With Steve McClaren’s appointment as England manager already foretold (especially after the Scolari mess), the only interesting thing coming out of Soho Square on Thursday was going to be how Brian Barwick defended his position in front of the media.

Barwick’s insistence that Scolari was never “offered” the job is childish - the line between considering a candidate (or sounding him out, as Barwick seems to have done with Scolari) and inviting him to manage England may be a clear one, but in the case of the suspects involved it is absolutely ridiculous to think that had Scolari indicated a clear interest that McClaren would still have been chosen as England manager yesterday.

From what we now know, Barwick approached three non-Englishmen - Hiddink, Scolari and Wenger - and all three turned him down for various reasons. Due respect to Boro’s manager (who, despite his recent successes is still not the best choice), but reading about the FA trying to justify McClaren being their first choice instead of Scolari and Wenger is a frackin’ joke.

At least the man’s got the backing of Ferguson, Lampard and Wenger. And by god that’s a painful smile.

Links:

• McClaren isn’t as inexperienced as we think
• Avoiding another “Eriksson”