Terracist

From Pork to Paella and back again

If Premier League managers held dinner parties, the chances are that for the last few years, the menu would have been more paella and pasta than fillet pork or grilled pheasant. For a period who’s legacy still defines a large proportion of the managerial sect within the English footballing elite, the idea of appointing and English manager came a distant second to plumping for a foreign head coach.

in 1996, Arsenal appointed Arsene Wenger, a man who had managed only one major club before at Monaco, and with little success in his eight seasons in the principality. A season in the footballing winderness with Nagoya Grampus was the calm before a phenomenal success in his twelve seasons thus far at the north London giants.

And it was this appointment which lit the touch-paper. Arsenal’s first foreign manager was soon followed with Liverpool’s first in another Frenchman, and more clubs followed - favouring coaches with international experience over those who had been long on the rota within the domestic game.

The reasons for these sort of appointments are compelling. The English game, circa 1998 was a fairly generic affair. The English style of play was omnipresent, and a different tact was seen as a competitive advantage in a league where the margins of victory were incredibly slim. With the likes of Wenger, Houllier, Gullit (and Christian Gross, if you insist) came a footballing culture alien to the tradition-burdened English game, which had changed little in it’s structure since the 1960s. A new professionalism, and all-encompassing training ideology soon began to replace the English style of man management. Gone were the days of a clubs star centre-half indulging in 5 pints in the VIP bar after a game.

But all of that would appear to be changing. A nostalgic football fan would gaze at the likes of Roy Hodgson and Joe Kinnear on Match of the Day and think that football was going back to it’s roots, and beginning to become dominated again by Englishmen off the pitch, if not on it. And perhaps in that statement lies a hint to the reason for these types of appointments.

The English game has benefited enormously from the influx of foreign managers, coaches and players. Our leagues have never been so professional, or produced such a high quality of football as they do now, and this is precisely because we have called on talent and knowledge from across the globe, borrowing the best of footballing culture from Europe, South America and beyond. But with that culture now at one with our own game, there is less pressure on Chairmen to reach out and find something new. Within British clubs a culture of professionalism and the all-round approach to management now exist, and that runs through the management, coaches and playing staff of all clubs.

With that in mind, there can be a refocus in the recruitment process, where a decade ago it was about bringing in a culture - it is now far more important to bring in real man managers, people proven at getting the best out of groups of players.

Roy Hodgson in particular is a man renowned for getting brilliance out of mediocre groups of players, down not to any sort of radical, continental thinking, but because he is able to inspire and manage players better than most.

Kinnear of course is only temporarily in charge of the loon army, but I take his appoint as a signal of this shift back towards British Managers in the top flight. It’s something I think we’re likely to see more of in the coming years. Whether that is in the form of more spectacular comebacks - cue Ron Atkinson, Howard Wilkinson and Kenny Dalgleish - or in the form of more, as yet untried British managers in the top flight, the overarching result has to be positive for the English game.

Those who follow football outside of the Premier League will extoll (quite rightly) the virtues of Gary Johnson, a man who has served his managerial apprenticeship with the Latvian national team, Yeovil and now Britsol City. It is this type of manager who I would expect to start being seriously considered for top flight jobs.

Our period of education at the hands of foreign managers may be drawing to a close, and having adopting training methods, playing styles and dietary ideals, the English game is in it’s best ever shape. But now, and for the foreseeable future, it is back to the old school of management, where a manager is a presence in the dressing room, and a figure of respect in the boardroom, and everywhere in between.

In twenty years time, we might just be lucky enough to produce another Clough, Ferguson or Shankly. Only this time round he'll need to speak six languages to give the same sort of teamtalks which 'old big head' was famous for.

This post was added on September 29th, 2008 and currently has 0 Comments it is filed under: england