Luiz Felipe Scolari.

[marshbags]

I watched an interview on Hard Talk Extra Time last night and was enlightened by his demeanour and how genuine he is towards not only England but football in general.

The reason relating to the England job, was in his words, a matter of timing towards the up and coming world cup.

He was given permission by both the Portugese F.A. and the English F.A. to try and reach an agreemnet whereby he wouldn,t compromise his interests and wanted to take the England job so long as it did not conflicted with his present obligations.

He made it clear he could not agree to becoming the England coach until after the world cup but an agreement couldn,t be sorted out in time to allow him to fulfill his present loyalty to the Portugese N.Team and this was the reason he had to turn it down.

He also said the England job was the best oppurunity for any coach to take.

English football along with it,s players where the best in the world for all that is positive in the game.

The English premier league was the best in the world for the same reasons

He said that Man U. had done a great job with Cristiano Ronaldo and he was with the best team to enable his continued advancement in football.

He dismissed completely the press reports on him wanting C.Ronaldo to move to Barca or indeed any other club.

He wants him to stay under the watchful eye of Fergie and his staff and continue playing in the Premier league.

This is all fact as seen in the half hour interview.

What a lovely man he is and to witness how humble he is considering his international C.V., was a pleasant surprise considering all the negative hype that get,s reported on him.

I would dearly love to see him take the England job on sometime in the future and perhaps A.S.P. for my money.

Incidently he didn,t even discuss any financial circumstances while negotiating for the England job.

He said IF he had been in a position to agree terms from a coaching aspect, he would then have left this side of things to his long time advisor and it did not in anyway influence his decision as a hands on coach.

He wanted to give 100% loyalty and support to the Portugese players and the up and coming world cup.

Now that is refreshing in this modern game of football and it,s many questionable and selfish actions.

He also said that he would stay in the game for as long as his hands on approach was possible.

( Fitness wise that is ) and then he would like to leave the game.

In a sentence, it was all down to timing and nothing else what so ever.

marshbags

Edited February 18, 2007 by marshbags