I think I noted in our Premier League preview that this is a season of young managers. Brendan Rogers, Andre Villas Boas, Roberto Di Matteo, Chris Hughton, Steve Clarke, Nigel Adkins, Michael Laudrup, Paul Lambert
These are bold appointments by clubs who want more than a short-term fix. They are carefully chosen appointments that represent a desire for vision, for values, for long-term planning and for connecting the club with a style of football. Look at all the above names. Each is a relatively young, dynamic manager who believes in playing football the right way. Some are more pragmatic than others - Lambert often overtly tailors his tactics to suit his opposition - but as a group they represent a new breed of coach that aims not only to win, but to win in style.
They are competent managers, but they will need time to get things right. So far, Clarke, Di Matteo and Laudrup have made dream starts with West Brom, Chelsea and Swansea, but harder times will surely come. Meanwhile, those hard times are already upon Adkins, Lambert, Rogers and Villas Boas.
What must be understood is the size of the job facing them. While there is perhaps a little less pressure and expectation on the others, Rogers and Villas Boas have been under the microscope from the second they walked in the doors at their respective clubs. Their signings were judged before kicking a ball, as were their tactics ("AVB likes to play a high line, but none of his centre backs are gazelles so it won't work!" "Rogers likes his defenders to pass out from the back but one of Carragher's legs is a cannon! It won't work!").
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| Spurs' new back four? |
There were boos at White Hart Lane when Spurs left the field after drawing 1-1 with Norwich. A short way into Liverpool's first home game of the season, there were chants for Kenny Dalglish. Admittedly, the perpetrators of these egregious vocal absurdities were a minority - but football is going that way. One only needs look at twitter or the blogosphere after a game or tune into football phone-ins to hear idiotic, uninformed and utterly fickle short-termism.
Brendan Rogers has to impose a completely new style of play on a team that have no recent history of silky football, with an incomplete squad, inadequate funding and club owners who freely admit to not knowing much about football. He will need time, and the Liverpool faithful need to give it to him. They got Benitez sacked. They got Hodgson sacked. They are a powerful force, and they need to use their power for good, for once.
Andre Villas Boas also has to impose his own style on Tottenham while re-shaping a squad and attempting to integrate five players (Lloris, Vertonghen, Dembele, Dempsey, Sigurddson) that were not at the club last season. He will have to do so while keeping Spurs in the fight for the top four, and without Joao Moutinho - the signing he so desperately wanted to orchestrate his vision from midfield.
Both of these are huge projects, and both will require time and serious patience. Chelsea and Manchester City have shown that with a bottomless pit of money and the right manager, success can be bought with relative ease. For all the other clubs that aren't funded by the oligarchs Gorbachev left behind or Middle-Eastern oil wealth, the road to success is a long one.
I shouldn't need to remind anyone that Sir Alex Ferguson took a long time by today's standards to make Manchester United successful. Arsenal may not have won anything in some years but objectively they are one of the most successful clubs in Europe and that is down to the consistency of their manager. Everton have been punching above their financial weight for years because David Moyes has been left alone to do a wonderful job.
The longest serving managers in the league are the best managers in the league, by a long way. That is no coincidence.
