In England, not only did the "golden generation" of the 21st century fail to transform coaches, but the earlier "92 generation" also performed poorly. Paul Scholes only dared to coach a team in Division 4 and his results proved that his caution was not unreasonable. Gary Neville had assisted Roy Hodgson for England for four years, and then managed Valencia with only three wins in 16 games. Younger brother Phil Neville coached the England women's football team to reach the last four of the 2019 Women's World Cup, but was poached by Beckham to Inter Miami in North America at the beginning of 2021. As a result, the team started the season with only two wins in 12 games, setting a record for the worst start in the North American major leagues, and the team finished the season in the bottom four of the Eastern Conference. In the summer of 2023, he was sacked by David Beckham at the bottom of the table.
Ryan Giggs is perhaps the only exception, having made his debut as an assistant to David Moyes at Manchester United, before studying under Dutch coach Louis van Gaal, who has been selected as his heir to the Reds. However, after Mourinho took over in the summer of 2016, Ryan Giggs left Manchester United. At the beginning of 2018, Ryan Giggs took charge of the Wales team and successfully led the team to the Euro 2020 finals. At the end of 2020, Ryan Giggs was suspended by the Welsh FA due to domestic violence allegations, and his coaching career came to an abrupt end. Ryan Giggs may be restarting his coaching career from Salford City, in which he has a stake, but the starting point is too low.
According to The Times, the stars of the '92 generation' and the 'golden generation' of 21st century England are almost impossible to succeed in coaching. A big part of this is that English football has an innate success filter mentality for what they achieved as players. Guardian columnist Roney has publicly stated that it is a long-standing tradition in English football that stars can easily get coaching positions. People naturally think that a successful player is not too likely to fail as a coach. The impetuous mentality of the masses in the era of social media has amplified this filter effect. The owner of the club is also happy to be a man of the same fortune and fulfill the dreams of the fans. But whether the star coaches are really the right fit for the team is clearly already answered.
Former icons such as Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard are just in line with the superstar effect that is most common in social media culture. And once the start is unfavorable, the public opinion backlash suffered by the stars is also unprecedented. On top of that, although they were very successful as players, the coaching field is another world and they have to start from scratch just like everyone else.
However, it is clear that most of the "golden generation" are not fully prepared for this. Frank Lampard's successive hits were enough of a warning to all. Although Wayne Rooney still insists that he has a dream of becoming a great coach, fortunately he is still self-aware and politely turned down the invitation of his parent club Everton, giving himself time to let everyone forget about Birmingham City's defeat and continue to recharge.