The Best Manager
Jos Luhukay, sacked as manager of Sheffield Wednesday in December, has recently been appointed manager of second tier German side FC St Pauli. While his time at Wednesday was not a success, it is generally appreciated by local journalists that despite his mistakes, it was an unfortunate case of him and the club just not being the right fit for each other. In this instance, the context of the situation has been weighed up.
Managers come in all different styles with an seemingly endless range of philosophies. It is only natural that each manager’s said style/philosophy will not always suit every club. Yes, managers should do their best to be adaptable, but sometimes things are simply destined not to work.
Take Pep Guardiola and Sean Dyche. Guardiola has proven himself immeasurably at ‘big clubs’, implementing an advanced and attacking style of play to get the most out of the stellar players he has available to him. Dyche has also proven himself immeasurably, but in a completely different way. He has put together a team on a budget, and fashioned a functional system that, arguably, has seen the club punch above its weight.
Should both managers suddenly switch roles, they would probably both fail dramatically. It is unlikely Guardiola will be able to implement his desired style of play with less technically gifted players. It is also equally unlikely that Dyche will be able to get the very best out top quality players with the style of play he currently specialises in. They are very different managers but both excellent managers, and their excellence must be considered within their own fields of expertise.
Take a jazz musician and a pop musician. Both equally skilled, but in differing disciplines. A jazz musician may specialise in more chromatic harmony and odd time signatures, while a pop musician may specialise in slotting perfectly into the groove of a song, focusing on tasteful inflections to aid the structure. Two skilled musicians but with different skill sets that, in all honesty, would not carry over particularly well into the others’ discipline. An ornate rhythmic hemiola with groupings of five notes against seven probably isn’t going to work on a Lily Allen track.
Comparisons between the quality and greatness of managers are somewhat meaningless. It is not a straight up footrace to decide who is better. There are so many different factors that must be taken into consideration.
Gareth Southgate is another interesting example. He may not have excelled as a club manager, but he has received deserved praise for his work as England boss. His current role, though, is far from that of a club manager. He is essentially overseeing a project he has helped to facilitate from his role as manager of the Under 21s side, bringing players together just a few times a year and working out how to gel them. He has done this excellently.
The example of Southgate draws on another somewhat void managerial comparison, that between club and international. Managing Burnley and Manchester City are both two completely different jobs that require different skills, and the same goes for managing a club side and an international side. Club managers are required to build sides in transfer windows and mould their team to their style with daily interaction, while international managers get a few fleeting weeks a year with their players, and must generally operate with the squad they are dealt. Two different skills that can’t be directly compared.
Manager comparisons are just another of those over simplified nonsense ventures that football is filled with. They must be judged against the job they are doing, rather than what another manager in a completely different situation is doing. Football is filled with far too many over-simplifications already, and it’s time to stamp out this one.