AuthorJeffEyesRimmer It is looking more and more likely that Everton are going to resort to Sam Allardyce to turn their season around. With West Hams recent appointment of David Moyes and the appointment of Alan Pardew at West Brom, that would make it three for three for uninspired appointments recycling the same old Premier League “proper football men”. These three appointments are about as underwhelming and disappointing as you can get and we’ve said as much on the pod several times in recent weeks. Has there ever been so much reward for so much failure? Back in January there was outrage from certain areas of the media over the appointment of Marco Silva at Hull City and then again when he was appointed manager at Watford. We discussed it in this article here, but the outrage was around how could this foreign manager come in and get the job over young British managers. However, it is not ‘foreigners’ that are the barrier to young managers getting more coveted jobs. It’s the older British managers that are constantly recycled through the leagues unfashionable lesser sides that are the barrier. Here at the Football Outcasts we don’t like using the term “British managers”, as nationality shouldn’t determine whether you get a job or not - your ability should. However, for the sake of this article, we will discuss the phenomenon of “British managers”. Of the last 14 Premier League managerial appointments, 8 have been Brits aged 50-70 and that figure might go to 10 in 16 if both Big Sam and Pards get the jobs they are after and touted for. That is unbelievable really, with all of them being safety first appointments rather than progressive or really knowing what the club will achieve moving forward. They are real short term appointments too as both of these aforementioned managers seem to be able to galvanise a squad and produce short term results, but long term results and normally forthcoming hence both of them being somewhat journeyman managers in this league. Yes, we are going to name a few other familiar names too: Moyes, Harry Redknapp, Mark Hughes, Alan Roy Hodgson and Tony Pulis are turned to time and again by struggling top flight sides. However, between them they have a won a grand total of 2 trophies in England - an FA Cup for Redknapp and a community shield for Moyes. That’s a stunning amount of mediocrity for the number of jobs they keep getting. When people like Allardyce and Redknapp are complaining about the restricted options for young, British managers the main thing stopping them progressing are the old, British managers like themselves rather than these ‘Johnny foreigners’ coming in and stealing their jobs! We think that when they complain about this subject they are not actually talking about young British coaches, they are talking about themselves and the “old boys” network of managers. In 2010, Allardyce declared that he was better “suited” to managing Real Madrid or Manchester United than his then employers, Blackburn Rovers. Two years later, he said that he would have been a Champions League coach if only he had a more glamorous surname, something like Allerdyci! He has recently said that British coaches ‘have nowhere to go’ and are ‘second class’ in the UK football scene…. I mean its laughable really isn’t it! Although each one of those men mentioned above have had a pop at clubs for not employing British coaches they are the problem rather than the solution. Of the 92 clubs in the four professional leagues in the English pyramid at the time of writing only 22 of them have non British managers. That stat shows that there is no lack of options the further down the football pyramid you go. Of those 22 clubs, half are EPL clubs that are managed by foreign bosses, with the top 6 in the EPL all having non-Brits in charge. This makes sense - clubs with Champions League aspirations would want managers that have managed in the UCL, which normally just so happens to typically be people from the continent or elsewhere around the world.
The idea that Brits don’t get a fair go at the top clubs does not stand up either (which is something that Redknapp et al point out on a regular basis). British managers have been given chances in the top jobs in the EPL and they have generally fluffed them. In recent memory we have Moyes being given a chance at Manchester United, Roy Hodgson at Liverpool, Tim Sherwood at Spurs and then Aston Villa, and Mark Hughes at Manchester City and we all know how they turned out. Hell; Sherwood didn’t even have all his appropriate coaching badges when he was given his jobs! Let’s put into perspective the amount of clubs that these older managers have taken charge of, preventing younger managers getting a chance:
Talk about recycling and or cornering the market! That is a large number of jobs all going to the same people on a regular basis. It would be harsh to say that these appointments are totally without merit. Hodgson did very well abroad, Moyes was fantastic at Preston and then Everton (and probably wasn’t given a fair crack at United when compared with later manager’s spells), Mark Hughes did well with Wales before taking charge of his first club and Sam Allardyce did great things with Bolton. However, by clubs constantly returning to the same group of people the same mistakes are made over and over again. There is no imagination and no chance of progression. They will not catch the top clubs without thinking outside the box; it’s as simple as that. Yes, these managers do what these clubs (read “businesses”) want i.e. survival and the ongoing income stream of TV money, but once the survival is achieved the football normally becomes dull, the team stagnant and then the cycle of struggle is repeated, all while talented younger managers looking for a break through from the lower divisions are ignored again. |
AuthorsJust Some Fans Writing About Football. Archives
June 2018
Categories
All
|