I firmly believe that you don't have to have played the game at a high level to be able to manage at a high level. Coaching badges all the way up to uefa a pro licence are too easy to acquire if you are an ex pro. What took me nearly nine hard months of work for my uefa b certificate took David platt 2 weeks! There was only one reason for that. The best coaches i have worked with, ironically have never played at a good level and some of the worst i have seen have played right at the top. There is no rule to thumb for managing, just personal opinions and beliefs. First and foremost, Hughes is not a coach despite having paperwork to say otherwise. He employs a coaching network to carry out his instructions. He then manages the team through these coaches. Now back to the original question, what makes a good manager? I suppose its like many managerial positions in most walks of life. You use what resources you have available to the best of your ability, you should have good man management skills and be able to deliver and instruct precise information. If you fail to so then surely your business would falter and changes would be made. I only played semi pro at my peak but the best coach i ever had was also the worst manager I ever had. Yet at my last club the manager was superb but couldn't coach to save his life! Anyone can pick a team, instruct and apply tactics, its very simple whether it be right or wrong its only based on the results of your decisions.
A person whose initials do not contain the letters MH Being a very good ex player is no criteria or proven credential to succeed in management. History will show that great managers were often average players. We all have our calling in life.
I agree bobmid, I to played semi-pro for Fisher Athletic and Welling Utd when they were in the old confrence and finished my days at Dulwich Hamlet! I then went into management and managed teams in the the old Spartan league! again I finished my days manageing a very good Premier sunday league team winning 18 trophys in ten years, most notable was the Kent Senior Trophy at the Valley. I belive (If you got good man management skills) you can perform at any level! I can drive a Mini but I can also drive a Ferrari!
Good post. Am very interested as to your opinion regarding MH's managerial methods. Would you agree with Bob that much of this could be due to detachment and delegation to a coaching team (hope that was what was said, Bob). If so I have thought the same from day one and have long been concerned with the baggage that comes with MH starting with a Kia made in Iran.
One who gets the players playing at the best of their abilty, a great manager gets the team playing above the players combined ability. Hughes has got the players playing well below their ability, hes got them playing scared which always had bad results. the 2nd half showed how much better they were once they were unleashed.
I think MHs training methods could work at other clubs but not with our bunch of overpaid prima donnas. They're clearly not receptive to his ideas and it shows on the pitch. If he can't change personnel then he needs to adapt. Why over complicate things? Just let them play.
Living close to Fulhams training ground,and beining retired,i did, and still do watch training sessions on a regular basis. What amazed me when hughes was there he seemed very aloof,very rarely track suited,when taking training sessions. This semed to be left to his minnions,with the likes of our regular coaches Ray lewington,etc taking orders 3rd hand. I must say there is a dramatic change under Martin Jol,a track suited manager,whose staff seem to know what to do without looking over their shoulder for instant aproval. The majority of our fans were well pleased when Hughes departed,a tallentless,money grabing egotist, and thank god he took some of the disruptive ellements with him. QPR has allways my second team,it is so sad, that between the owners and managers a right cock up is being made.
Thanks for writing that, it confirms to a certain extent what Bob had hinted at. We need rid of this parasite on our club asap.
A good manager has sent out a team prepared and with the tools in hand to carry out the clear goals and objectives. They are so well prepared with a captain on the field that is the manager's on field mouth piece that should the plan not quite working out, that they then know instinctively how to react. As the last resort the Manager then knows how to change things from the bench. The good Manager is someone everyone looks up to, listens to and respects. The good Manager is someone the player's will go through rings of fire for. The good Manager will laways take the blame himself in public and certainly will not give any public dressing downs. I'd like to have a Manager like that for the rrrrrs.
Amazing that we have pretty conclusive views on MH on this board yet TF still maintains he is one of the best managers around. And this guy runs our club. F*** me we're in for a rough ride.
I really don't think TF has much choice. He was so blinded by getting Hughes in that he thought I've got myself the real deal so I'll pay anything and not worry abouth the small print. He now realises that this guy is not the real deal and it's going to cost a fortune in both money and reputation to kick him out. You've got to also remember that I haven't heard one pundit seriously even intimate that we are in danger, on the contrary they too are saying all this team needs is a win, injuries, too much class blah,blah. I'm sure in his position I would also not be too willing to pull the trigger. It makes me respect Flavio even more that he couldn't give a toss, fired when he thought it right. His only problem was no due diligence in hiring until Warnock came along.
"Mark, sei fuori!" (if only) [video=youtube;Dyvq8p-vzmE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyvq8p-vzmE[/video]
IMO a good coach improves what he's got whereas a good manager gets the best out of the existing talent pool. Is there anyone in the club who has improved in the last 10 months? Is there anyone who is playing to their best?
Taarabt has improved but thats about it, nearly everyone else has got worse and the overall team play is horrendous.
Great bit of fantasy writing there mate. There's probably only 3-4 managers in the world like that and unfortunately we're not quite in the top 4 clubs in the world yet! Maybe mourinho fancies another challenge in London?! We can but dream Danish. You should forward this to TF's twitter account, as all of us on here must agree with this definition.....
We have at least six excellent players, the manager's job is make to sure the others do things simply and don't **** up. They are the water carriers and shouldn't delude themselves, Fergie maybe a drunken twat but he makes this very clear to his teams. Park was one of his water carriers, a good one. Taarabt, Granero and Diakite are as good a midfield three as any in the country. Everything should be built around that.
Good idea for thread subject Bob. In short, you can see MH's aloof and remote style of 'management' from miles away. It's the suit, the coaching team, the facial expression, the whole package. He lives on a track record that has taken in three clubs having done reasonably well and an international posting. That all started with his rep and status as a player at some of the biggest clubs. His 'qualification' for a management position in the game was his contacts, together with the fact he'd been managed by some of the more successful managers in the business. In summary a professional manager in the real world needs to be able to cope in any environment. This requires at minimum, budgetary (quality for price), leadership, responsibility, accountability, initiative, problem solving and decision making skills in abundance as well as an array of communications competences and up to date legal awareness in the appropriate areas. Most senior managers will also have training (i.e. coaching) skills incorporating programme writing, session organisation and delivery, and individual assessment and scoring. However, all managers, both in football and the rest of the world, need to have the confidence of their superiors to get the job done on a daily and overall developmental basis. For senior managers that means the ability to continuously satisfy the demands etc. of their employers. Employers though are a mixed bag of fruit: some possess all the pro management skills themselves and plug into systems well - but most don't care how you achieve the necessary as long as long as it doesn't get them into trouble and they can see a continuous return on their investment. So good managers tend to be the more able, responsible, responsive and creative end of a spectrum that starts at a basic supervisory (tick the boxes) level. So you're right in distinguishing between top players and top managers. There's nothing to say that one leads to another. They're completely different skill-sets in completely different worlds. So is Hughes a manager in every sense of the word? Not from what I can see, he's more of a businessman running a management company where he buys the skills in and oversees the product. Is he a fraud, as I think you're either asking or suggesting? No, not if he's getting the required results. However, the fact that he isn't is material - and the only reason we're talking about it here and now.
