Stan's 5-Point Stance: Festive Fixtures Must Be Embraced, Rodgers Rallies Reds
In this week's five-point stance, B/R columnist Stan Collymore addresses issues relating to the festive fixture schedule, the lack of opportunities for young managers in the Premier League, the departure of Alan Pardew from Newcastle, West Brom and Brendan Rodgers.
1. Traditional Christmas fixture schedule must remain
I think it’s almost a national insult for highly paid managers to come to our shores and moan about the conditions they encounter here.
Louis van Gaal and Gus Poyet are both earning fortunes in the Premier League and should embrace our football culture, not thumb their noses at the scheduling of games over the Christmas holiday, which has been a part of our football heritage for 100 years or more.
It is also a part of the unique series of tests the English top flight throws up—mental, physical, technical. Long may it continue!
2. Premier League club owners must start taking chance on young managers
It's quite incredible that a guy who was known as Mr. Hoofball two years ago is suddenly the most sought-after name in English football.
At 56, Tony Pulis is a good organiser and a disciplinarian in an age of egos, but is this the best our coaching fraternity has to offer in the UK? Where are the British Pep Guardiolas, Jose Mourinhos or Carlo Ancelottis?
For me, it sends the wrong message to managers such as Eddie Howe, who's put a fine team out at Bournemouth with pennies, that the "seasoned campaigner" card keeps being played when Premier League jobs come up.
Please take a risk, club owners—you may just get the football you want.
3. Newcastle fans must be wary what they wish for
"Sleeping giant," "huge club" and "so much potential" is all I hear from journalists doling out platitudes in black and white recently.
But therein lies the problem for Newcastle United. It's all about a romantic perception of the Magpies rather than a harsh reality.
Yes, they get 52,000 in the stadium every week, but since when does that mean anything other than they like their football up there?
Too many Geordies still believe Newcastle United are "owed" great football and a place at football’s top table—one they haven't dined at since 1927, when they last won the league title, or 1955, when they last won the FA Cup.
Yes, they have great support and lots of fans, but they are not a big club by any definition other than shirts in a stadium.
So the loud minority of the Toon Army, which seems to have driven out a decent manager in Alan Pardew, needs to be careful what it wishes for, which in the case of Mike Ashley seems to be one long road to mediocrity.
4. Simplicity is the key for West Brom
West Brom are a good club—usually run along tight lines, conservative in their spending, with evolution rather than revolution their mantra.
But in the last 12 months, it's all gone a little Pete Tong. Why? The good old director of football role.
I don't think Albion or any other English club outside of an elite—which has multiple competitions, including Europe, and complicated contract negotiations with world stars to deal with—needs this role at their club.
They need a manager who knows the players he wants to buy and has a simple, direct line to the money men and a good scouting network—and hey presto, a team is born.
Too many average Premier League clubs feel the need with the riches they receive to become organisations with ideas way above their stations.
Albion could do worse than ditch the director of football role, get Pulis in, stay up, build over the next three to four years and do it the old-fashioned way. Sometimes simplicity is bliss.
5. Brendan Rodgers emerging into the light at Liverpool
I wrote here a few weeks ago that Brendan Rodgers is the right man for Liverpool, and I wonder now whether the recent difficulties he’s faced will take his managerial ability to the next level.
He's been questioned about Mario Balotelli, a leaky defence, the continuing presence of an ageing Steven Gerrard, the six signings he made and their impact, and the protection of a prodigious talent in Raheem Sterling, and he's argued with England boss Roy Hodgson over an injury to Daniel Sturridge.
This has happened almost daily at one of the world’s biggest clubs, but the performance against Swansea was sharper, had more belief and showed two things: the Reds can score without their strikers, and they can play well without Gerrard.
Maybe those two things, plus the return of Sturridge, will yet see a smiling Rodgers cross that Champions League line in May once more. I hope so.
Former Liverpool, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest striker Stan Collymore is in his second season as a regular contributor for Bleacher Report.
