On the 25th March, Bulgaria defeated The Netherlands 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier. Duly, on the 26th, Head Coach Danny Blind was ‘relieved’ of his duties by the Dutch Football Association. He became the latest in a long line of coaches down the years to lose their job based after a run of poor results. On the 28th March Interim Coach Fred Grim oversaw a 2-1 Friendly defeat to Italy. As a coach myself, I have seen the pressure that there is to win from a young age but in an industry where results are of the utmost importance, how much sentiment is there really for the top managers in world football?
Claudio Ranieri was hailed as the “club’s most successful manager of all time” after leading Leicester City to the most remarkable Premier League triumph in a generation. Just nine months later, following the notorious ‘vote of confidence’, he was sacked with the team languishing in the relegation zone. He lasted even less than Louis Van Gaal did at Man United. Caretaker Manager Craig Shakespeare has won all four of his games in charge so far, in this case changing for the better.
[caption id="attachment_385" align="alignnone" width="848"] It is extremely rare, with the nature of football as it is today, to find a manager that holds any power in determining his or her own destiny. Sir Alex Ferguson spent 26 years at the helm of Manchester United before announcing his retirement. 38 trophies later, his unrivalled success throughout his time at the club ensured that his job security was never an issue, for him nor the owners. Arsene Wenger is facing a different dilemma. His 22 years in charge of Arsenal makes him the second longest serving manager ever behind Sir Alex and many insist he has been as important for Arsenal as Ferguson was for United. Three Premier League trophies and a record six FA Cup titles, is now a distant memory for fans who are fed up with seeing their team fall away from any real title contention in recent years. They have not won the Premier League since 2004 and following their humiliating 10-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, the familiar ‘Wenger Out’ banners surfaced once again, along with the infamous fly-over protests at the The Emirates. But should Wenger be allowed to decide whether or not he remains in charge? When does the board make a decision based on the best interests of the club?[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_386" align="alignnone" width="849"] Both Pep Guardiola and now Luis Enrique spent less than five years at Barcelona before stepping down to take time out from the game, citing fatigue as their reasons. They were both hugely successful in wrestling the power away from rivals Real Madrid, who themselves have gone through seven managers in the last 10 years. Barca are now arguably the best team in the world, often unbeatable at times. These are cases of managers leaving at the peak of their powers, and begs the question as to what their futures would have looked like had results started turning against them.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_387" align="alignnone" width="847"] Even the self-proclaimed “Special One”, Jose Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea for a second time in his career. There is so much money in football today, from multi-million-dollar sponsorship deals, to 120-000 seater stadiums, to the replica shirts sold to fans, that football has become a lucrative business, run by wealthy businessmen, and at the end of the day these businessmen want to see a return on their investments. Change is constant, that doesn’t always make it easy however where does one draw the line between being radical and realistic? As Agatha Christie, a famous author once put it “When a man's neck's in danger, he doesn't stop to think too much about sentiment.”[/caption]