The conclusion to this football season has left me with an uneasy feeling that I don't think I can totally put down to the prospect of no meaningful games for a couple of months. I think it has more to do with what I previously thought of as absolute truths about managers turning out not to be so absolutely true.
1. Fans will always love a successful manager
I first became aware that this was not always so right back at the start of the season. A few weeks after Rangers had played in the UEFA Cup final and come so close to an unprecedented quadruple, a small but vocal group of fans were calling for the head of Walter Smith after an admittedly appalling failed attempt to qualify for the Champions League. Apparently reaching said European final, winning seven league titles and numerous other trophies, and rebuilding the team into a solid unit post le Guen had won him no credit with which he could buy time with the fans should there be any setbacks.
And come the end of the season we have seen the departures of Messrs Strachan and Calderwood with supporters of their former clubs shedding very few tears for either. Never mind that the former was the most successful manager of the club since Jock Stein, and the latter had qualified for Europe almost as consistently as he had to sell his best players. As far as I can see Strachan's biggest crime was that he wasn't a "Celtic man" (whatever that is), and Calderwood was destroying the mental health of the Aberdeen fans with the style of football they were playing.
2. A manager who has qualified for Europe will celebrate wildly on the pitch while one who has just avoided relegation will quietly go on holiday
On Sunday afternoon Hull manager Phil Brown lead the Hull supporters in an impromptu karaoke session after avoiding relegation on the final day of the season. Now don't get me wrong, they deserve to be happy and keeping Hull in the EPL is a fine achievement, but I thought after the way the season ended their manager might be a bit more dignified in marking the moment. Especially as they were probably the worst team in the league over the last two or three months and made no attempt to get the point that would have guaranteed safety, choosing instead to rely Newcastle not scoring at Villa Park.
It's made worse when you look at the two best managers in the EPL this season, Roy Hodgson and David Moyes. Both qualified for Europe against all odds. I had Fulham down as relegation favourites at the start of the season after their great escape last year, and Everton had no fit forwards for a good part of the season.
Phil Brown could learn a lot by looking at how these two men handle themselves.
3. There will be no arguing with the achievements of the best paid man in football
Jose Mourinho has just been handed a new contract worth £13M -£15M per year. This is despite having two years left on his current deal and failing at the QF stage of the Champions League, surely the absolute minimum achievement for any big club in Europe. He's also signed some right duffers!
Football's gone all wrong. It needs fixed.
IPM
1 comment:
It's depressing when you're right.
1. You back up my increasingly prominent view that football fans, in general, are morons. If Rangers had blown the title on Sunday, imagine the pressure Wattie would have been under.
There are Aberdeen fans who tell me they'd rather finish 8th and play pretty football than 4th like they did under JC. I look forward to seeing if that is true.
2. Phil Brown will have left Hull by Xmas. I can't see him attracting good players in the summer and the squad he currently has are relgation fodder next year.
3. I'm not sure Mourinho's "duffers" rate is any worse than Arsene Wenger's (eg Francis Jeffers and Jose Reyes) or Sir Alex's (eg Juan Veron and Kleberson, plus possibly Berbatov?), but like Ibrahimovic at Inter, he is getting ridiculous money for modest achievements. Serie A is crap just now though; Inter, like the Old Firm in Scotland, are a class above the rest of the domestic scene but don't get to test themselves against quality regularly enough to better themselves.
I could get used to this whole commenting thing, I really could!
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