With Bryan Robson resigning today it made me think about the current Premiership managers and why it is that there are so few successful managers who would have been classed as outstanding players whilst there are four great managers who could be classed as having been 'average' players at best.
There's always been an argument that coaches who were exceptional players have trouble communicating their ideas to less talented players, think Glenn Hoddle, David Platt, Bobby Charlton, Alan Ball, Ruud Gullit - there are exceptions Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool with a double winning side in his first season and then with Jack Walker's millions at Blackburn and then failing at Newcastle with second rate players.
The list below of current Premiership managers is split into self explanatory groups:
Group One - Not Much of A Player But A Great Manager
José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix - No Professional career
Alex Ferguson - Dunfermline and Glasgow Rangers
Rafael Benítez - Minor League Experience
Arsène Wenger - Played for RC Strasbourg
Group Two - Good Players, jury still out on management ability
Mark Hughes - Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich etc
Gareth Southgate - Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough
Stuart Pearce - Notts.Forest, West Ham and others
Martin O’Neill - Notts Forest
Steve Coppell - Manchester United
I know Martin O'Neill has won things at Leicester and Celtic but he's unproven at the top level as far as I'm concerned.
Group Three - Adequate Playing Careers, Not Likely to win much as Manager.
Martin Jol - Played for West Brom
Glenn Roeder - Newcastle Utd
Sam Allardyce - Bolton Wanderers (Second Div.Title 1978)
Alan Pardew - C.Palace and Tottenham
David Moyes - Preston North End
Chris Coleman - Fulham
Harry Redknapp - West Ham and Bournemouth
Paul Jewell - Liverpool Reserves
Group Four - Played outside Premiership, probably not good enough to manage in it
Neil Warnock - Chesterfield, Rotherham United, Hartlepool, Scunthorpe United etc
Adrian Boothroyd - Huddersfield Town; Bristol Rovers; Mansfield Town and Peterborough Utd.
Iain Dowie - Luton Town, West Ham (twice), Southampton, C.Palace
I know the Bart Man had two seasons in the old First Division but that was a mistake!
The last Englishman to win the title was Howard Wilkinson who didn't have much of a career as a player.
Ex-players who were better players than anybody in Groups 3 and 4 above and who have won honours in last 10 or so years but have not yet been managers in the Premiership: Tony Adams (Harry's assistant at Pompey), Paul Ince, Gary Pallister, Gary McAllister, Lee Dixon, David Platt, Denis Bergkamp, David Seaman, Peter Schmeichel, Alan Shearer, Roy Keane.
Ex managers who should be Premiership managers again: Gianluca Vialli, Glenn Hoddle, Ruud Gullit (don't they have something in common?).
5 comments:
Imho, Platt has difficulty communicating full stop, never mind just communicating with players. I turn off he's on Five Live, which is rather a lot.
Funny though, Jo the Cat just doesn't have the same ring as moaning maureen ;-)
I entirely agree about Martin O'Neill. He got lucky with Larsson at Celtic. Had Larsson not been there it may have been a very different story.
What? No mention of Sven?
Oh by the way 'Gianluca Vialli, Glenn Hoddle, Ruud Gullit' were all fucking great players. is that what you were after.
Actually Six, I was thinking Ken Bates!
But you're right obviously.
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