As a Manchester Untied supporter, this season I've been nothing short of delighted! Winning the Premier League and The UEFA Champions League was fantastic. Of course most people sung praises for Ronaldo and co. However to me it was mostly the manager.
Sir Alex Ferguson.
After spending years and years at the club, Manchester United is one of the most successful, popular, attractive football club in the world—credit to Sir Alex.
So what brings success?
In today's world of club football, managers come and go—and this season was no exception. With Mancini leaving Inter, Grant being sacked by Chelsea and Sven Eriksson departing by mutual consent and Sam Allardyce not given enough time, the question remains what must a manager do to keep their job?
And I believe... well... I thought I believed—do well at the club, but obviously that's not enough anymore...
I'll start off with Avram Grant. When Mourinho, aka "The Special-One," was sacked by Chelsea, taking over from his reign, lets face it, is no easy task. One of the most popular managers in the world, not just popular with the Chelsea fans, even with fans from rivals (I thought he was one of the greatest assets the EPL had!!—Quite the character as well) was sacked and step in Mr. Avram Grant.
How does a relatively unknown man become the head coach at Chelsea? Being Director of Football at Chelsea he decided to take on the coaching role. Within eight months, Chelsea lost the EPL on the final matchday, the UEFA Champions League through penalties. Yet a couple of days later he was sacked.
I personally didn't like Avram Grant, and his press conference after the Everton game late on in the season made me wonder what good ol' Peter Kenyon was thinking. However, at the end of the season he was one of my favourite football personnel.
Why? Cause he managed to get a team that was mourning from the loss of Mourinho, so close to the EPL title—and lose the UCL on penalties. It really doesn't get anymore unluckier than that.
He had the backing of all the players, staff and by the end of the season most Chelsea fans stopped chanting rude "We want Mourinho back" chants!
A manager with relatively no experience in managing (only in Israel really), brought Chelsea to their first European Champions League Final! And then was sacked a few days later.
In short, Avram Grant was sacked—for coming second in the EPL (even that on the FINAL matchday), taking Chelsea to their FIRST ever UCL final, and then unluckily losing on PENALTIES!
In other words—he was sacked for coming SECOND!
Next—Roberto Mancini. Three Serie A titles back to back—sorry Mancini that's just not good enough. Simply rubbish that is. Or at least that's what Inter is publicly suggesting. Ok sure, Inter don't do much in the UCL—but they were run ragged by a rampant Liverpool who have Europe virtually running through their veins!
(Once again Mourinho somehow manages to be the centre of attention in this manager transfer saga). Take centre stage Mourinho—hopefully you can take Inter to a UCL Final and win. That might, just might save you your job in the future. Don't worry about the three Series A titles back to back—that's just for fun.
6 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete