Being a manager at a top football club can be tricky. There is all the pressure of succeeding by managing your team to good results, team selection, transfer sagas, press conferences and heat of the moment substitution decisions. We all know how good Sir Alex can be at those. We all remember the super sub Solskjaer story. He scored 4 goals after coming on as a sub. Breathtaking. However today I'm not going to be looking at the greatest super subs. We'll save that for another time.
Over the last couple years, I've began to notice a trend. Managers, especially in the EPL, are very nationalist, if that is the correct word. They tend to search for players of their own heritage in the transfer market or players who happen to speak their same language. Is it because they feel more comfortable, can bond more with the players? Do they enjoy a sense of home comfort. Perhaps the manager has trouble explaining tactics in a certain language so exiles good player in place of players that he can communicate more clearly with. After all the better the team understands the tactics, the more efficient those tactics will be when match day rolls around. So is there a reason for the players of their homelands? I'm going to do my best from observation to come up with a hypothesis. A prime example and perhaps one of the best examples of this phenomena is Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger. He is French. Okay we have that established. I'm going to look at last season's roster of usual first teamers and give you the names of all of the French and French-speaking (African Players who speak French as a primary language) players. Here we go: Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Samir Nasri, Bacary Sagna, Gael Chichy, Alexandre Song, Emmanuel Eboue, Abou Diaby, Mickael Silvestre, and William Gallas. You could put the 10 of them on the field in whatever position you'd like, with the exception of keeper, have one to spare, and see a fluently french speaking squad on the pitch in the English Premier League. It really isn't just last year either. Of course their all time leading goal scorer, Theirry Henry who left for Barcelona a couple seasons back, is French. Patrick Viera, who has been rumoured to be perhaps on his way back to North London with the Gunners from a spell at Inter Milan, is French, and captained the infamous "Untouchables" in the 2003/2004 season with Arsenal. Okay so Arsenal has a bunch of French players and a French coach. Big Deal. Let's take a look at last year's Liverpool squad as well. It's common knowledge to know that Rafa Benitez is Spanish. So what about Spaniards and those who speak the language in his squad. It is interesting yet again. They were Fernando Torres, Javier Macherano, Alberto Rierra, Alvaro Arbeloa, Emiliano Insua, Pepe Riena, and Xabi Alonso. That's quite a number of Spaniards and players who possess the ability to speak Spanish in one English first team. And again, that's an English squad we are talking about. They obviously lead the EPL for players of this sort. It seems where ever a manager may go in his career, he wants to bring something or someone(s) with him. Early last season when Scolari ended his post as boss of Portugal and took on the roll of Chelsea manager, he scooped up two of his Portuguese national team players and brought them to the bridge, Deco and Bosingwa. Not unlike Murinho who brought Portuguese players such as Carvalho and Ferriera to West London after managing Porto to a Champions League success. Sir Alex Ferguson is Scottish. Okay so their aren't many Scottish players on Manchester United. If you think about it there aren't many Scottish players on any major European sides nowadays, besides Celtic and Gers if you even count them as major European sides. However. Fergie does have Darren Fletcher, a Scot, who he seems to enjoy throwing in the line up. He knows in order for Manchester United to be successful, he cant buy predominately Scottish players because in all do respect to Scotland, the players wouldn't be able to get the job done. So arguably, he has the best of the best out of Scotland with Darren Fletcher. Real Madrid have had so many managers over the last few years, most of them can't get their bags unpacked before they're sacked. That being said, they still manage to bring in some homelanders. For Example Bernd Shuster brought in Metzelder, both German. Fabio Capello brought in Cannavaro, both Italian. So there are plenty of managers to seem to be a bit biased toward their homeland, if their homeland has sufficient amount of talent. I've noticed one special case though at Chelsea. Owner, Roman Abramovich is very hands on. He is a wealthy Russian businessman. When Scolari failed to impress him and was done away with, he hired pal Gus Hiddink who was national team coach of Russia. So your saying that may be a coincidence. However, it seems a bit odd that this summer Chelsea's main signing was Yuri Zhirkov, A Russian international midfielder when the club is already loaded with midfielders. For example, Lampard, Ballack, Essien, Mikel, Belletti, Deco, and Malouda. Perhaps he's the real boss in control of what goes on at the field at Stamford Bridge. It would be a bit annoying being micromanaged if your the coach. In conclusion I believe that this phenomena contributes to why the English Premier League is currently and has been for the last couple years, the strongest league in the world.
It seems to me that coaches like a little bit of their own flavor if their flavor is good enough to be tasted. Profound, right? Rafa and Wenger come from predominately strong footballing nations so it is easy to pull form those countries. Whereas Sir Alex comes from a nation where is more difficult to find top class players, so he only pulls what he can in my eye. This has been Advanced Managerialism Course 250.
Viva el football y Hala Madrid
Over the last couple years, I've began to notice a trend. Managers, especially in the EPL, are very nationalist, if that is the correct word. They tend to search for players of their own heritage in the transfer market or players who happen to speak their same language. Is it because they feel more comfortable, can bond more with the players? Do they enjoy a sense of home comfort. Perhaps the manager has trouble explaining tactics in a certain language so exiles good player in place of players that he can communicate more clearly with. After all the better the team understands the tactics, the more efficient those tactics will be when match day rolls around. So is there a reason for the players of their homelands? I'm going to do my best from observation to come up with a hypothesis. A prime example and perhaps one of the best examples of this phenomena is Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger. He is French. Okay we have that established. I'm going to look at last season's roster of usual first teamers and give you the names of all of the French and French-speaking (African Players who speak French as a primary language) players. Here we go: Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Samir Nasri, Bacary Sagna, Gael Chichy, Alexandre Song, Emmanuel Eboue, Abou Diaby, Mickael Silvestre, and William Gallas. You could put the 10 of them on the field in whatever position you'd like, with the exception of keeper, have one to spare, and see a fluently french speaking squad on the pitch in the English Premier League. It really isn't just last year either. Of course their all time leading goal scorer, Theirry Henry who left for Barcelona a couple seasons back, is French. Patrick Viera, who has been rumoured to be perhaps on his way back to North London with the Gunners from a spell at Inter Milan, is French, and captained the infamous "Untouchables" in the 2003/2004 season with Arsenal. Okay so Arsenal has a bunch of French players and a French coach. Big Deal. Let's take a look at last year's Liverpool squad as well. It's common knowledge to know that Rafa Benitez is Spanish. So what about Spaniards and those who speak the language in his squad. It is interesting yet again. They were Fernando Torres, Javier Macherano, Alberto Rierra, Alvaro Arbeloa, Emiliano Insua, Pepe Riena, and Xabi Alonso. That's quite a number of Spaniards and players who possess the ability to speak Spanish in one English first team. And again, that's an English squad we are talking about. They obviously lead the EPL for players of this sort. It seems where ever a manager may go in his career, he wants to bring something or someone(s) with him. Early last season when Scolari ended his post as boss of Portugal and took on the roll of Chelsea manager, he scooped up two of his Portuguese national team players and brought them to the bridge, Deco and Bosingwa. Not unlike Murinho who brought Portuguese players such as Carvalho and Ferriera to West London after managing Porto to a Champions League success. Sir Alex Ferguson is Scottish. Okay so their aren't many Scottish players on Manchester United. If you think about it there aren't many Scottish players on any major European sides nowadays, besides Celtic and Gers if you even count them as major European sides. However. Fergie does have Darren Fletcher, a Scot, who he seems to enjoy throwing in the line up. He knows in order for Manchester United to be successful, he cant buy predominately Scottish players because in all do respect to Scotland, the players wouldn't be able to get the job done. So arguably, he has the best of the best out of Scotland with Darren Fletcher. Real Madrid have had so many managers over the last few years, most of them can't get their bags unpacked before they're sacked. That being said, they still manage to bring in some homelanders. For Example Bernd Shuster brought in Metzelder, both German. Fabio Capello brought in Cannavaro, both Italian. So there are plenty of managers to seem to be a bit biased toward their homeland, if their homeland has sufficient amount of talent. I've noticed one special case though at Chelsea. Owner, Roman Abramovich is very hands on. He is a wealthy Russian businessman. When Scolari failed to impress him and was done away with, he hired pal Gus Hiddink who was national team coach of Russia. So your saying that may be a coincidence. However, it seems a bit odd that this summer Chelsea's main signing was Yuri Zhirkov, A Russian international midfielder when the club is already loaded with midfielders. For example, Lampard, Ballack, Essien, Mikel, Belletti, Deco, and Malouda. Perhaps he's the real boss in control of what goes on at the field at Stamford Bridge. It would be a bit annoying being micromanaged if your the coach. In conclusion I believe that this phenomena contributes to why the English Premier League is currently and has been for the last couple years, the strongest league in the world.
It seems to me that coaches like a little bit of their own flavor if their flavor is good enough to be tasted. Profound, right? Rafa and Wenger come from predominately strong footballing nations so it is easy to pull form those countries. Whereas Sir Alex comes from a nation where is more difficult to find top class players, so he only pulls what he can in my eye. This has been Advanced Managerialism Course 250.
Viva el football y Hala Madrid
Bobby
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