While Steve McClaren has rightly earned a reputation as one of the brightest coaches in football, it would be fair to say that his time in charge of England was a bit of a disaster.
Having impressed as Manchester United and England assistant in the early stages of his career, McClaren was given the managerial role at Middlesbrough, where he spent a successful five seasons from 2001.
England came calling in 2006 following the sacking of Sven Goran Eriksson and McClaren landed his dream position after an initial rejection from Luiz Felipe Scolari, who was seen as England's first choice to oversee what would hopefully be a successful era.
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McClaren assumed control of the national team on August 1, 2006, and his first major decision was to appoint Terry Venables as assistant. John Terry was also appointed as the new captain, while the likes of Sol Campbell, David James and a certain David Beckham were dropped from McClaren's first squad as the new boss looked for "a different direction".
McClaren's first game in charge of England came on August 16, with Greece making the trip for an international friendly. The microscope was fully on England's new manager and it proved to be a successful start to his tenure as a double from Peter Crouch helped the Three Lions record a 4-0 win.
England's new captain Terry and Chelsea teammate Frank Lampard were also on the scoresheet for a team that were without the likes of Wayne Rooney, Joe Cole and Michael Owen.
McClaren regularly insisted that his England team would play without fear, and the public response to the Greece victory seemed to suggest that there was a lot of confidence in the tactician.
Qualification for Euro 2008 was the name of the game for the former Manchester United assistant, however, and after losing 3-2 to Croatia in their final group match, it was confirmed that England would not be competing in the 2008 edition of the tournament.
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It was the first time in 14 years that England had not qualified for a major tournament and the first time in 24 years that they had not qualified for the European Championships.
The powers-that-be did not take long to make a change at the helm, with an emergency meeting called the following day to remove McClaren from his position. His time in charge of England lasted just 16 months, where he oversaw just 18 games. Unsurprisingly, that is the shortest spell of any England manager to date.
As it stands, McClaren is just the second England coach, along with Don Revie, to fail to take the national team to the finals of a major tournament during his time in charge.
A tenure that started with four goals and a strong performance, ended with a whimper. Dubbed the 'Wally with the Brolly', McClaren has since gone on to form a successful managerial career, with his work at Derby County leading to the head coaching position at Newcastle United.
August 16, 2006, England 4-0 Greece
England: Robinson (Kirkland 45), Gary Neville (Carragher 78), Ferdinand, Terry, Cole (Bridge 80), Gerrard (Bent 78), Lampard, Hargreaves, Downing (Lennon 69), Defoe (Richardson 69), Crouch
Subs Not Used: Young, Phil Neville, Brown, Dawson, Jenas, Wright-Phillips, Foster
Greece: Nikopolidis, Fyssas (Lagos 29), Dellas (Anatolakis 64), Katsouranis, Antzas (Kyrgiakos 45), Vyntra, Zagorakis (Basinas 45), Karagounis, Giannakopoulos (Salpigidis 45), Samaras (Amanatidis 45), Charisteas
Subs Not Used: Chalkias, Kafes, Gekas, Papadopoulos, Georgeas
