You said in this country we're obsessed with managers having been top professionals - which I took as you inferring that managers don't have to have been the best players to be the best managers. I agree somewhat - Houllier - but just looking at our own managers, the best have also been good to excellent players as well.
By top player, I meant top player to the level they start managing at. Monk was at Sawnsea and therefore got the Swansea job. Kenny with Liverpool. Shearer with Newcastle. Etc... Others such as old 'Arry got a foot in the door having played for a lesser club. We don't see too many none players become decent managers. Nor do we see too many ex-pros worrying their way up the ranks nowadays either. Basically, being a ex-pro helps them get a for in the door when in reality its got next to nothing to do with a managerial role. Ex-pros get tge easy route which is another way of saying 'cut corners'
I actually think being an ex player helps in a managerial role because they know the pressures and everything that goes with performing well. In any walk of life it's good to know your boss has done your job as well so understands where you're coming from and somehow has more credibility when in the boss's role.. I also agree that just having been a player shouldn't open doors at a level you're not really qualified for, Barnes proved that although he hardly got much of a chance to prove himself.
Suppose it's just like their rule on foreign youth players being classed as home grown when they've been in English football for 3 seasons or more?
Come to think of it. Rodgers isn't British either. He's from NI, which makes it complicated but he's from Catholic family NI and they go Irish not British.
Tbf he wasnt accepted by the Celtic mafia(ex-players etc), not racial but he wasn't part of the "Celtic way", but yeah the Inver Cali result was the final nail in his coffin at Celtic. Kenny took over from him until the end of that season and won the Scottish League Cup.
Tut tut..we don't all blindly follow the bigots attempts at pigeon holing peoples ideas of national identity or poltical views based on which church we go to: ....or in the case of 55% of the NI population don't go at all. That's sooo 1970's!,
I actually think Rodgers deserves better. Villa are a mess and it is not all down to poor management. I reckon he will go abroad next.
Very true, I remember watching the game in which he broke it, absolutely terrible and yeah any team would have missed the great player that Henrik was. Celtic did to Digger what we did to Woy so we can't take the moral high ground.
Too many ****e British managers because the 'experts' who train and develop them at all these fancy conferences and meetings at St Georges Park (What a waste of money that was) are also ****e. How many genuinely top drawer British managers have there been in the last 15 years? At least Rodgers had the sense to go abroad and learn all he could from around Europe, but he needs to either go back there for a while or work back through to a big team. Villa would be a mistake imo.
