[Archived] Attributes of a good Premier League manager

[m1st]

My link

This was on The Guardian's sports blog earlier this week, following Warnock's sacking. The author had spoken to a player who'd played for Warnock at another club who said,

he doesn't do tactics. He admits that. He's a motivator.

The author of the blog then went on to wonder if it is possible to succeed in the top flight without having tactical know-how.

Which, in turn, made me wonder what people on this Board felt would be the best attributes of a successful Premier League manager?

[bob fleming]

Tactician and motivator. Honesty and integrity. The ability to instill belief, launch a rocket up their backsides when necessary and yet be sympathetic on occasion. A Man manager. All that and more. Experience would help as well. Done it all before elsewhere at the highest level either as a manager or a player would help. Must be able to command respect from the players. The ability to spot a good player and not to buy rubbish for the sake of it, there is no room for favours and your squad will know what is going on.

Grey hair and a Welsh accent and an ex Blackburn Rovers player and manager also a bonus I'd suggest. Oh well.

[purplegrover]

Take the good things, sure, but also be prepared to concede the poor things. Don't gild everything in a silver lining to make yourself look good. The fans will see through it.

In the post match interview, be prepared to say things like "Yep, we played very poorly today, and made a number of mistakes which I'll be going through with the lads and trying to patch up. We may think about shuffling some players around, but we'll see how we go in training. There are no excuses for a performance like that."

Being a motivational speaker by trade means that you instictively always emphasis the positive, which makes Kean sound like he's delivering a self improvement seminar after every match, even when we were atrocious. It's not a self improvement seminar. It's real football, warts and all. The fans know that. We've watched the game too!

[Amo]

Pointing.

[thenodrog]

My link

This was on The Guardian's sports blog earlier this week, following Warnock's sacking. The author had spoken to a player who'd played for Warnock at another club who said,

The author of the blog then went on to wonder if it is possible to succeed in the top flight without having tactical know-how.

Which, in turn, made me wonder what people on this Board felt would be the best attributes of a successful Premier League manager?

Suprised you need to ask m1st. Man manager without a doubt. We've had two who can and two who can't in the past 8 years or so. SAF's weakness is poor tactics (plus he wouldn't know a good keeper if he fell over one) but his players would walk through fire for the club.

Tactical awareness is icing on the cake.

Anyway why do you want to know? It's virtually irrelevent now.

[Mattyblue]

Kenny and Harford, now Kenny and Clarke.

A man manager/motivator with a quality coach. You also need the ability to think on your feet during games.

We have Steve Kean and Ian Brunskill.

[Maps]

wenger

[jannerman]

I'm a manager, granted, not a football one, but my own department. Have been in and around management for years and I know one glaring thing.

Being mates with your "team" does you no favors.

I have had disagreements in my current role with some of our managers who do just that - and they suffer a complete and utter lack of respect from their staff - now I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I'm a stand-off, keep the discipline kind of guy and my department ticks over in my absence.

Seems to me that the more friendly you are with "the troops" the harder it is for them to follow instructions (especially when you're not there) - if Kean was a player/manager I could see how his kind of approach might work - but all the reports I've heard are that he's mates with a good few of the team.

Now contrast that with the rumors of fines, suspensions, and the like, and he's going to suffer a backlash from players who used to think he was their mate and now think he's a ****

I might not be popular in my office, but then that's not my job, if I wanted to be popular I'd get a job as one of the boys.

Put simply the first rule (imo) is that you have to make sure everyone who works/plays for you respects your authority - but I think you have to treat people fairly.

I would hate to have to manage a group of people who are incredibly well-paid, it must be really easy to let effort drop and become complacent as you'd still be getting your £20,000 a week or so!

Unfortunately Keans missed the boat due to the fact he was a coach at Rovers previously, it's so hard to change.

So to stop this becoming an even longer rant I think the attributes required are;

- Top people management skills / the ability to garner respect and to set the tone/make people understand you are the boss

- Being able to accept a deficiency and cover it off - if there's gaps in knowledge then get extra people in to help that - form your own high-level team

- Creating a structure and sticking to it - classic reward model, motivate by something other than cash bonuses - adds to the respect/authority

- Motivation - has to be a big part of things, we all suffer highs and lows, euphoria and depression, I have been lucky to work with some great people over the years, and the ones I usually pay most attention to are the ones that know their stuff (or at least don't talk endless amounts of BS) that in itself helps me to be motivated. But a football team? They'll be on the floor after a loss, or in some cases won't care, you need to pick them up, dust them off, install confidence/interest and push on - but not be scared to accentuate the negatives.

- Analysis - stuff goes wrong all of the time, but how much time is spent analyzing? I've heard about prozone and the like (wasn't Sam big on that?) think that's something that needs looking at - perhaps looking at the negative stuff the day after a match - regardless of results, even a big win (sure we'll get a few in the fizzy pop league next season won't we??) might yield some problems that need analyzing. Then likewise before the next match, plan, plan, etc...

- Tactical nous - big big thing here - I've been involved in some takeovers (some hostile) and you'd be amazed at how naieve some "top" businessmen are - it's the nearest thing I can associate to actual football tactics, but big moves can be made by identifying weak points and exploiting them - if you don't have the skill refer to point 2!

- Eye for detail - nuff said

- And perhaps a fan. Maybe not a fan of the team being managed, but an actual football fan, so you can get into the mindset of the clubs fans - I don't think Kean even likes football, how can he?!

Ok, stopping there.....that'd get you started I reckon - and I take back what I said - I'd love to have a go!!