Through the Looking Glass: The Mercurial Universe of Club Management Part-I

LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 25: Fans protest over the sacking of previous manager Roberto di Matteo during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on November 25, 2012 in London, England.

It is that time of the year again; you know what I mean, the autumn-ish season: leaves fall, green blades of grass wither away to brown, bird-songs are less common and managers in England receive their pink slips and are tossed unceremoniously out on their ample backsides!

In a darkly comic twist of fate, current European champions Chelsea gave their manager (and ex-player) Roberto Di Matteo the boot! Courtesy of the eccentric billionaire and owner of the club (I shall refrain from using names as I fear retribution from the Russian Mafia’s Solntsevskaya Bratva).

Barely a few hours later, Mark Hughes was asked to clean out his office at Loftus Road to make way for the apple of the collective media’s eye: Harry Redknapp. Though it would be rather hard to defend Sparky, seeing that he managed to lose 19 of the 29 games he was in charge of, an astounding feat in itself, especially after spending a boat-load of money on transfers over the summer. Tony Fernandes’s displeasure is quite understandable.

Plonking our posteriors on EZ chairs and waxing eloquent about strategy, formation, team selection and player psychology is easy as pie, but being in the hot seat and working a job that depends on the performance from a score of lavishly overpaid, moody, egotistic young (and often psychopathic) adults is anything but simple. Ask any one of Chelsea’s dirty dozen! (Don’t get all riled up, its exaggeration for comic effect)

LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 04: Mark Hughes, manager of Queens Park Rangers looks on prior to the Barclays Premier League match between Queens Park Rangers and Reading at Loftus Road on November 4, 2012 in London, England.

With the advent of “big money” into the world of sport, chronic short-termism has set in, but to pin it on “money” and “impatient rich men” would be highly erroneous. The present era of human thought is one of instant self-gratification, perfectly summed up by the “credit-card lifestyle” that a significant segment of the world’s urban population lives by. All needs must be immediately met, all cravings instantly quenched and results on the football pitch delivered piping hot and within twenty minutes. Patience is a dying virtue (my father would opine that it’s already dead and cremated among us youngsters) and a quick look at the constantly changing managers in the premier league only reinforces my theory.

Of the clubs presently in the league, only three clubs boast of “long-term” managers; for the sake of discussion, let’s arbitrarily define “long term” as anything over five years.

The four are obviously: Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and David Moyes and Tony Pulis (In yet another twist of comic irony, it is worth noting that none of the four longest serving managers in the English top flight are English).

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – AUGUST 15: Opposing managers Arsene Wenger (L) of Arsenal and David Moyes of Everton greet one another prior to kickoff during the Barclays Premier League match between Everton and Arsenal at Goodison Park on August 15, 2009 in Liverpool, England.

All four of the aforementioned managers have tasted success but the parameters of “success” vary greatly from club to club. Moyes and Wenger have single-handedly kept their clubs running and punching well above their weights in spite of crippling financial straits and transitions in club ownership. Contrastingly the knighted Ferguson who was rarely posed any financial problems or constraints went on to create one of the most illustrious football behemoths in the history of the game, his success at both national and European level are well documented and to rehash them would be a criminal waste of words.

Anthony Pulis transformed Stoke from Championship relegation fodder to a Premier league mainstay through his “unique” (diplomatically put) brand of football, defensive tactics, insistence on set-piece perfection and hands-on management style. The achievement is nothing to thumb your nose at considering the fact that club was on the verge of relegation from the third division of English football during his first tenure at the club.

Let’s move onto the next tier: Of the remaining sixteen teams, only a handful of managers have held their posts for over three years (or near enough): Roberto Mancini (Manchester City), Brian McDermott (Reading) & Roberto Martinez (Wigan Athletic). Yet again, Mancini’s exploits with City’s billions and Martinez’s annual miracle act of keeping Wigan in the league are well known. McDermott too has achieved much with a club as small as Reading including an amazing run of 15 wins from 17 games to attain promotion into the Premier league and impressive FA Cup performances in the 2010 & 2011 seasons.

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – APRIL 30: Manchester United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson clashes with Manchester City Manager Roberto Mancini (R) during the Barclays Premier League match between Manchester City and Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium on April 30, 2012 in Manchester, England.

That leaves us with 13 (Thirteen!) teams that have changed managers over the past year or two.

Managing a team is a hard task, most of us agree on that front, but it is also critical to remember that “hiring a manager” is no simple task either. Contemporary football clubs are plagued with poor choices and blinkered outlooks which are the root cause for this rancid hire-and-fire culture. The “board of directors” or management authorities in every club need to assess the situation, analyze every manager available in the market before making an informed decision.

There are numerous questions to consider:

• Does a potential manager buy into the club’s ideology and philosophy?
• Does the potential manager conform to the style of the club or will he bring his own?
• Will his methods and techniques fit well with the current crop of players?
• Does he believe in gradual development from within or strategic acquisitions to bolster the squad?
• Will he focus on buying “big names” or long term targets that will grow with the club?

These and a myriad number of other issues go into the decision-making process of hiring a manager, but in recent times, it feels like vacancies are filled by rolls of the dice or drunken monkeys picking up cue-cards containing a managerial candidate’s name on it, rather than the relatively boring methods of thorough research, in depth enquiry and extended discussions.

SWANSEA, WALES – OCTOBER 02: Brendan Rodgers (L) manager of Swansea City jokes with Tony Pulis (R) manager of Stoke City during the Barclays Premier League match between Swansea City and Stoke City at the Liberty Stadium on October 2, 2011 in Swansea, Wales.

It is of paramount importance that the owners and boards of various clubs to commit to the manager once hired. Although, the right manager is key to a club’s success, he is but a single cog in the machinery of the club; only the most delusional of football followers think that hiring a manager in a panacea to all of a club’s problems. Football clubs for the most part are badly mismanaged, particularly when it comes to finances. Decisions are made and ideas are implemented, all for a quick buck or immediate success and these back-fire more often than not. Many owners are in the business solely for profits and only a few are in it for the love of a club. In an ideal world every club would be fan run and fan owned, but power, influence & fortune have the bad habit of agglutinating in certain hands and this leads to problems over an extended period of time as the interests of the (powerful & influential) few invariably supersedes the needs of the fans.

Well, gentlemen and ladies…so far, I’ve been operating under the assumption that short-term hiring of managers are harmful and many of you have been nodding along sagely while trying to conceal your abject boredom. But let me take a second to question my assumption so that we may find veritable proof of its truth. Or not.

Take Chelsea FC for example, their whimsical ways precisely capture the very ideology of short-term decision making. Roman Abramovich’s (I mentioned his name after all, he can’t be as petty and insecure as Indian politicians to want to extract revenge, can he?) relentless pursuit of god-knows-what has seen him unceremoniously depose numerous managers right after they have lifted trophies. Yet the club has remained extremely successful during the Roman era and has earned the right to the title of “European Elite”. Fans can barely complain: the constant flux of managers may be exasperating but success is guaranteed.

The club is essentially insulated by a thick layer of Russian rubles which seem to protect them from any fall out due to bad decisions that would have sent any other club reeling. Amazingly, they have managed to remain FFP (Financial Fair Play) compliant.

Or so they claim.

I could cite FC Barcelona as the picture of sustainability but the Spanish FA and their partial behaviour towards the Big Two have played no small part in their success. Hence, I’ll resort to the example of Swansea City AFC, a club with Welsh roots who burst into the Premier league last season with a blitzkrieg of beautiful football under Brendan Rodgers. But a decade ago, the club languished in the third division and was the subject of a bitter ownership battle. With careful management of the club and astute selection of managers (Roberto Martinez, Brendan Rodgers) and the adoption of a philosophy (financial sustainability and beautiful football) the club has scaled heights and even recorded a profit that none would have dared to dream of a decade ago. Even after the departure of Rodgers to Liverpool, the decision to hire Michael Laudrup was made after careful deliberation and extended dialogue between the two parties with a full commitment to the style of football that the club is based on.

I could go on to take others clubs as examples, but the bottom line would remain unchanged: A long-term vision combined with commitment to the cause and a little faith in a reasonably talented manager will fetch you better results over myopic choices and stop-gap business decisions, unless a capricious ultra pecunious benefactor roams the corridors of your club with a battle-axe in one hand and a chequebook in the other.