The recent rumours about Everton just got me thinking about this: If you were a football manager looking for a club, which of the following would influence your decision ? And, given a free choice, which club would you like to be manager of ? The only exclusion to your choice is Watford. a) A big club, hoping for a big wage and the chance of working with the World's best players. b) A sleeping giant. c) A smaller club where the expectations are not so high, and where the fans end up loving you. d) A club located in a place where you would like to live. e) A club which has some emotional connection to yourself. f) A club where you like the ownership structure or the fan base.
C or F would be mine. As the owners can make it difficult sometimes plus good to have low expectations and fans on your side. Given my record of 0 games it'd be helpful during a rough transition period from the unknown to soon te be sacked and on the footballing scrapheap. I'd also like a supply of fine china for use in half-time / full-time team talks. Unlimited tea cups would be the only unnegotiable thing to be put in my contract.
Celtic you only have to win the league and do ok in there cups .The wages will not be great but you will be in a job for much longer .Players want to come and play for you as they know they will win silverware and will play in Europe every year.
I'm already head coach at a club that satisfies c, d and f. Everton think that they are b but I've turned them down. Oops! I think I've blown my cover.
Hmm massive club on a huge wage - if they sack me I get a huge pay-off I doubt it would hurt my reputation too much, and I could probably just walk into a medium-sized club... or just retire! Joking-aside... I do think a smaller side but with ambitious owners who will back you in the market, with a fan-base that is generally realistic and knows it won't happen overnight (a bit like Watford to be honest), maybe like a Brighton
What a good question. I suspect that many of us here would have our thoughts influenced by the GT/SEJ partnership. The chance to build a small club to one that competes in the top division certainly has an appeal. GT told SEJ that it would cost him a £Million to rise to the top, but in the current climate that would not pay the bills for very long even in the lower levels of the league. So the structure of football has moved on, but the chance to prove your worth and also become loved by thousands of fans has to be the route I would choose.
A) I can ignore this one - of the 10 richest clubs I detest all of them apart from Liverpool and Barcelona. I wouldn't want to live in Liverpool, and at Barcelona it might be expected that I wear poncy suits (like Pep), and live an upgrade lifestyle which is not suited to my rustic manners Besides which there is too much pressure at Barca - so I will have to decline their offer ! Anyway it doesn't make any difference to me whether I earn 3,000 a week or 30,000, I always say that the richest man on this planet is the one with the cheapest enjoyments. B) Weeds or the Florists ? This has to be a joke. It could have been Sheff. Utd but they're on their way up anyway. Birmingham ? Don't want to live there either. C) Taunton Town FC. ? No reason they can't be as big as Yeovil - friendly town (but mostly cricket fans), but could run into my ex wife too often down there. D) Bella Italia ! Only problem is that many of their fan bases are semi Fascist, Lazio, Fiorentina etc. So maybe not - Benfica ? Lisbon is one of the nicest cities in Europe and you only have to finish above Sporting and Porto to be a hero. A bit like Celtic really, you always have European football. E) My second team overall, and my favourite European club, having lived in Haarlem before moving to Krautland. Ajax Amsterdam - expectations have gone down a lot in recent years so that now you only have to beat Feyenoord and you should be ok ! Permanent European football (apart from this season) - still got a great youth scheme but they leave the club at 18 now rather than 26 as in the past. This is what I would change there - any youth academy product should agree to spend their first 4-5 years at the club before moving on. F) Managing a fan owned club eg. Exeter City (nice location as well) has an appeal. Just like a cult club with left wing fans such as St. Pauli, Standard Liege or Clapton FC. Otherwise I could be manager of the Swedish womens football team - I would, of course, insist that we spend our time practicing goal celebrations !
"Sleeping Giant" how I hate that term. A euphemism for a perceived great club who are down on their luck. Some of the clubs identified as such never were great in the first place, perhaps they were there or there about. You could say Huddersfield Town are a "sleeping giant", they won the league three times, but what IS the qualification? Having a large fan base like Newcastle, when there is no natural competition locally, having won a few trophies years ago and when does a club stop being a sleeping giant Bolton Wanderers or Preston North End? Can you be a sleeping giant in the top division or are you just an also ran? That said I think C.
I agree that this is one of the most important points - to have a good working relationship with the owner, and the chance of working with someone like Elton John in the background must be a dream for any young manager.
I agree that the expression 'sleeping giant' is a misleading one Zen. But is there another word which describes it ? Portsmouth kept their support even in the 4th level of English football - they were averaging 16-17,000 when all around them were struggling for crowds a third of that size. The same was even more true of Sheff. Utd. Other clubs who have gone down have, very quickly, 'become' third or fourth division clubs, despite earlier successes - such as Coventry, who I wouldn't describe in that way.
The only clubs I can think of that could fall into that category would be Villa & Birmingham, due to their catchment areas. Both could be big clubs, but years of mismanagement have almost ruined them
The numbers are not up to date but there are some interesting clubs in this list. https://www.theguardian.com/football/datablog/2013/apr/17/football-league-125-years
g) be a manager of an amateur/semi-professional team, so you still have a job to go to if things don't go well.
