Premier League Nonsense

No one ever said being a football manager was easy but given the 24/7 coverage the game receives these days the pressure is only increasing.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary results and success are somehow expected as a right at certain clubs and the idea that a manager is given time to imprint his own style on the club seems quaint and old fashioned.

Chelsea of course spring to mind. Spoilt by the incredible success they enjoyed under Jose Mourinho and the riches of owner Roman Abramovich the days of famine back in the 1970s and 1980s have been forgotten.

Andre Villas Boas is the latest incumbent to feel the impatience of the Chelsea support. After seven months the club aren’t top of the table, aren’t unbeaten and aren’t guaranteed a place in the next round of the European Champions League. To the new breed of fan who never saw relegation or 8,000 crowds at a Stamford Bridge more famous for the thuggish element among their support this is nothing short of absolute failure and AVB must be disposed of as soon as possible.

Seven months. Every decision he takes, every team selection, every substitution he makes is examined under the microscope of social and old media with hasty conclusions reached after circular arguments have echoed round cyber space. The managers of course, including AVB, profess to take no notice of the media and it’s easy to see why not but the Portuguese manager must be wondering why he is getting all this flack after just seven months in the job.

Up in North London Arsene Wenger is on course for a seventh successive season without any trophies and it is only now, after the traditional February collapse, that the discontent is making a few ripples. Frustration has building for a few years now with the Frenchman and his apparent stubbornness and reluctance to spend money but he can, rightly point to Chelsea, and indeed Liverpool, and ask if big spending does guarantee success.

In Indonesia coach Daniel Roekito might well ponder that sentiment. His Persisam side boasts two of the top strikers in the country, Christian Gonzales and Yongki Aribowo yet the goals refused to flow and he was replaced last week having lost three home games.

He may well look wistfully up the road to near neighbours Mitra Kukar where their English coach, Simon McMenemy, was thought to be under ‘evaluation’, the local equivalent of the English vote of confidence, following a defeat away to PSPS Pekanbaru, a place where traditionally visiting teams have struggled.

The club eventually decided to bide their time and team have responded with five wins out of their last seven games climbing to third place in the Indonesia Super League.

Time and patience are the best gifts a football club can give to their manager or coach. Had Manchester United acted rashly during the early days of Sir Alex Ferguson’s career there is a high likelihood he would never have been knighted. Success was slow to arrive at Old Trafford and it was widely believed it was only success in the FA Cup final back in 1990 when a late winner from Mark Robins ended their trophy drought that kept Ferguson from being told to clear his desk. And that came three and a half years after his appointment.

How Andre Villas Boas must be wishing for some of that patience!

(First appeared in Jakarta Globe)

# posted by Me @ 5:46 PM