Football Managers

[Southport Red]

Before I start, this is a dig at NO ONE.

The thought occurred to me that no one in football ever appointed a team manager who is actually a MANAGER. You know what I mean. In the real world, professional managers exist (many are awful) but the best ones know how to get inside their employee's heads and motivate them. They know who to shout at (and when) and who to put an arm around (and when). Moreover, the best managers in commerce are often ones who di NOT 'Play the game' when younger. I mean that I have worked with many companies who take their best sales man and make him (or her) the Sales Manager - often they are awful, they think because they can do it EVERYONE can do it, they also tend to think that there are only two ways of doing things, their way and the wrong way. As a consequence, they are often very difficult to work for and often fail to get the best from their teams. The good ones know that they are stuck with the resources they have (they cannot sell bad employees and just buy new good ones), they have to make do, get the best performances they can out of what they have.

My question is this. Given that there are skilled coaches out there in abundance, why do football managers ALWAYS have to be ex-players? Why doesn't a team hire ex-players as coaches but hire as a manager someone who is not an ex-player but rather someone whose skills are in man management, motivation and organisation etc.

As I say, not having a dig at anyone, just wondered why teams only ever appoint ex players, perhaps it's time someone appointed a real professional MANAGER.

What do you think?

Would it work?

If not, why not?

[Chivs]

I understand your point but think that the main issue with your suggestion is that "football managers" are not managers at all.

For sure, a football manager should "manage" his or her staff with the techniques that you have outlined.

However, in Britain at least, managers are also coaches, and scouts, and youth assessors etc.

They have a multitude of roles, the least of which is "putting an arm around the poor neglected centre forward".

On the continent they like to have a Director of Football who "manages" the scouting and player assessment roles. I don't know whether they also have a first team coach and a "first team hugger/shouter"??

All of these roles do seem distinct to me and could be managed by three people.