Football Managers and the Change of Guard

[3 min read]

There's a chance this will be a key rivalry of the new era.

Football, a sport we have come to passionately fall in love with and which is notorious for constantly re-inventing itself has done it again!

While the obvious re-invention has to be the introduction of VAR and its ever-abiding controversies, there’s a particular process the game is currently undergoing, subtle yet pretty obvious that should have our attention.

The Video Assisyant Referee (VAR) is arguably the most recent re-invention of the game. It is however not without its controversies 

There’s a systematic change of touchline guard going on and its execution has been sleek so far.

The baby boomers (a group of people born between 1946-1964) are calling it a day in their numbers. Our grey-haired touchline Commanding Officers are getting phased out big time willingly or otherwise. No wonder the last of them, the one you love to hate and hate to love, Jose Mourinho simply can’t get himself a job.

Jupp "Mr Bundesliga" Heynckes, a serial silverware collector, like Sir Alex Ferguson, walked off the stage when the ovation was loud. 

Some walked away willingly. When the ovation was loud as with Sir Alex Ferguson, Jupp Heynckes and Vincente Del Bosque, or rather unceremoniously like Louis Van Gaal and Fabio Capello.

Louis Van Gaal, unceremoniously fired by Man United only a few days after delivering the FA Cup (a turn of events he's still bitter about). He has since not mounted the managerial horse.  

There are those who have been banished to foreign lands like Luis Felipe Scolari and Marcelo Lippi. (FYI, if you’re managing a club outside Europe, that’s foreign land by definition good sir, it’s foreign land). Some have joined the mixed crowd called punditry (which rather accurately sounds like purgatory).

71 year Old World Cup winner, Marcelo Lippi together with his popular cigars now manages the Peopele's Republic of China. What is "Banished to Foreign lands" again in Mandarin?  

There are those still on their jobs in top clubs: The outliers. Faith Terim, Carlo Ancelotti, Ernesto Valverde, Maurizio Sarri settle in this category. A company Jose Mourinho desperately relishes for a last hurrah at the top.

At 66 and still very much active in manageial work, Faith Terim is an outlier of the baby boomers. Known for oscillating rather successfully between Galatasaray and the Turkish National Team. 

Then there’s the final group. A group not out of fashion because they possess an unusual skill set. A skill set that in layman’s term is interpreted roughly as; an ability to “Unscrew the screw up”.

A skill that is an exotic bird in these woods and usually in high demand starting in the mid-season when suspect teams begin manifesting poor form in full force and subsequently begin to flirt with relegation. Like you call the firefighters in case of a conflagration, with the threat of relegation looming, you bring in football’s Navy Seals.

The “The Unscrew team” is led by our personal favorite Big Sam Allardyce, Fez Cap-wearing Tony Pulis and Mark Hughes. They are the Red Addair specialists. They will be offended if you called them for the job of a team doing well. They only respond when everything seems to be heading downright to hell.

My guess is, their phones are programmed to answer first with the legendary words; “How bad is it?”

.

"Hola, Big Sam here. How bad is it? A relegation knife fight? Say no more. Send a jet or a canoe or  a scooter, whatever man, get me to the touchline asap!"

These particular baby boomers may be in the business for a while.

I’m in my 20s and I’m honoured to have grown up watching football and developing a passion for it during the days of these brilliant managers in their entirety.

Not that the columnist forgot him but I had not the slightest clue how on earth to categorize Scottish good man and everyone’s favorite Brother-in-Law, David Moyes.

But while we salute these men who made the touchlines lively, we must get excited by the new fingerlings. The new guys in suit on matchday.

Jose Mourinho, a man who offers tactical wizardry neatly wrapped between layers of personal controversies has openly campaigned for a top job. He fancies another shot at glory. 

Most of them cut their teeth in the skills lab of the baby boomers both as players and managerial apprentices. These new guys all played well into the turn of the millennium.

"Most of them cut their teeth in the skills lab of the baby boomers both as players and managerial apprentices." (L-R; Sir Alex Ferguson and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer) 

Amongst them of course are the already big time winners in Europe. The likes of Pep Guardiola (who notoriously outfoxed the old Scottish fox and godfather of the older era, Sir Alex Ferguson on the biggest European night not once but twice), Luis Enrique, Zinedine Zidane and Jurgen Klopp.

While the differences in the width of the pants might be the most striking feature in this photo, this in fact represents a moment when the new order (Pep) outfoxed an old Master (Sir Alex). The re-invention had been set in motion.

Honorable mention is Mauricio Pochettino who was Jurgen Klopp’s opponent on the night the German etched his name in history as a European Giant.

One of the brightest lights in the current shoal who is yet to add a silverware to his name.

Diego Simeone, Antonio Conte, Niko Kovac, Philipe Cocu and Unai Emery have done real nicely for themselves with numerous trophies between them to show for it. 

The Former Lazio Midfielder has turned the Atletico team to one of the finest, most energetic and  most organized teams in Europe, With two appearances in the Champions League final, he hardly has hurt his status as one of the elites of the modern era. 

There are those whose introduction to the touchline business was in fact, an intense baptism of fire, one that threatened to have them regret the choice of career. Their foray into the touchline side of the game turned out to be near unmitigated disasters.

Speak of Paul Scholes’ 31 odd day managerial career as Oldham Athletic’s boss with a meagre 1 win in 7 or his former teammates, Gary Neville’s barely 4-month spell in Spain with Valencia with 3 wins in 16 games and notoriously no clean sheet.

Thierry Henry didn’t have it nice either with 11 defeats in 20 games while in charge of AS Monaco, of course he got the boot 4 months after he was appointed.

A lethal Striker and a widely sought after pundit does not a successful manager make. No one knows that better than Thierry. 11 defeats in 20 games was quite embarrassing. 

Some have indeed not found themselves on the winners’ podium but have not had it bad in anyway. Some in the National Team set up like Gareth Southgate, Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville with the England Female Team and of course those in the club set up like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Steven Gerrard, Eddie Howe and believe it or not, Frank “Super Frankie” Lampard.

Phil Neville doing the Lord's work with the English Women National Team. As a thumbs up to his job so far, he's been appointed to be in charge of Great Britain's Olympic Female Football side.

Pay attention, football is changing. It’s rules, pace and as we can now agree, staff. The change is global. Our golden oldies can have their rest now.

Some played very well into the turn of the millennium. 

As for Jose Mourinho, as a huge fan of the Portuguese top tactician, I wish him all the best in the quest to sit atop the world of managerial football again but it’s no surprise no big team is looking in his direction. He probably was certain as many of us almost were that Real Madrid would have no choice but him after the disastrous double header with Julen Lopetegui first and Santiago Solari subsequently.

The Bernabeu powers that be as we’d later find out did turn to another one of their former managers and it wasn’t poor old Jose. It was Zinedine Zidane, a new era monster with a hattrick of European titles as Real Madrid manager for a resume that was favoured by the Spanish giants.

Three Consecutive Champions League wins make for a very formidable CV. He was re-employed ahead of Jose Mourinho

Inter Milan, another destination Jose would have loved, turned instead to the younger Antonio Conte.

Inter Milan's Upper Echelon decided to hand Conte the managerial position. Rumours abound Jose Mourinho (himself a successful and largely popular former manager of the team was in consideration too)

In any case, I am and I think you should be glad to be part of this exciting new era.

Exciting times!

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