THE PANDEMIC may be having an unexpected impact on the football management sector in that fewer managers have been sacked so far in 2020-21. With the Premier League at the halfway stage, only one manager, West Bromwich Albion’s Slaven Bilic, has departed in a mid-season taxi. There will surely be more to come, but the […]
WHAT CAN you really say after a 9-0 drubbing except sorry? You had to feel some sympathy for pale-faced Ralph Hasenhüttl, facing the TV cameras after a seismic home defeat that extended Southampton’s current run to one point from five league games. Southampton have said they have no interest in sacking Hasenhüttl, but look at […]
EVERYONE loves Jürgen Klopp, even those that do not especially warm to Liverpool Football Club. The current talk is of the popular German coach presiding over the creation of a “dynasty”, not the first time we’ve heard this from Liverpool or indeed a number of clubs, who can afford to talk boldly when things are […]
FOOTBALL MANAGERS at the highest level don’t seem to be too upset when the axe falls. For a start, you never get to hear about the end of a managerial reign, most victims undoubtedly sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements), the tool of the employer who feels uncomfortable about sacking an employee. The corporate world has long […]
AFTER some years bemoaning the fact he hasn’t had a chance to become a manager, the eccentric character that is Sol Campbell has been appointed “gaffer” at Macclesfield Town, the 92nd-placed club in the Premier/Football League structure. The Guardian’s Daniel Taylor said that Campbell doesn’t always realise how he comes across, referring to some of […]
IT’S not fashionable to defend José Mourinho, especially after his poor impression of Ted Rogers on the TV Show, 3-2-1, but is it really so big a crisis at Old Trafford? Mourinho has the best win rate of any Manchester United manager – 61.48%, a figure that beats even the records of Sir Matt and […]
UNAI Emery was not a failure at Paris Saint-Germain, not by any means. But his time in Passy, the 16th arrondissement of Paris, was never going to last long given the impatience of PSG’s owner to become European champions. The taxi to Gare du Nord was ordered as far back as March 8, 2017. Impatience […]
THERE’S a lot to be said for continuity and familiarity when it comes to football teams and invariably, successful teams only use a small group of players in pursuit of glory. Some of the best champions have depended on 11 or 12 players that perform like a well-oiled unit that becomes telepathic in its interaction. […]
FIRST of all, Arsenal will have to get used to the idea their next managerial appointment will probably not be a dynastic move that changes the face the football. The problem is, they’ve had a guy in charge who created, to some extent, the shape of modern football in England. A cosmopolitan who was relatively […]
