Welcome to real life Football Manager!!

Chirag Kanabar — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:02:47 -0400

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.

Sven-Goran Eriksson. Manchester City's ex high-profile manager. Bringing in a virtually new team—and buying more and more players every other month didn't really help him much. His team wasn't allowed to gel properly and the physicality of the EPL didn't help his European side much.

However, for Manchester City who performed well above their usual standards (which was expected with Eriksson around), I thought they didn't do too bad. 1. They weren't relegated. 2. They have good players who once gelled would be competing every year for a UEFA cup spot at least if not a UCL Spot.

Eriksson has experience at the highest level—surely you need to give him time Mr. Thaksin. He himself was adjusting to managing a club with the physicality of the EPL, the pace of the game in England. I think if he was given this one more season—Man City would've been a force to be reckoned with.

Newcastle United—underachievers of the EPL for the last... few years after Shearer left. Step in—Sam Allardyce, manager of Bolton Wanderers. A team that beat Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal—in fact Arsenal struggled when Allardyce was around.

Yet only a few months later—he was sacked. Sure, Newcastle weren't doing too well. Sure some of his signings were the worst the EPL has graced. BUT, he was trying to build his team. Give manager a time to build his team and he will deliver.

He didnt move from Bolton to Newcastle just cause they were bigger—he had a vision with them. He could see Newcastle competing for UEFA Cup spots at the least, every season.

So why is it that all these managers are sacked or leave through mutual consent? Because they didn't bring success overnight? Have these clubs never heard of "success doesnt come overnight?"

People say that for a reason, not cause they were bored one day and decided to come up with a quote. We've seen that success doesn't come over night but after a while you see the fruits of sticking with the same manager.

Prime examples in today's world—Arsenal and Liverpool. Arsenal haven't won anything in three seasons. The last they won was the FA Cup. Yet you still don't see Wenger being sacked because of it. He's building his team-let him.

Liverpool haven't won the EPL in years. Decades perhaps. But Benitez is still given the chance because Liverpool know what a great manager he is and know he will deliver in time. Sure, there was speculation of him being sacked, the whole Klinsmann issue. If any Liverpool supporters are reading this, would you rather want Benitez or Klinsmann as your head coach? I'm guessing 85% of you would say Benitez—at the least.

With the Abramovich's, Kenyon's, Shinawatra's of the football world, they need to realise that success isnt going to come over night. When they start a business, investing a million pounds, it would be ridiculous to assume that those million pounds will be returned that same year through profits. It takes time to grow.

Success doesn't come over night. Players need stability, they need to have one manager over years for them to perform at their best. When managers know their players, that's when you know its a TEAM! If managers are changing every season, players wont be able to perform at their best. Having to adapt every season to a new manager with a new footballing style is unsettling for players most of the time. So why keep changing?

Back to the example of Manchester United this season—when Sir Alex started managing at United—he didn't have success the next day—the team grew and worked hard for it over years.

In other words, there was stability. It was the same case with Arsene Wenger, now he's been one of the best managers to have graced the Premier League. Can you imagine Sir Alex, Benitez, or Wenger being sacked for coming second in the Premier League and losing the UCL on penalties?

That would never happen cause the board and directors of those clubs would love to keep them on. Why? Cause theres every chance the club would go a step further the following season.

The owners, board members, directors of football, chief executive's play too big a role in the football management side of the game today. We've seen in Manchester United's case (with the Glazers)—that Mancheter United has been allowed to play the way they want, manage the way they want, buy whoever they want—and we can all see the success.

I could say the same for Liverpool—except this season the owners love-hate relationship hasn't helped much. But other than that, the owners haven't decided who the club should and should not buy, they haven't told Benitez how to manage his team, they haven't told Benitez he needs to perform and win the EPL within a season or he's out!

We saw through Arsenal's attractive football this season that they play as a TEAM. There's a close knit relationship between the players and manager, backroom staff etc. The manager manages the team—not the board, chief executives or Director's of Football.

Chelsea, Inter and Man City need to learn from the most successful clubs. Those clubs didn't build their success overnight. If Chelsea win the UCL next season—it won't make them one of the greatest teams unless they do it continuously.

Looking at the greatest clubs in football history... this was achieved through stability. Inter have such a great football history, a great football culture and they are one of the top football clubs in the world—but there are always going to be clubs better than you!

Sorry Avram, Roberto, Sven and Sam—you were just at the wrong clubs!

Manchester United: Good Enough to Rule Europe?

Chirag Kanabar — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:08:41 -0500

Once again we go into the knockout round of matches wondering whether Manchester United will be good enough to conquer the UEFA Champions League, European Club Football's most coveted prize. So the question in everyone's mind? Can they conquer Europe this time round?

Fergie and his team think so, and so too, do most United fans. Then again, that's the case every year. However, this season I think, may be something special. A 4-0 drubbing of bitter rivals Arsenal, a much needed rest for Cristiano Ronaldo and Sir Alex's desire to bring back his most treasured accomplishment to Old Trafford may just be the antidote Manchester United require.

First up for United - Lyon. Champions of France. According to Sir Alex, Lyon will be a tough nut to crack and rightly so. With class players, a great work ethic and with nothing to lose, Lyon will be attacking United with all guns blazing. They've won the French Ligue 1 for the last 6 years running and once again on top this year so as some may feel United can romp to victory like they did against Arsenal, they are making a mistake. Lyon may dominate all too much in the domestic league, but on the European Front its a whole different ball game. So can they beat United tonight, can they show that they are worth being called one of Europe's top clubs, can they say that they are as good as Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan and Liverpool? Two matches against the Champions of England may decide that.

Manchester United are quite simply on fire. After an embarrassing home defeat to Manchester City, which as a Manchester United fan I was deeply disappointed about, not just because of the result, but because of the way we played on such an emotional occasion. Manchester United needed to bounce back, they needed to prove that this wasn't just a mid-season slump that could mean the end of competing not just in the Premier League, but in the FA Cup as well. So what do Manchester United do to defy those critics? They dump league leaders Arsenal out of the FA Cup with a 4-0 win, humiliating the Gunners. Arsene Wenger couldn't complain much, except of course, for the pitch - which as silly as it seems, is his excuse for most losses.

The game against Arsenal may prove to be the turning point of the season, not just for Manchester United, but possibly for Arsenal as well. The win provides a much needed morale boost for United going into the Champions League as well as the close of the domestic season. With Rooney and Ronaldo in prolific form, the only thing standing between success and failure is the Manchester United players themselves. There's no doubt about the talent and class they have in their squad, but is that enough is the question...

Bleacher Report - Articles by Chirag Kanabar

Welcome to real life Football Manager!!

Manchester United: Good Enough to Rule Europe?