewell got appointed England Manager in my game which I thought was stupid personally at the time but he went on to win consecutive World Cups.

Appointments seem wonky in general. We all have our own focus - I don't know who Matthew Upson is, and I have only a vague conception of who Paul Jewell is - but the American FA seems to re-appoint managers like Bruce Arena or worse Steve Sampson.

A "has already managed national team" flag would be nice for those cases.

I saw a thread in here the other day which showed Steve McLaren getting the job in 2022 or something like that. To appoint him once was shocking enough, but twice??

Aidy Boothroyd.

Matty Taylor got the job a few months after he retired from football, was sacked at the next world cup being knocked out in the second round. He was then replaced by Jermaine Defoe getting his first ever managerial job. Needless to say I'm not best pleased with the FA, especially as I wanted the job

(Also, Matthew Upson's a pretty good manager on my game, was an excellent assistant to me for two years before going to Notts County and leading them to the Premiership in 2 seasons).

Well I'm half happy with him, he called up a youngster I sold to Arsenal a few years ago and I got a £7.5m payout thanks to him getting to play in the thrashing against Italy lol. Just need him to call up a couple more youngsters I sold with just international fees & sell on clauses attached lol.

Should be coded so managers CAN'T be re-appointed EVER to the same job

With the only exception of if they have gone somewhere else and done really well (ie. won lots of trophies/promoted teams)

Very few managers return to clubs they've left (and even less if they've been sacked), I can think of some, but they are usually club icons before they left the first time anyway

As for normal management appointments... yes something seriously needs to be fixed with this, too many ex-players managing clubs they are favoured personnel for

Seriously, how many top clubs hire their own ex-players at any one time? I can only think of a few

This issue also causes some management appointments to be predictable

For example, I've yet to have a game where Alan Shearer isn't the manager of either Blackburn or Newcastle, usually whomever looses their manager first

And this isn't just FM10 but previous games as well

Also, code player rep and non-player rep separate

Sure... player xyz used to be a world-class player, but he has yet to prove himself as a manager

If anything though, 99% of new managers have to "cut their teeth" at lower rep teams before making the job to the big names (or higher international level)

But... perhaps this is why AI teams become so weak down the line? Because most of these "ex-player" managers aren't that good anyway

Dan Gosling or Jack Rodwell.

steve staunton

steve staunton

oh lord have mercy

Jamie McCombe on 10.2 just after retiring as a player.

Paul Jewell on one. Psycho on another. Though Pyscho did win the World Cup before he retired.

SMAC....oh wait...

myself on fm07, after just 2 promotions with exeter

on this version... probally david beckham

David Bentley, and worst of all, he replaced me when I left for Brazil

myself on fm07, after just 2 promotions with exeter

I've had that happen to me too FM08, but with 1 promotion from the BSN lol

Chris Eagles:p Or maybe Fraser Foster...^^ Both appointed 2 months after their retirement.

Though Eagles actually managed to win the EC (2024) and the Confederations cup (2025), and held the seat for 8 years(2020-2028). Foster on the other hand only lasted 2 years....

Stewart Pearce. Ruined England. Remember on 09 Paul Ince was put in a manager, won 3 World Cups!

Stuart Pearce seems to succeed Capello on every save, even on previous games like FM08.

I once saw a screenshot of Maradona as England manager! Riots ensued.

Cristiano Ronaldo was England manager on my Triestina game once - took them to the World Cup, crashed out in the group stages, got fired and he went to Benfica.

Jermaine Pennant

Phil Neville

Wes Brown.

In a sign-up I'm running with 60 managers starting in the top leagues of England, Italy and Spain, and being ranked by the number of days they stay at their original clubs, our very first manager to get sacked, after about 250 days, doing badly with Liverpool, went on to manage England - losing out in qualification for the 2014 World Cup behind Wales, and losing in the playoff to Russia. His surname was 'English', and it seems that had a major impact on the decision .

not a bad appointent but the brazillian ronaldo was appointed when i was france, he wn the world cup in his first year beating me in the final, our head to head record is 4 played and ronaldo's won all 4, also england are ranked 1 in the world

There are some odd appointments, and it's great that SI are looking into it for future versions. On my last save, a rather poorly attributed Phil Neville took over as England manager and took them to World Cup glory in 2014. From memory (FM09), Marco Materazzi took over as Italy boss and presided over a shocking 5th place in European Championship qualifiers group.

Should be coded so managers CAN'T be re-appointed EVER to the same job

Steve Coppell?

Jimmy Sirrel?

Ronnie Moore?

Matthew Upson has since lost to Azerbaijan on my save, and England are already 4th in their group. He seems to have an insane 3-4-3 system, so they get hit on the break a lot.

i've seen Gary Neville take the job in 2014 on my Man Utd save and once when i was playing a LLM game Luke Chadwick got the job

In defence of Shteve McClaren he is doing really well in RL in holland and if he continues to improve......... stranger things have happened!

The worse manager as england on fm has to be Robbie Fowler,

England played Spain on my save, and Spain battered them 6-1 i was ashamed, later that month he was sacked!

The worst? I am not too sure...

The best? Obviously when they hired me.

Steve McClaren

David Bentley, and worst of all, he replaced me when I left for Brazil

And in addition he won the World Cup with England, beating Turkey in the final

Steve McLaren.

No one appointed England manager in the game comes close.

Johnathan Woodgate became manager on my save.

On a similar note both France and Brazil appionted terrrible regens coaches who regenarted less than a year into the game and it was their first ever to jobs. Didn't make sence as I applied for both of those jobs and had a world class reputation.

In terms of randomness, Greg Halford was appointed England manager in my game. Not sure what year but he got given the job and I just thought WTF are the FA doing

Steve McLaren.

No one appointed England manager in the game comes close.

if you saw my earlier post then you will find someone appointed in the game that comes very close - it was Steve McLaren!

Chris Eagles:p Or maybe Fraser Foster...^^ Both appointed 2 months after their retirement.

Though Eagles actually managed to win the EC (2024) and the Confederations cup (2025), and held the seat for 8 years(2020-2028). Foster on the other hand only lasted 2 years....

That's strange, I would have thought Fraser Forster would be a safe pair of hands....

Capello -> Pearce -> Steve Bruce -> Wade Elliott -> Craig Fagan -> John Terry

Mourinho on mine, how frickin' awesome would that be?!

Mons - John Terry? Cue the obvious joke about asking if he brought Wayne Bridge in as his assistant...

After I resigned as England manager through boredom of having to play in pre-season my replacement was Greg Halford.

Which is obviously worse than Phil Neville by a long shot.

The worse part is that Halfords best attributes are attacking and defending both at 14... The rest are awful. Not to mention he has 4 Man Management

luke chadwick

Yeah we're aware of an issue where retired players are appointed as international managers without any experience. It's something we're looking into for any future version. Thanks.

In fairness, some countries do go down this route. Brazil for one have a record of appointing former players with little experience.

Jacob Mellis is the worst I saw. I'd won two WC's, then he took over and went out in the group stage of the next WC and Euro before being sacked.

i once saw crouchaldino be apointed England manager lol...only joking mate

Aidy Boothroyd gets the big job fairly frequently. Michael Owen also seems to do well straight after retiring and gets the role