Well, a cool £6 million a year for a start. That's more zeros than the team recorded during their disastrous snooze-worthy spell under predecessor Steve McLaren. £6 million that could probably have been better invested improving the facilities and co
aching at the grass roots of the national game. For it is at the very bottom that football needs to build up from, not from the top down.
It's all fine and well having a vastly experienced coach in the top job, but if he isn't getting the quality of players coming up through the ranks of the game, then his hands are severely tied.
A quick glance at the Premier Leagues in both England and Scotland shows that a wealth of foreign talent is packed into our football. They're very welcome – Arsenal are an entertaining team, Ronaldo is superb at Manchester United. Players from abroad have definitely added to the spectacle and flavour of the game.
Eric Cantona, David Ginola, Tino Asprilla…the list is endless.
But where are the top-class training facilities and pitches for our local Northumbrian clubs? It's hard to focus on the game when you're shivering on the cold concrete of a dank, wind-beaten hut as you're getting changed.
And how many of the current England squad could you truly describe as world class? Wayne Rooney has the ability to change a game. But players like Steven Gerrard, Joe Cole and Frank Lampard don't seem to exert the influence that they do at club level.
Matches are won and lost by players, not managers, coaches, fans or officials.
It is the 11 men who pull on the shirt and take to the grass that determine the outcome over 90 minutes. And while you can spend hours on training pitches going through drills and preparing, you can't make allowances for the unexpected during the ebb and flow of a game. Those little errors and lapses of concentration and moments of magic that make the sport what it is.
If England are to win anything with their new Italian coach, without the proper investments in the grassroots of the game, then they might as well bring in half a dozen Italian players as well.
English football? Three Lions and a donkey – the sweet FA.
