在写这篇文章的时候，我的朋友山姆·阿勒代斯即将被任命为英格兰主帅。在我看来这也该是时候了，因为他拥有前任所缺乏的老派英国人的品质。
山姆是一名兼具智慧与韧性的教练，他希望自己的队员能加倍刻苦的训练，同时他也十分擅长分析对手、发掘球队的才能，这位球队父亲般的人物在做到热心鼓励队员的同时也不忘指出他们的不足。任何关注他职业生涯的人都知道他是解决问题的高手，他是那个可以拯救俱乐部，使俱乐部避免降级或者升到更高一级联赛的关键人物，而做到以上这两点都需要极强的分析能力和巨大的感染力。
看看他上赛季是如何帮助桑德兰避免降级的，他激发出了球员们的最佳状态。他知道杰梅因·科林·迪福是一名优秀的前锋，并且他的效率以及对足球的热爱有很大的用武之地，最终事实证明他对这位出类拔萃但年龄稍大的前锋的信任是站得住脚的。当你的球队明白自己面临着降级的威胁并有可能会丢掉饭碗的时候，作为教练你需要鼓励、支持并从生理学的角度调整球员发挥出最佳状态。
山姆的足球哲学就是赢得比赛。有时候比赛并不会那么赏心悦目，这会让球迷感到失望。但在各个国家的联赛中，赢得比赛意味着有更高的积分，而更高的积分会让球队在积分榜上名列前茅。作为一个英国人我几乎确信英格兰队会一路高歌杀到某个杯赛的决赛阶段，但最后一切憧憬都土崩瓦解。但我相信山姆会解决这个问题，他会让我、让整个国家对我们的足球队感到骄傲。
山姆面临的第一道难题是赢得9月4号对战斯洛伐克的世界杯预选赛，我的猜想是他会把这场比赛视为“必赢之战”，这就意味着国家队不仅会采用有经验的老队员，也有可能迎来几张新面孔。他会根据力量和体型挑选四名后卫，如果后防线里有一两名后卫没有在欧洲杯中出现过，我一点也不会惊讶。出战欧洲杯的球员大都来自英超和一些顶级的英冠俱乐部，但是这样的高质量和高人气的人员挑选并没有发挥出预期的效果，所以在未来的名单里看到陌生的名字时完全不用感到诧异。
山姆是一个斗士，他也喜欢斗士。他不是那种看起来很聪明或者很时髦的男人，也许这就是他从未执教过世界顶级俱乐部的原因。我们在乎他能赢得比赛吗？答案很简单，我们不在乎，我们希望我们的球队能在球场上让我们作为英国人而感到骄傲，这跟中国队或者德国队的期望完全一致。“山姆是否能够完成从执教英超到执教国家队的转变”是我们现在该问的问题，9月4号答案就将揭晓。
看看到中国执教的外国教练也很有趣；有些教练就能完成从欧洲到拉丁美洲风格的转变，并将一支文化多元的球队打造成真正的团队，而另一些教练则无所适从。或许同山姆一样，这些教练能管理好球队里的每个个体，从正确的文化角度与每个球员进行交流并激励他们。也许那些不成功的教练总是想把相同的原则和方法运用在所有球员身上，而这明显行不通。要清楚一点：教练需要了解每一个球员的强项和短板，即使有语言方面的障碍，也要和每一个球员做到沟通顺畅。
俱乐部老板想要立马得到胜利，但又不给新教练提供足够的时间去和球员形成纽带，去了解和学习中国足球的特点，这就使得这项挑战变得异常复杂。如果不了解足球这项运动，不愿意付出时间去学习并为球队找到合适的教练，那么将国外著名教练或者球星引入中国并不会为球队带来赢球的保障。
回到山姆的话题上来，我认为英国现在需要的是能完成任务的教练，他必须有决心有目标，还能做到不被别人的言论所影响，因为他知道这样做是对的。祝你好运山姆，你的国家需要你！
英文原文
At the time of writing this article, we are expecting my friend Sam Allardyce to be appointed as the England Manager; its about time in my opinion because he has those ‘old school’ British qualities that his recent predecessors have been lacking.
Sam is a very intelligent but tough man who expects his players to train very hard, he is extremely good at analysing the opposition and his teams abilities, and he is a father figure who can be very supportive as well as critical. Anyone who has followed his career will know that he is ‘Mr fix it’, the man you call to save your club from relegation or to get it promoted to the division above, both of which involve great analysis and huge levels of motivation.
Just watching him help Sunderland avoid relegation last season, we saw how he used his players to the best of their abilities, he knew Jermain Defoe was a great striker and that his work rate and love of football could be put to great use, and his faith in a great (but old) striker proved to be well founded. When your team know they are risking demotion and with it the potential of losing their jobs, you need to encourage, support and physiologically manage them for the best results.
Sam’s philosophy is about winning. Sometimes the football may not be pretty which upsets the fans, but in the national leagues around the world, winning means points and points mean a stronger position in the league table. As an Englishman I have almost become accepting that my national team will perform OK until the final stages of a big competition and then things will fall apart, but I am confident that Sam can fix this issue and make me and the nation proud of our football team.
The first test for Sam will be the World Cup qualifier on September 4th against Slovakia and my guess is that he will see this as a ‘must win’ game which means the squad will be a mix of experience and perhaps a couple of new faces. His back four will be selected for their strength and physicality and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see one or two defenders in the squad that didn’t make it to the Euro’s. The squad that went to the Euro’s was packed with talent from the EPL and some top Championship clubs, but this quality and ‘fame’ didn’t ignite a fire as we saw, so don’t be surprised to see some names on the team sheet that are unfamiliar to you.
Sam is a fighter and likes fighters; he isn’t the smartest looking or most stylish man you will ever meet and this maybe why he has never coached on of the worlds top clubs. Do we care if he wins matches? The simple answer is no we don’t, we want our team to perform on the pitch and make us proud to be English, its exactly the same for the Chinese or German teams. ‘Can Sam transition from the EPL to coaching the national team’ will be the question we will be asking, and on September 4th we will find out.
It is also interesting to look at the foreign coaches who have come to China; some can transition from Europe or South America, and get a culturally diverse squad to play as a team, and others just don’t know how. Perhaps just like Sam, some of these coaches can individually man manage their squad, communicating and motivating in the correct cultural manner for every player. Maybe the least successful ones just try to apply the same rules and same approach to every man in the team, and this just doesn’t work. What is clear is that any coach needs to understand the strengths and weaknesses of every player they have and must be able to communicate with each one well, irrespective of language difficulties.
This challenge is often compounded by the high expectations of the club owners who want instant success, and will not allow a new coach enough time to bond with his players and learn the peculiarities of Chinese football. Bringing a famous coach (or player) to China isn’t a guarantee of success if you don’t understand the game and are not willing to take the time to learn it and find the right coach for your club.
So back to Sam; in my view what the country needs now is someone who gets the job done, is determined and focused, has little concern for what others say about him because he knows what must be done. Good luck Sam, your country needs you.
作者简介：Ken Grant 鸿俊，体育业内人士、投资人和观察家；国际主席俱乐部(IPC)及亚英体育俱乐部(AASC)董事；The English Football League中国区官方商务开发代表。在足球、高尔夫、马球等体育领域拥有广泛的国际关系。
声明：文中观点仅代表作者本人观点，不代表懒熊体育。
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