Statistics. Don’t you just love them? Especially when you make them say something convenient for your news story…

Hello Observer Sport. Goodbye Steve McClaren, England manager. Well, maybe, if England don’t qualify for Euro 08. In their big piece entitled “How lucky can you get?” the Observer ran a table in which they showed that:

McClaren and Don Revie are the only England managers to record a 24 per cent defeat record. The best record belongs to Terry Venables – 4 per cent, representing one defeat in 23 games.

P W D L win% loss%
Steve McClaren 17 9 4 4 52.9 23.5
Don Revie 29 14 8 7 48.3 24.1
Kevin Keegan 18 7 7 4 38.9 22.2
Walter Winterbottom 139 78 33 28 56.1 20.1
Bobby Robson 95 47 30 18 49.5 18.9
Graham Taylor 38 18 13 7 47.4 18.4
Rob Greenwood 55 33 12 10 60.0 18.2
Glenn Hoddle 28 17 6 5 60.7 17.9
Alf Ramsey 113 69 27 17 61.1 15.0
Sven-Goran Eriksson 67 40 17 10 59.7 14.9
Terry Venables 23 11 11 1 47.8 4.3

(note: table was rounded up with NO decimal points)

Gosh, that’s terrible, isn’t it? Sack him now.

Perhaps he will get the sack, but first, a few pointers.

1) Putting McCLaren top of the table was disingenuous. McClarens loss percentage is 23.5 – Revie’s is 24.1. Rounding up and down is fair enough, but Revie should be top of that table. Shame on the Observer for that one.

2) Venables is McClaren’s number 2 and has been mooted in some circles as a possible replacement. Suggesting he has the BEST record is very misleading. The best record? In terms of defeats, yes. But what was quietly gets ignored is that McClaren has a better WIN record than Venables: 53% to 48%.

In fact, in the win percentage stakes McClaren is a mid-table England manager.

P W D L win% loss%
Alf Ramsey 113 69 27 17 61.1 15.0
Glenn Hoddle 28 17 6 5 60.7 17.9
Rob Greenwood 55 33 12 10 60.0 18.2
Sven-Goran Eriksson 67 40 17 10 59.7 14.9
Walter Winterbottom 139 78 33 28 56.1 20.1
McClaren 17 9 4 4 52.9 23.5
Bobby Robson 95 47 30 18 49.5 18.9
Don Revie 29 14 8 7 48.3 24.1
Terry Venables 23 11 11 1 47.8 4.3
Graham Taylor 38 18 13 7 47.4 18.4
Kevin Keegan 18 7 7 4 38.9 22.2

And in terms of points per game (3 for a win, 1 for a draw), McClaren is again mid-table, just 0.02 behind…. Terry Venables.

P W D L win% loss% Points per game
Alf Ramsey 113 69 27 17 61.1 15.0 2.07
Sven-Goran Eriksson 67 40 17 10 59.7 14.9 2.04
Glenn Hoddle 28 17 6 5 60.7 17.9 2.04
Rob Greenwood 55 33 12 10 60.0 18.2 2.02
Walter Winterbottom 139 78 33 28 56.1 20.1 1.92
Terry Venables 23 11 11 1 47.8 4.3 1.91
McClaren 17 9 4 4 52.9 23.5 1.82
Bobby Robson 95 47 30 18 49.5 18.9 1.80
Graham Taylor 38 18 13 7 47.4 18.4 1.76
Don Revie 29 14 8 7 48.3 24.1 1.72
Kevin Keegan 18 7 7 4 38.9 22.2 1.56

I happen to think Venables was a better manager than McClaren, but the Observer’s table is not the way to prove it.