Who'd be a football manager?

A couple of years ago my brother in law had a mock newspaper front page made up for me as a birthday gift, claiming that I was about to be installed as the new West Ham manager. Now that the situation has indeed become vacant I'm now waiting on the phone call! This week has seen two high profile premiership managers resign from management, Alan Curbishley from West Ham and Kevin Keegan from Newcastle and there seems to be more than one common denominator here. Both clubs have recently had a change of ownership which brings with it a change of strategies and ideas and most controversially both clubs now employing a European idea of a director of football. Both managers have cited that transfer decisions were made without their knowledge and that the creation of a director of football role has left them feeling undermined and powerless. Both managers are also now being portrayed as liars by their respective ex-employers although Curbishley's exit seems to have been cleaner and he seems to have left with his dignity intact.

Could this be the death of old school football management? Where the role of a D.O.F. could work, is as a link between the boardroom and the dressing room leaving the manager free to manage. However there has to be a link & common ground between the D.O.F. and manager when it comes to transfers. There is no point buying & selling players that the manager has not agreed to. Managers tend to be judged on their transfers as much as results and although Curbishley scored low in this department, you don't want a situation like Martin Jol at Spurs who lost his job after a string of transfers that he did not authorise. Curbishley was under pressure to sell before he could buy, partly because of the spending spree authorised by the previous chairman Eggbert Magnusson, but how much money will have been saved now that Curbishley will now need to be paid off? and was this just a ploy all along by the board to keep money back for the next transfer window and the next manager? Which makes you believe that Curbishley was a dead man walking, a victim of a behind the scenes re-shuffle rather than a lack of attractive football, which was also a problem with the fans.

So what of the future? Both clubs have seen ownership transfer to out of area investors, rich men who are in this to make money, Mike Ashley in particular looks to now be trying to sell the club on at a profit (which ironically could see the return of King Kev. for a fourth time) and neither club has invested the millions needed to compete with the bigger clubs. The D.O.F. role still needs to be defined, at the three clubs that have employed this, West Ham, Newcastle & Tottenham it has been a disaster and whoever the new managers are will need to identify the boundaries and who exactly is in charge.

Should I get that call, I will make Ray Winstone my number two, should be good for those motavitional team talks!



Now who's the Daddy? ......