England failure made McClaren stronger

Steve McClaren insisted Saturday that his travails as coach of England was a “big failure,” given his team’s failure to reach the Euro 2008 finals, but ultimately made him stronger.

McClaren got the bullet after England were denied their place after losing at home to Croatia and now the former Middlesbrough manager is enjoying the experience of handling Dutch side FC Twente.

But he told the BBC’s Football Focus he had not forgotten for one moment his time as national coach.

“I don’t think a day goes by that some aspect of the experience with England doesn’t come flashing back to mind and teaching me a lesson, making me move on.

“It was a huge disappointment. I felt, as one would, I’d let down the nation because we didn’t qualify.

“However people say it was this, that or the other, the responsibility was mine and mine alone. I had to take that.

“It wasn’t pleasant, an experience I don’t want to go through again, but it is one that has not quite killed me and makes me stronger.”

McClaren has moved on and helped Twente to finish Dutch runners-up last season.

But he insisted: “It is not a road to redemption, it is not to prove to anybody anything, it is really what I do.

“Generally, I have been quite successful at what I do.

“You can’t win all the time, sometimes failures come. Sometimes they are big failures and this was a big failure (with England).

“So I moved on and took an opportunity to coach in Europe.”