Who would want to be a manager?

I know what the English teams are doing with their youth teams. Liverpool overhauled theirs when benitez was in charge. Chelsea overhauled theirs when Ancelotti was in charge. City overhauled theirss recently with their new training facility and the acquisiton of Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain. I still very much doubt that Guardiola will change English football. The FA have shown to only care about money whilst not doing anything about the failures of their young players. It will take more than Guardiola playing attractive football at city to change decades of resistance to change and English fans who rather their club team be successful instead of their national team.

I think you are massively underestimating what the CFG are doing in terms of youth development, essentially attempting to build the la masia of the UK - throwing huge money at it and planning for the long term, all playing the 'right way' so to speak. Guardiola will only add to this. You can then imagine other massive clubs responding - there are reports that Man Utd are planning to overhaul their youth structure as City have pulled miles ahead. Of course, this does not solve the problem of the 18-21s getting first team experience - which you could argue is perhaps England's biggest obstacle - given that top Spanish and German clubs have 'b' teams in the league system. It's no coincidence they happen to be producing the best players in Europe.

Qantas - personally I hope England dont learn from Guardiola during his tenure, would be great to see Australia above England in international football ;) Towser - Great post, It is evident that the English believe in their own hype about the league. Its probably one of the reasons why English footballers dont venture into foreign leagues as much as foreigners do to English football. That and the fact that the English youth arent as technically advanced/

Qantas and Kaks One of the benefits of being a football fan in Australia was being able to watch football on SBS. It educated me as an Ex pat Pom, to the broader world of football. However I know on a personal level that English football fans on the shop floor still prefer the local stuff to Overseas. I took this, "This younger generation is still, however, only starting to turn the tide. It seems that years of being reassured that ours was the best league in the world has dampened our enthusiasm for watching other European leagues, and our ability to interact with other footballing cultures. It is, ironically, this blinkered confidence in being the best that has let other countries overtake us: Italy are dangerously close to grabbing our coefficient; Germany’s approach to money in football has led to a healthier league for both players and fans; and, as another Football Faculty article has pointed out, most Champions League teams on the continent could teach us much about what we should have learned from Guardiola’s revolution in Spain. Perhaps it is only by opening up to the rest of Europe that English football culture can hope to better itself- with our unparalleled access to coverage of leagues across Europe, we now have the chance to gain a more realistic view of where our game lies in comparison." from the following article. http://www.thefootballfaculty.com/2016/01/22/is-english-football-culture-more-insular-than-it-should-be/ Note the date 22 January 2016, we can only hope then Qantas that Guardiola's revolution in Spain rubs off, but I can assure you it aint easy to break down English footballs insularity.

Great article MG. I like your list of 'you can be sacked for...' And would add the worse of all: for not having the right name. Dunno if you remember Antoine Kombouare at PSG in 2011. The Qatari had just bought the club, injected millions etc. Kombouare's first few months had been just perfect: Paris was n1 just before Xmas (when he got the sack), they were playing a great brand of football, everyone was happy. Except that the millionaires who bought Ibra and co felt that the name 'Kombouare' wasn't pompous enough for the club they wanted to have (if I remember well ancelotti took over). Now sacking a coach for non football or results related reasons is imo the worse. Will never forgive Al Khelaifi for that.

Of course, the change would not be immediate, but, this will be the beginning of new English football academies seeing the beauty and style of winning football---the Guardiola way. Perhaps, a generation or two. I can't see Guardiola failing at Man City---he'll be able to buy the players he wants. Of course, I would have rather him at Chelsea to do his work.. ;)

Hahaha brilliant. If there is one thing to take away from your rant fadida, it's that there is no universal solution. Each club is different, what may have worked at Leicester (sacking Pearson and bringing in Ranieri) may not work at, say, Bournemouth. Arsenal have been stable with Wenger, while Chelsea has chopped and changed managers. One has won more titles in the last 10 years than the other, and its not the team with more 'stability'. Funny game football, anything can happen!

I highly doubt it will change English football, considering Manchester City has only two english players who start for them week in week out - one of them being a goalkeeper. I also highly doubt Pep will stay at City for too long, the English media will hound him out eventually.

Towser, the recently appointment of Pep Guardiola at Man City is going to change English football forever. You may even get the English national team playing his football philosophy. Interesting times ahead for English football---English football commentators (Martin Tyler) are all going to judge the transformation of English football from how it use to be played to how it should be played i.e. The Guardiola philosophy. As an outsider, I only hope and wish that, Mourinho and Ancelotti find a club in English football to complete the transformation. Can you imagine how fantastic that will be to watch---these heavy weight football managers going head to head in the EPL..?

Now, that's what you call a good football rant.... :)

Interesting that the same knee jerk keyboard warriors demanding the removal of their club's manager often choose ex greats for the job, often based on the concept that they "know the club" and are "passionate". How did Pearce at Forest, Shearer at Newcastle etc go? Giggs for United, and before Klopp, Gerrard/Carragher for Liverpool would be disastrous. Many of the short lasting appointments are simply poor appointments. Often managers have been successful, thus proving their ability, but are sacked for a dip the following season eg Mulvey. Popovic has shown that holding onto a manager can pay off. There are plenty of managers who have achieved promotion to the EPL, a great and difficult feat, and then been sacked when their outclassed squad struggles for compete. Some of these men have won multiple promotions with the same club to get there and then get axed with the first downturn. Bournemouth have been rewarded for their patience with Howe. Where would Leicester be now if they had sacked Pearson as planned 3/4 of the way through last season? The greatest feat (maybe Hellas Verona aside) that may ever happen would not have happened. Leicester would be top of the championship now. And among all of those appointments and sackings we have Wenger, making the same mistakes for 10 years straight, failing to buy a striker or quality defensive midfielder and centre back for 20 windows straight. In a season where 3 of the " big 4" are imploding, the last of the 4 just needed to avoid shooting themselves in the foot to win. And he faild to buy again. And again they collapse post Xmas.How does he survive? It a funny game.

It's a pity ministers and CEO's aren't as accountable for results as managers and coaches in sports are. I have no issue with how any manager is treated. Would I like to be paid ten times an average wage to obsess over a sport I already obsess over for free? LVG knows the field he is in. He is well aware of the need to perform and is highly compensated at near on the end of his working life. I have no tears for the man. When his United stint ends I'm sure he will get another highly paid role somewhere.

I think the "rebound" effect of changing managers has been pretty well statistically disproved

Agree MM. I was one of those calling for the head of Stubbins, from a very early stage. He clearly was tactically awful and a negativé influence. No amount of time would have improved him. He was destroying the club. Miller, on the other hand, has shown he can get the whole playing above the sum of the parts. Quite how anyone expects much more with the skeleton crew he has at his disposal I don't know. He has. made mistakes, the change to 3 at the back against Perth, when down a man and already killed in wide areas was disastrous. Any side who has Kantarovski as it's back up 10 and cover for CB is very limited

Thanks for the article. I have often wondered whether changing managers part way through the season actually helps. Most times there is a short term lift, but the team slips back to where they were after a few games.

Good read Mitch. I sometimes think that sacking a coach gives the owner a reset button, at least no one will be demanding I sack the manager for the next month. As a Newcastle Jets fan I am fascinated by the keyboard warriors demanding that Scott Miller be sacked without any knowledge or understanding of the limitations of the job he is asked to do. What is fascinating is how for weeks these keyboard warriors light up various forums demanding that the manager and also the interim (and part time) CEO be sacked for various crimes against football. Yet after a win not a peep out of them.

Having started following football in England in less complicated managerial times, I remember Peter Swan talking about Wednesdays fortunes in his autobiography and remarking on the lack of tactical nous displayed by managers of the day(Sixties), in England at least. However tactics are just one aspect of the changing face of Football managers over the years. In those days TV exposure was minimal, Wednesday and United still advertised their upcoming matches by pasting small posters in either blue & white or red & white on any available factory wall or even Telegraph polls. Fans knew little of the outside world of football beyond the English or Scottish divisions ,nor did they care. You could also argue that in England at that time after 80 or so years of Professional football, that the pressure on the manager at Scunthorpe was far less than that of Arsenal or Liverpool, because clubs had found their niche in various divisions over the years. In that sense has much changed today for the Scunthorpe manager? I've often felt on my return to Sheffield over the years a resignation amongst fans an acceptance of "well this is us,its who we are" that who we are being 2 clubs who are destined to be the "Yoyo clubs" they've been historically. So whats the main changes since the "Simple " day of the manager. TV stands out as a major player, more exposure outside a clubs local area has meant the manager at the big clubs in particular no longer has to just satisfy Nobby and his mates from the " Red Lion", Luigi, Bruce,Tojo or Hank are buying ManU or Liverpool replica shirts and Van Gaal is not just a Football manager producing results on the park, but he's also supposed to display the "ManU" style so that Hank keeps contributing to the clubs financial bottom line. Also more exposure has come from the ever increasing competitions outside your own country with the Euros and the Champions League , with Asia and other Confederations following that trend, placing further pressure on the big club managers. Add to that diluted control compared to that managers like blokes like Bill Shankly had over his team, before Sports science etc brought in dieticians, and other connected specialists,plus a dozen coaches one to train the toenails and another for your eyelashes plus dealing with prima donna footballers ,instead of " Fred frum darnt pit" who'd be a football manager Ah yes of course back to tactics, formations, Peter Swan said Harry Cattericks tactics were for his position(Centre Half) to clog the Centre forward as hard as possible throughout the match, now you've got false 9's, invisible 10's, speckled goalies, 442, 433, 123 take your partners swing em round, no wonder Arnie only gives a toss about winning.

Thanks. A really interesting article. Short-termism is rife in football. The A-League is no exception. The Friday night game was poor? The standard is poor. Attendance down for a few weeks? The league is in crisis. Van Gaal has underperformed, and the football is rubbish. The media, however, are being ridiculous. They should be asking him why he plays Fellaini over Hereira, why he didn't by a centre back and a striker. What is his philosophy? The £5 million pay off he'll get in the summer for being sacked should ease the blow. It's incredible that only 3 sides can go up from the Championship but 10 managers will lose their jobs for not doing just this. An interesting question is who appoints these often unproven managers, many of whom only have the qualification of being a good player. Managers they sack 6 months later because it turns out they actually can't manage.