Arsenal may sit top of the league after six games with Arsene Wenger in charge but the club have won nothing since the FA Cup final in 2005. In that time, Chelsea have had nine managers, including a caretaker and an interim, and have won two Premier League titles, four FA Cups, the League Cup, the Champions League and the Europa League.
It might be argued that they would have won more had they stuck longer with Jose Mourinho the first time, or Carlo Ancelotti. But nobody knows.
moreScroll down to watch David Moyes: I'll try and put it right
Tough times: David Moyes has made a stuttering start to his career as Manchester United manager
Winner: Sir Alex Ferguson (in grey suit) celebrates Champions League glory in 1999
Trophy life: Ferguson with his first Premier League crown in 1993 (left) and with his final one this year
Kings of Europe again: Ferguson (centre) celebrates with Cristiano Ronaldo after United win the Champions League in 2008
We think this because
we believe stability to be more adult than another ludicrous round of
hiring and firing; and because Manchester United had 26 years of Sir
Alex Ferguson and swept the board.
Yet Ferguson had exceptional players, too. And top-level recruitment seems to work just as well as hanging on long enough to get your name on the main stand.
In the time that Ferguson was at Manchester United, Real Madrid had 22 managers. In comparable tournaments — there is no Spanish equivalent of the League Cup any more, and the Supercopa de Espana is merely the Community Shield, which is classed as a friendly in England — total stability and total chaos produced not dissimilar results.
Ferguson: 13 Premier League titles; 22 blokes, comprising 10 distinct nationalities: 11 La Liga titles.
Ferguson: five FA Cups; 22 blokes, including one who got the job twice and lasted a combined total of six matches: three Copas del Rey.
Ferguson: two Champions Leagues, one European Cup-Winnners Cup; 22 blokes, the longest-serving of whom lasted less than four years: three Champions Leagues.
Ferguson: one UEFA Super Cup; 22 blokes, including one who lifted the Champions League and promptly got the sack: one UEFA Super Cup.
Ferguson: two Intercontinental or Club World Cups; 22 blokes, six of whom had the job twice: two Intercontinental or Club World Cups.
Ferguson shades it on domestic titles, 22 blokes have had marginally more success landing the biggest prize in European football. It’s close, though, clearly.
Yet for all the emphasis placed on stability in this country, one would imagine Real Madrid to have achieved barely anything with 22 managers in 26 years. What appears to have happened is that the club becomes immune to this bizarre way of doing business.
Dynasty: Ferguson called time on his career as Manchester United manager after 26 years at the helm
Like the staff at Chelsea, the players shrug and wait for the next guy and the senior ones try to keep some basic principles in place and soldier on; never forget, despite the many upheavals of the Roman Abramovich era, Chelsea were the last kick of a penalty shoot-out away from having won more Champions League titles than Ferguson in his 26 years at Old Trafford.
So here’s what is strange. David Moyes would probably have found life far easier taking over from Mourinho at Real Madrid, than Ferguson at Manchester United.
It’s a stability thing. The one advantage clubs such as Madrid and Chelsea have is that they insulate against managerial change. It becomes so much part of the culture that when one boss departs and another arrives, it really is no big whoop.
Jupp Heynckes left Madrid having won the 1998 Champions League; his successor, Jose Antonio Camacho, fell out with the board without playing a game, and Guus Hiddink did not last a year. In that time, however, Madrid won the Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo against Vasco da Gama of Brazil.
Special One: Jose Mourinho was Real Madrid manager until this summer
All change: John Toshack (left) and Vicente Del Bosque (right) are just two of Real Madrid's former managers
Current incumbent: Carlo Ancelotti (right) took over from Jose Mourinho at the Bernabeu in the summer
John Toshack then took a second swing at it for 37 matches, before being replaced by Vicente del Bosque, who went on to be the most successful Madrid manager of the modern era, winning seven trophies in under four seasons.
Moyes has the opposite problem. United are protected against true failure by the benefits of financial fair play, plus their sheer size and experience, but what cannot be countenanced is the shock of Ferguson’s departure. That presence on the touchline, that voice in the changing room and at the training ground. Moyes has not yet put his own stamp on the club through personnel.
Bar Marouane Fellaini and Wilfried Zaha, every first-team player knew United only under Ferguson.
People now talk of United as being in transition, but this is so much more than a minor evolutionary stage.
Transition is what a club like Madrid go through almost every year. Ancelotti has succeeded Mourinho and the reviews are mixed. Madrid are already five points behind pace-setters Barcelona and Atletico Madrid after seven games. If results do not improve, we know what happens. Real Madrid get their 37th permanent manager, or their 56th, including caretakers.
Main men: Fabio Capello (above) celebrates with the La Liga title and Ferguson with the Premier League trophy
For Manchester United it is not so simple. As standing foursquare behind Ferguson worked so well, they opted to do the same with his successor.
A six-year contract was a fitting endorsement of their belief that Moyes was the best man for the job. It was an impressive statement, backed, of course, by Ferguson.
The Chosen One, states a banner in the Stretford End, a reference to the fact that Ferguson recommended Moyes for the post. But not all of Ferguson’s horses win. Nobody’s judgment is infallible.
What if Moyes continues to struggle, or simply finds following Ferguson too overwhelming, as any manager might?
What then? How long must United let this commitment to stability play out?
Chosen One: Moyes was heralded as Ferguson's successor but he has struggled to adjust to his new role
The problem for Moyes is that United’s 21st-century standing was the work of one man. No individual is bigger than the club, we hear, and United were world-renowned before Ferguson. Their modern aura of invincibility, however, dates from his arrival.
Without Ferguson, United have not won the league since 1967 or a European trophy since 1968.
It was not the red shirt that shielded the players from public criticism on bad days or during bad years, but the presence of Ferguson. While he stood guard, there was always the majority belief that better times lay ahead. Ferguson will sort this out, Ferguson will come back stronger next season, he has done it before, he will do it again. Now all of those cosy assurances are missing.
Moyes has a substantial contract, but that is not the same as a winning record. Nobody presumes with certainty that Moyes can turn United around. He needs time and no doubt will get it, but even Ferguson suffered outbreaks of dissent when results dipped.
Slump: Manchester United were beaten by West Brom at Old Trafford on Saturday
Say United finish outside the top four this season. The new manager does not have Ferguson’s track record to offer as collateral.
It is different at Madrid, where no coach lasts long enough to cast a shadow over the club. Del Bosque is the second longest serving coach in Madrid’s history. He lasted 233 matches. Ferguson did 1,500 at Manchester United.
Now one can see why Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke is so keen to keep Wenger, appointed 17 years ago today. His players know of only one regime, too. Yet Arsenal have not experienced anything like the success of Ferguson at United.
It is not just Ferguson’s constancy that intimidates, but his fabulous record.
Mixed results: Manuel Pellegrini's Manchester City have also struggled for consistency this season
The appointment of Moyes was right at the time. After his consistent level of attainment at Everton, it would have been a hideous snub for British managers were entry to the elite to be blocked by more imported talent. Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City may have scored big in the derby, but a single point from nine in matches against Cardiff City, Stoke City and now Aston Villa is an equally unnerving trend.
The complication for United is that their commitment to Ferguson’s successor is not so much a single decision as a policy.
Bringing Mourinho back to Chelsea is a judgment call; giving Moyes a six-year contract is a long-term strategy. It states that here at Manchester United, we can cope with an odd season of failure. If this does not work, first time, we have faith. We will persist and turn the corner.
It is an admirable stance, one designed to remove the pressure from Moyes who — with less of an endorsement — could already be reading speculation about his future after only six league matches.
Yet stability for its own sake is as unproven as whimsical change. United’s actions admirably favour dynasty over dalliance, but the people in charge have never known life beyond Ferguson, either.
Happy endings are never guaranteed, however good the intention.
Aaron Ramsey has been the star of Arsenal’s season but Mesut Ozil was, without doubt, the game- changer. It was his arrival, coming within 24 hours of a confidence-boosting win over Tottenham Hotspur, that rewrote the narrative at the club. Until that point, for all Arsene Wenger’s fine principles, he was perceived to be managing decline.
Arsenal sold their best players to rivals, at home and in Europe; they did not win trophies; they got by on the fringes of the elite, marking time until the inevitable day when they would be overtaken, bumped down to the Europa League, or worse, as Liverpool had been, a spent force.
Game changer: Mesut Ozil made the difference for Arsenal in their win at Swansea
By signing Ozil for a substantial sum, the mood around the club lifted. Arsenal were showing ambition again; Arsenal were back in the game. Ozil missed a good one-on-one chance against Swansea City, but it did not matter. His contribution goes far beyond what happens on the pitch. He has shifted the mentality of a football club.
Glenn Hoddle always thought that Terry Venables stitched him up. As England manager, Venables attended the fixtures meeting that decided on the qualification schedule for the 1998 World Cup, knowing he would not be in charge of the campaign.
Hoddle thought Venables had left him with the toughest match last, Italy away. He thought this was, at best, ill-considered and, at worst, downright mischievous. Venables, conversely, felt he had done Hoddle the biggest favour. He had negotiated, specifically, to finish away in Italy.
If England did well in the previous matches, he reasoned, they might already have won the group or qualified before facing their hardest fixture.
Job done: Glenn Hoddle saw England qualify for France 98 with a draw in Italy
SOL'S DODGY ADVERT
Sol
Campbell hasn’t got all of his coaching badges. What he has got,
however, is a double-page spread in a national newspaper to announce the
fact that when he qualifies, he will probably have to go abroad to work
because English football is racist. There are a great many
unemployed, qualified, managers who could do with such glib and easy
advertising.
The first scenario, meanwhile, occurred for Fabio Capello on the way to South Africa in 2010, when England travelled finally to Ukraine having already won the group. Goalkeeper Robert Green was sent off, England lost, but it did not matter. From England’s perspective their toughest encounter was a glorified friendly.
Missing men: England will have to qualify for the World Cup without Glen Johnson and Theo Walcott
The present campaign has been one of deferral. England are always going to start winning next time out. Yet, with England’s first-choice right side of Glen Johnson and Theo Walcott now missing for the matches against Montenegro and Poland, the danger of leaving it late can already be seen.
Opening up: Paul Gascoigne let the cameras follow him following his spell in rehab
The latest instalment told us nothing we did not know, showed us nothing we could not see. As ever, Gascoigne requires professional help, not a doomed flirtation with reality television in the briefly tragic style of Jade Goody.
Discussing Paolo Di Canio’s demise at Sunderland, Michael Owen said that the big change in modern football is players have the power to sack managers.
On his way: Paolo Di Canio was sacked after just 13 games in charge of Sunderland
Not successful ones, they don’t. For all the revulsion at the outbreak of player power at Sunderland, the fact remains the club was bottom of the league.
Had Di Canio been winning, no amount of whingeing to the board would have removed him, and no antics would have been considered too outrageous.
No comments:
Post a Comment