The modern day manager & his dwindling authority

[Mikus LFC]

This post ultimately may just sound like a moan about how the culture has changed. But either way, I still thought it worth flagging up that in recent weeks, managers at top football clubs are actually having to publicly state that managing their players is starting to become impossible. Now Mourinho might not be the most popular manager in the world, but I did sympathise with some of what he said recently in the below article:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46934706

The following quotes particularly stuck out:

And the Portuguese added: “The time where the manager was the highest point of the club and all-powerful I think is over. You need the structure.
“The next club I speak with, the first thing I speak about is not the players I want to buy, is not about the budget, it’s what you give in terms of structure.”

“Recently, when I was coaching one player he told me and he was very polite, ‘please when you criticise me can you do it in private’,” he said.
“I told him why? ‘Because of my stature, in front of the other players when you criticise me I don’t feel comfortable’.

And now in recent days Sarri has come out and said how difficult it is becoming to motivate his players.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/19/maurizio-sarri-chelsea-players-extremely-difficult-to-motivate-arsenal

Again, the following sticks out:

“We played against a team which, mentally, was far more determined than we were. And this is something I can’t accept. We had a similar issue in the league game at Tottenham [a 3-1 defeat in November]. We spoke a great deal about that loss and our approach at the time, and I spoke to the players, and I thought we’d overcome this issue. But it appears we still seem to lack sufficient motivation, being mentally solid and determination.”

Now it goes without saying what’s caused all this, and old school professionalism has clearly gone out the window. And we all see how short the modern manager’s life now is at a club. But we now seem to have hit a critical mass with this debacle now that top managers are actually have to come out and say it explicitly. The problem is that the big money is obviously making it all sustainable, so the clubs will see no need to change things. Yet a team hasn’t won multiple titles on the run since Man Utd did it three times on the run from 2006-2009, i.e. 10 years ago! And the main reason why they were able to do so is because the team was made up of more local/academy players. They were the glue that stuck it all together. Think Gerrard/Carragher, Terry/Lampard. Only 2 players but vital players to those teams successes. The laws of physics as it were don’t change. If teams want multiple successes, they need to look back at what worked – because that is what football is ultimately about – part of the local fan community has to be present on the pitch.

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[Anonymous]

A coach can motivate players in a positive manner not by embarrassing them. That’s his job

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[sean the sailor]

Ye but moos clearly sari has a point. I don’t agree with it but if the Chelsea players can’t get motivated for a huge London derby then there an issue.

Ageee with Gary Neville about Chelsea’s player power. It’s happened at utd with Jose and pogba

It’s becoming a bit common now.

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[nine nine nine]

Chelsea went into the Arsenal game with the wrong attitude thinking we can play our football and beat Arsenal and Arsenal who are a good team offensively steam rollered them alongside that Chelsea have been suffering with a striker crisis all season and trying to solve it with Hazard has weakened the team in two positions there’s not too much wrong at Chelsea that a couple of tweaks won’t put right.

I read what Neville said re player power at Chelsea but he’s going back 10/15 years and these are different players and if they are so unmanageable how did they win so many trophies.

Sunday was a disappointing performance but Arsenal scored a freak goal and Chelsea hit the post and Pedro went very close too had that gone in who knows what might have happened goals change games. It was a better performance in the second half but without a striker Chelsea are firing blanks and Arsenal’s weakness is their defence and without a striker and with Hazard out if position Chelsea didn’t put enough pressure on the Arsenal defence.

There have been two really poor performances this season against both Spurs and Arsenal away but both are very good teams who on their day can beat anyone. Much has been made of the United win over Spurs but United didn’t play nearly as well v Spurs as Chelsea did a few nights earlier.

What Sarri said was imo with the objective of getting them up for the Spurs game it may or may not work we’ll see.

The days of Managers having the kind of authority Ferguson did at United are gone forever though even United are looking for a DOF.

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[sean the sailor]

Chelsea downed tools for Jose aswell nine and hazard was one of them

I agree, it’s no we’re like under avb which was only 6 years ago and I agree about Chelsea’s current plight.

Sari will have done a great job if they get top 4 and they can push on next season

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[Chucky McChuckface]

I think there’s 2 stories that sum it up for me…

One involved a Manager and Chairman (can’t remember which club!) meeting with a player to discuss a transfer with a player, to which the player sent about 6 other people but couldn’t be arsed to turn up himself, and the first thing out of their mouths was the salary demands along with a request for a seven figure interest free loan “for other business interests”…

The other was George Graham telling a story about David O’Leary and a new contract. GG told DD it was on his desk, come and chat after training, and DD showed up, asked “how many years?”, GG said “3 more on top of what you have now”, DD said “Great!”, signed it and walked out…. didn’t even mention money…

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[Mikus LFC]

Nine, I think there’s a case that in both Mourinho’s and Sarri’s case the players may not be fully buying into some of the things their managers want. But it still does demonstrate that a manager now has to bend to the players rather than the other way around. And that obviously makes life very difficult.

The counter argument here may be that such managers need to better man manage some players rather than do it publicly. And that such public criticism is just a sign that the manager is struggling to win over the players. There’s probably something in that as Moos alluded to above. But either way, it now just shows that a manager needs every single possible attribute to succeed and he’s also got to get the balance spot on. It must be like walking on egg shells at times for some, e.g. almost impossible.

It’s like with managers now, you have just one brief chance to win the players over – and even then, it still won’t be sustainable. Take Conte. Wins the players over, wins a premier league title. But then it’s not long before there is discord between players and manager as each tries to exert increasing control over the other. But if it comes at the cost of upsetting any of the players, the manager is swiftly sent out the door. So the cycle continues.

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[Mikus LFC]

And just to briefly add, this is why it’s so important to have those more local players in the team because they give a manager allies in the dressing room.

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[nine nine nine]

Sean, I don’t think Hazard downed tools in Jose’s final season he’s a very laid back lad look how he’s reacted to not getting the move to Real he’s been playing brilliantly. What happened in Jose’s final season with Hazard was that he was injured and he never shed that injury until the last few games of the season.

Currently Hazard is playing out of position and consequently not playing at his best because he has so little room compared to playing on the left flank that problem will be solved if we sign Higuain.

Currently Chelsea are exactly where I expected them to be playing a totally different style of football under a Manager who has only been at the Club for 6 months and had a limited pre season and transfer window to work in. I won’t even start to judge Sarri until he’s had a full pre season and a full Summer transfer window.

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[nine nine nine]

Mikus, Conte did for himself he got the hump because he couldn’t bring in the players he wanted and bellyached about it and those above him in every televised press conference from there on in.

In any job if you constantly criticise your bosses you’re likely to run into trouble let alone if you do it every week in front of the TV cameras.

Great shame as Conte is a very good Coach but he did the same at Juve too.

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[maverick1973]

27-Dont know what game were you watching,but Arse could have scored every time they went forward.It should have been over after 30 mins,as a contest.

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[Mikus LFC]

But does the question not have to be asked of why he wanted his own players?, i.e. because he could then better control things and look to develop the success. A lot of managers have this battle. He could have done it in a better way, but even if he did, he’d be driving his ahead against a brick wall because the players are so protected. And what was the alternative? Imagine being offered a management job in any other walk of life to be told, “We’d like to offer you the job. But oh, just a few things – you can’t criticise or upset any of the staff. Oh, and by the way, some of the staff are untouchable…Good luck!” It’s crazy, but sadly, it’s cheaper for clubs to sack the manager than obviously to sack the players.

If this recent outburst doesn’t work for Sarri, who will come to his aid and support him??

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Could a lot of this perhaps be laid at the feet of the notion that many managers (coaches) simply aren’t as good at coaching any more? Maybe I’m showing my age but now all you hear from managers is seemingly “How much do I get for transfers?”… nobody seems to want to accept the challenge of coaching the players they already have/inherit.

Players have undoubtedly become Billy Bigboots as we have all seen, but the managers are also getting a bit Bigtime Charlies too…

The days of managers actually ‘coaching’ seem to be over…

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[maverick1973]

In the case of Jose,that cunt should be banned from breathing without a permission.Kylie and Nil should decide everything:when he eats,drinks,breathes,sleeps,shits.

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Chicken Vindaloo’s and Guinness I reckon, with a roll of that cheap-ass shite toilet paper we used to get at school…

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[nine nine nine]

Mav, I’m not saying that Arsenal didn’t deserve to win just they had a stroke of luck with the Kochielny goal and that goals change games and had Pedro’s effort gone in we might have seen a different game. But Chelsea had greater possession the same number of shots as Arsenal and more corners.

Chelsea weren’t good enough offensively to test Arsenal defensively and that’s Arsenal’s weakness.

Chelsea are in transition and far from the finished article and as I’ve highlighted regularly only by solving the striker connundrum do Chelsea have a chance of making the top 4 via the PL.

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[nine nine nine]

Mikus, in any job you can’t constantly and publically criticise your bosses. Try it and see where it gets you.?

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[maverick1973]

9-Had all or even just half of Arse chances gone in it would have been a cricket score!

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Bit like the 14 chances Spuds had against the “brilliant” YooUtd Doughnut Thief performance the other week.. 🙂

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[Mikus LFC]

Nine, hence nothing will change this situation. And Conte then was just another Mourinho – too fiery and ruthless to last. But suppose he was much more charismatic and less fiery, and he’d lasted longer at Chelsea. He’d then have to toe more to the line of the players. Could he have continued to be successful under those conditions?? Klopp is undoubtedly a very charismatic manager and therefore lasted longer. But he has lost his last six finals and still not won anything. Similar with Poch. So it could be said from that that you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

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