In this week’s Coke Column, Giles discusses England’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008, who he thinks the next England manager should be, and his latest injury setback.

Hi everyone, the last two weeks have certainly not been the happiest for me on a footballing level both as a player and a football fan.

As I said in my last column, I thought England had performed poorly throughout the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign and I was slightly concerned about the way they were going to line up against Croatia. I thought tactics wise, Steve McClaren got it wrong and I’m unsure why he brought Scott Carson in for his first competitive start in a do or die game. I didn’t think England deserved to get anything out of the game and looking at the qualifying campaign as a whole we certainly didn’t deserve to qualify. It begs the question as to how do players who perform so well week in week out in the Premiership fail to reproduce that form in the national team. It’s a difficult one to put your finger on but I reckon the pressure to perform has a lot to do with it. Playing for your national team is the greatest honour to be bestowed on a player and each player is put under so much pressure by us all - the media, fans. I’m not using this as an excuse but it does seem that they are able to play without fear for their club sides but then it just doesn’t seem to happen at international level.

So who do I think can turn things around for England, motivate the players and try and get them to relax more when playing for England? I think the outstanding candidate is Jose Mourinho. He proved himself as being able to get the best out of his players at Chelsea and I think he would definitely command the respect of the England players. Plus he is a known quantity. Many of the players have worked for him before, know what he can do and what he has done. I would let him bring his own backroom staff in too. There is no point making him work with someone he doesn’t want to or hasn’t worked with before. In short, we need a manager and backroom team that are going to help make England a force in world football again.

If I had to go for an English manager to take charge of the national team, I would choose Harry Redknapp. He has done a fantastic job at Portsmouth, seems to get the best out of his players and is a straight talker.

Steve McClaren is of course not the only manager to lose his job in recent weeks. Billy Davies has obviously left Derby, and Chris Hutchings is no longer at Wigan. There’s also talk of Sam Allardyce being out of a job if Newcastle fail to beat Arsenal tonight and the possibility of Alan Shearer taking charge. That baffles me to be honest. Big Sam has only been at the club for a short time and he’s a very good manager. He worked wonders at Bolton and I think he needs to be given time to get the players to gel. I certainly don’t agree with all the talk of getting rid of him.

Northampton have been drawn against Millwall in the third round of the FA Cup. I’m expecting a difficult replay away at Walsall but I think if we get through that we’ve got a good chance of beating Millwall and progressing to the fourth round. Fingers crossed we can keep our cup run going but the league is obviously the priority so we need to turn things around and start winning.

I was hoping to be in the squad for the Walsall cup game last week however it was not to be. I played in a reserve game against Oxford and I was feeling much fitter, my touch was good and I was quite pleased with my performance. In the second half though I was struggling to sprint and was getting sharp pains in my hernia region. I’d been feeling problems in this area for a few weeks and was checking in regularly with the Doctor. I got taken off after 70 minutes of the match and after going to see the Doctor and Specialist it was decide I needed a hernia operation. As a result I have had to write the Coke Column at the beginning of this week. As you read this I will be in a hospital bed in Manchester recovering from the operation. I’ll be out a further two to three weeks but it’s better to get this sorted now rather than it get progressively worse if I came back and played with the problem.

Your questions:

Hi Giles, I can’t wait to see you in the first team shake up. I agree with you that Steve McLaren should never have been given the England job but do you think, considering players must be English, the managers should English as well. Also, please name the current League 1 Manager who you think would do the best job as McLaren’s replacement. From Jamie

To be honest I believe we should get the best man for the job whether he is English or not. It would be great if we had an outstanding candidate that was English but I think Jose Mourinho is the man that can turn the national team’s fortunes around. If I had to choose a League One Manager, I could only really consider our gaffer as I don’t know enough about the other managers. There are a lot of good young managers in League One but you get to know exactly how the manager’s work by being on the training ground with him every day and therefore I can’t really say how good other League One managers. All I know is Stuart Gray is a good manager, he commands the respect of the players and is supported by a good backroom staff.

Hi Giles, How far do you think you can go in football? For example, provided you stay injury free, do you think you could make Premiership standard, International? Good luck! From Paul

To be honest at the moment, I just want to get back on the pitch and play. Obviously every player wants to play at the highest level they possibly can and I’m no different. But it’s down to me to show that by performing well enough on the pitch and take the opportunities that come my way. It would be great to get into the Championship with Northampton over the next couple of years.

See you in two weeks!