The Demise of The Manager

Has the dawn of the coach seen the demise of the manager, and as a result impacted on teams and clubs?

Football fans of all ages know the names of the great managers in the game, the likes of Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Jock Stein, Don Revie, Brian Clough and Sir Alec Ferguson.

They will also know the names of the top coaches in the game today.

Yet arguably it is the managers that steal the limelight. The managers mentioned were clearly very accomplished astute coaches. They were according to many pieces written about them good man managers, all incredibly competitive, tactically astute, confident and quick with a turn of phrase for the media.

Many will be asking what is the difference between those mentioned and the modern day manager/coach? The answer is they managed the club; not just the first team.

It was written of Sir Alex Ferguson that his reign at Manchester United was “a feat of total management that will never be repeated.” That appears to have been true.

The manager of a football club no longer exists in the ways of old. Now it has been usurped by the title of Head Coach. The incumbent manages the first team and that is their lot. They have a technical director to oversee all of the other teams beneath the first team. There are also all manner of other staff to handle a myriad of other tasks that used to all fall under the control of the manager. Such as what time the bus left for an away game and where the team stayed.

After publishing Brand Alignment: A Plus Or A Minus When it Comes to Australian Football? a former International coach took the time to make contact. During the conversation they revealed their opinion that the reason so many sports are currently in trouble is related to the fact that clubs and sports will no longer give the Head coach the ability to manage their domain.

It is an interesting view. It also carries a great deal of weight. As we have seen in Australia the woes at the Football Federation of Australia have in recent months been blamed on the fact that those running the game do not have the experience of having played at the highest level or been involved at the coalface. Interestingly the new CEO James Johnson, was a youth international, and played for the Brisbane Strikers in the old National Soccer League. He may not have reached the heights of many of his contemporaries, or even achieved what he dreamt of, but that time would have given him a crucial insight as to how the game operates. This is invaluable knowledge. Johnson has been very quick to form a “brains trust” of former international players and coaches, male and female, called the “Staring Eleven” to try and make necessary changes.

It is interesting to look back at how his predecessor John O’Neill gave coach Guus Hiddink everything that he requested in order to ensure the Socceroos qualified for the World Cup in Germany in 2006 and also once they had. The budgets and constraints that Frank Farina had placed on him prior to being replaced by Hiddink do not bear comparison. Hiddink was given a Management role, in that he was given control of his area of expertise.

Those running sport and sporting clubs today love to create in business parlance ‘silos.’ These are in essence key departments which have their own budget and management structure, and are responsible for ensuring that they achieve key performance results. The coach is now solely in charge of the players and team.

Regrettably the silo system in sport has been proven to be a flawed one, as there are so many issues that are interdependent on each other for the organisation as a whole to be successful.

What is ironic is how the complete control of the Manager has been taken away as clubs have moved to what fans are told is a ‘good business model.’ In truth what this means is that every sport and every club is now far more concerned with the bottom line, the profitability, rather than the results.

This has evolved as a result of sport becoming ‘a business.’ Many clubs and sports have made huge errors of judgement, and in their search for large profits have forgotten their role to the community. Hence the community, whose voice and opinions have been ignored have walked away. There are countless examples of modern-day club chairman, who used to be anonymous, making statements and their words resulting in turning away fans.

This issue is especially prevalent in Australia where in some clubs and sports the President or Chairman is heard more than the national or club coach.

Former England manager Graham Taylor gave Barney Ronan an explanation as to why this is so in his book ‘The Manager.’ “These wealthy men are used to running organisations, to having the last word on everything. And the manager’s role is undermined. He simply doesn’t have the power to shape a club,” Taylor said.

Which is the point that the International coach that made contact was quick to point out. They highlighted how these businessmen turned sports administrators fail to comprehend that in sport Rome cannot be built in a day. It takes time to develop players, to find the right players to fit the team and the style of play that you are looking to develop. The All Blacks culture did not happen overnight nor did this success! Patience is needed for that investment to pay dividends.

Like Taylor, they too felt that the withdrawal of certain responsibilities that a coach used to have, and that they had witnessed when they were playing was the biggest problem. They said that these decisions and responsibilities today were being given to and made by people without the adequate knowledge. People who ultimately undermine the work being done by the coach to build a cohesive unit and culture. They fail to realise how one small change can have a massive impact on the equilibrium of a team or club, and impact on whether they succeed or fail..

If that is the case then why is it that the coach gets the sack when a decision that was out of his control impacts on his team’s performance?

When former rugby league player, coach, and administrator Paul Broughton was on the show he stressed that unless a coach and a CEO had the same goals and beliefs a team would be less likely to achieve success. It is a valid point, history has proven that. There are many that believe if a coach is to be sacked for poor performances that the CEO should go too.

It was the England Cricket captain Douglas Jardine who said “A captain cannot make a bad side into a good one, but a great side can make an indifferent captain into a moderate one.” If you think of this in terms of sport today and substitute ‘captain’ with CEO, he has a point.

All of the managers named at the top of this piece would struggle to be employed by the big clubs today, and many would not accept the terms under which they would be expected to operate.

Brian Clough was the ‘people’s choice’ to become the England manager in 1977 after his arch rival Don Revie walked away from the post. “I’m sure the England selectors thought if they took me on and gave me the job, I’d want to run the show. They were shrewd because that’s exactly what I would have done,” was his own assessment as to why he did not get the role, and he was probably right.

When a manager was the man in charge it was his job to man-manage the players. Now when players are unhappy they go running to the Chairman or the CEO. Or their agent goes running to the press. What would have been handled swiftly in the past now becomes a drawn-out affair that fills the newspapers and their websites for days. Often causing untold damage to moral and form.

Celtic’s Jock Stein famously said “The secret of being a good manager is to keep the six players who hate you away from the five who are undecided.” We are unlikely to hear such a comment from a coach today. Instead some pre prepared statement will be read out on the situation with no questions being answered.

If the businessmen and women that have opted to transfer into the sporting world wish to bring their management structures into this world they need to understand that the playing side needs to be left to those appointed to carry out that role. That they deserve to be given the freedom to succeed or fail. To answer the media as they see fit and not trot out corporate lines and read from statements.

The administration is there to serve the game, and those who play it. Their job is to make sure that they bring in the money to cover all of the costs required to meet that goal.

Probably this situation was best summed up by another of the great managers mentioned, the one and only Bill Shankly when he said “At a football club, there’s a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don’t come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques”

Substitute directors with administrators and this applies to all sports. Maybe this should be sprayed on the wall of every club or administration office as a reminder!