Post by QPR Report on Oct 22, 2009 6:40:01 GMT
The Guardian/Kevin Mitchell
Football managers remain trapped in the cult of crisisThe demands for success are such that managers know the day they arrive at a club is merely the beginning of the end
It is a vintage time for the cult of the crisis, one of football's entertaining idiocies. We are not yet through October, and Gareth Southgate has gone to the gallows, Rafael Benítez is being led to the tumbril by a slavering mob of media sans-culottes and José Mourinho is watching his back in Milan with all the paranoia of a double-crossed mafia boss.
Sir Alex Ferguson, meanwhile, rumbles not so merrily along, his tongue as sharp as ever, his position more secure than any manager in the game, his team the most settled and convincing. Manchester United could lose to Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday and it would be an irritant to football's most irritable boss, certainly, but in the bigger picture a mere hiccup at a banquet where he always feasts well.
Apart from the earliest rocky days, it is hard to recall a moment in the 23 years Ferguson has been at Old Trafford when he has been even remotely in danger of being handed his P45. At least some of that is down to the power of his presence.
For Benítez, defeat on Sunday would bring down on him the most horrendous opprobrium to go with the steady stream of disillusion that has accompanied his team's four defeats on the bounce, none more painful than Tuesday night's to Lyon. Some of this is justified: in five years, Benítez has never convinced supporters he is Ferguson's equal. His fleeting successes have come in extraordinary fightbacks, rather than as the inevitable conclusion to a brilliant campaign.
Their contrasting situations reflect the perception we have of them. It is a measure of their differences, reflected in their personalities and demeanour. If Benítez were a town, he would be Slough. Ferguson is London, Paris and New York rolled into one.
Still, Benítez has operated in circumstances of lingering financial uncertainty with a squad often stripped of its creative core in Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, while giving all the impression of being manned at the back by Nikolai Valuev cut-outs.
But that's football, a business permanently in the grip of unreasonable expectations. The demands for success are so persistent and impatient that managers know the day they arrive at a club is merely the beginning of the end. Very few avoid the knife of faltering chairmen. Benítez does not need reminding that he will last only as long as the owners hold their nerve.
Mourinho ought to be equally worried, but does not seem to be. He has Ferguson's swagger, perhaps all the way to an exit from Europe. Internazionale's 2-2 home draw with Dynamo Kyiv on Tuesday meant they have won only twice in 11 starts in the Champions League under the occasionally Special One. They will qualify in the most even of the eight groups, he says, and all will be well.
You believe him. Mourinho has the imperious bearing of a man meant to conquer. It is his destiny. There is no such confidence in Benítez, whose defensive nature and seemingly cold relationship with several of his players gives the impression of constant despair, and that surely translates itself to his team.
Ah, the lost dressing room, that carelessly guarded place that goes missing when the wins dry up, when the agents start agitating, and the fans gather at the gates. While Southgate had not misplaced his dressing room, he has, it seems, paid the price for losing nearly half his audience. Middlesbrough drew 17,459 customers to watch them beat Derby this week, the lowest yet at the Riverside this season, placing them 19th in the fan loyalty table, with their 58% occupancy rate looking like a bad weekend at Fawlty Towers.
If Steve Gibson, one of football's more understanding chairmen, really did sack Southgate because the power of his personality was not enough to inspire fans and keep the coffers full, then football is going down another weird cul-de-sac. They'll be wanting them to go on Strictly Come Dancing next.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/oct/22/gareth-southgate-middlesbrough-sacked
Football managers remain trapped in the cult of crisisThe demands for success are such that managers know the day they arrive at a club is merely the beginning of the end
It is a vintage time for the cult of the crisis, one of football's entertaining idiocies. We are not yet through October, and Gareth Southgate has gone to the gallows, Rafael Benítez is being led to the tumbril by a slavering mob of media sans-culottes and José Mourinho is watching his back in Milan with all the paranoia of a double-crossed mafia boss.
Sir Alex Ferguson, meanwhile, rumbles not so merrily along, his tongue as sharp as ever, his position more secure than any manager in the game, his team the most settled and convincing. Manchester United could lose to Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday and it would be an irritant to football's most irritable boss, certainly, but in the bigger picture a mere hiccup at a banquet where he always feasts well.
Apart from the earliest rocky days, it is hard to recall a moment in the 23 years Ferguson has been at Old Trafford when he has been even remotely in danger of being handed his P45. At least some of that is down to the power of his presence.
For Benítez, defeat on Sunday would bring down on him the most horrendous opprobrium to go with the steady stream of disillusion that has accompanied his team's four defeats on the bounce, none more painful than Tuesday night's to Lyon. Some of this is justified: in five years, Benítez has never convinced supporters he is Ferguson's equal. His fleeting successes have come in extraordinary fightbacks, rather than as the inevitable conclusion to a brilliant campaign.
Their contrasting situations reflect the perception we have of them. It is a measure of their differences, reflected in their personalities and demeanour. If Benítez were a town, he would be Slough. Ferguson is London, Paris and New York rolled into one.
Still, Benítez has operated in circumstances of lingering financial uncertainty with a squad often stripped of its creative core in Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, while giving all the impression of being manned at the back by Nikolai Valuev cut-outs.
But that's football, a business permanently in the grip of unreasonable expectations. The demands for success are so persistent and impatient that managers know the day they arrive at a club is merely the beginning of the end. Very few avoid the knife of faltering chairmen. Benítez does not need reminding that he will last only as long as the owners hold their nerve.
Mourinho ought to be equally worried, but does not seem to be. He has Ferguson's swagger, perhaps all the way to an exit from Europe. Internazionale's 2-2 home draw with Dynamo Kyiv on Tuesday meant they have won only twice in 11 starts in the Champions League under the occasionally Special One. They will qualify in the most even of the eight groups, he says, and all will be well.
You believe him. Mourinho has the imperious bearing of a man meant to conquer. It is his destiny. There is no such confidence in Benítez, whose defensive nature and seemingly cold relationship with several of his players gives the impression of constant despair, and that surely translates itself to his team.
Ah, the lost dressing room, that carelessly guarded place that goes missing when the wins dry up, when the agents start agitating, and the fans gather at the gates. While Southgate had not misplaced his dressing room, he has, it seems, paid the price for losing nearly half his audience. Middlesbrough drew 17,459 customers to watch them beat Derby this week, the lowest yet at the Riverside this season, placing them 19th in the fan loyalty table, with their 58% occupancy rate looking like a bad weekend at Fawlty Towers.
If Steve Gibson, one of football's more understanding chairmen, really did sack Southgate because the power of his personality was not enough to inspire fans and keep the coffers full, then football is going down another weird cul-de-sac. They'll be wanting them to go on Strictly Come Dancing next.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/oct/22/gareth-southgate-middlesbrough-sacked
