Jersey schoolboys pitch for job of England Manager

Tuesday 12 July 2016

Two Jersey boys are hoping to swap St George's School for England's new football HQ, St George's Park, after writing to the FA to tell them exactly where Roy Hodgson got his England team all wrong for Euro 2016.

Harlan Moss who is 11 and ten-year-old Jonathan Trant have written to the Football Association applying for the management post and are confident they can get England's game back on track after their humiliating defeat against Iceland.

Harlan said: “It was shocking, they were very bad representatives and I think Roy got his squad wrong and I think me and Jonny know the players, and if we get the squad right we could do incredible things with it."

Jonathan said: “They kept choosing the wrong players to play, we watched the game, we know properly what players to pick."

Harlan said: “My favourite game was, there were some great goals and great games,  but I’m going to go for Portugal v Hungary, it was a very good game and everyone played with 100% effort. Everyone played well except for England!"

The FA are still on the hunt for Roy Hodgson's successor and are said to be looking for someone English to take over and the young boys who go to St George's School think they are good candidates for the job.

In his letter to the FA, Harlan said: "Firstly, I think my friends and I are the right group of friends for the job. The coaching team I would appoint will be Jonathan Trant who is 10 years old, who would like to be a joint coach with me and a goalkeeper trainer. James Douglas, who is 10 years old, will be the defence coach. Felix O’Connor who is 10 years old will be the midfielder coach. Bertie Cooke who is 10 years old will be the striker coach.

"Secondly, my management team and I would absolutely love being the coaches for England. We will promise you that we will give 100% effort, 100% getting the squad right and 100% commitment in getting our legends fully fit.

"Finally, it would be our dream to manage the professional England stars that we have in our team. I am confident in my coaching staff and we promise that we will do the best we can to bring success to English football."

The boys say they know the players and who would be best for their squad: "Jo Hart - the goalkeeper - is not as good as he used to be. He used to be one of the best keepers in the world but he’s not any more. Fraser Forster is a very good goalkeeper, he plays for Southampton."

“We’ve got really good players – Jamie Vardy and Daniel Sturridge – they’d be on the wings and Harry Kane in the middle and at half time we would switch Vardy or Sturridge for Marcus Rashford."

The boys say they've got their fingers crossed and hope they are in with a chance of getting the job.

Harlan said: “We’re hoping to get a response and maybe an interview from the FA, if they accept it will be a dream but if they say no, we’ll have to ask them to give us the job next time around!”