ALAN Curbishley is obviously a very talented manager, but he's clearly not as sharp as some perceive him to be.

ALAN Curbishley is obviously a very talented manager, but he's clearly not as sharp as some perceive him to be.

Over the past few weeks he has managed to talk himself out of any chance of getting the England job, despite the fact he desperately wants it.

First he reacted with anger and astonishment at having his picture on the front of the Sunday papers at the time of the first round of interviews.

This no doubt set alarm bells ringing at Lancaster Gate.

While this week at a Charlton media briefing he criticised the papers for trying to hijack his press conferences to get updates on his England prospects.

If there's one thing you have got to be able to handle when you are England boss, it is the press.

If Curbishley can't even put up with a bit of light speculation, how the hell is he going to cope with his face being super-imposed on to a turnip?

I would imagine AC's horror at being in the national media scrum has long since led to his name being crossed off the list.

Looking at the bigger picture, The Man would like to have seen Eriksson stay in the job.

The players clearly respect him, and his record in qualification and competition games is decent.

It has to be the best man for the job - whether he's English, Iraqi or a Martian (although Earnie probably doesn't have the experience anyway).

Let's not forget: Of the eight teams in the Champions' League quarter-finals last week - the elite of world club football - there were no English players represented.

There were scores of Brazilian and French players.

We may be a huge football nation, but fanaticism does not always translate into success.

I don't buy the assertion that we have now assembled a superior bunch of international players.

Jeez, Norwich have got a player in the squad for heaven's sake!

The Man thinks we have two world-class players, Gerrard and Rooney, while the rest are good, but certainly not world-beaters.

Quarter-finals at best I would have thought, although I hope I'm wrong.

Whatever, this summer it will be nice to watch a few games of “pretty football”u rather than a team which is allegedly preoccupied with “earning the right to play” (December's Manager of the Month) - whatever the hell that now means.

If the performance at Preston (and countless others) was about earning the right to play, the players should have been “earning” below the minimum wage.