The Sports Corner

Bullen’s Banter: Management is a funny old game

Football management is a natural progressive career move once a professional has finished his playing career.

It is the final goodbye before the curtain is called on a life of football that begun almost at the start of every footballer’s life.

Managers, like every other profession, are expected to retire at some stage but with so many success stories recently of the ‘older manager’ may it be said that life does indeed start at 60 - if you are a gaffer anyway.

Broadly viewing the current crop of Premier League bosses, we have in no particular order: Ferguson, Scolari, Kinnear, Redknapp and Hodgson - all above 60 and seemingly comfortable in their positions. Arsene Wenger will be 60 this time next year. So why is it that the older manager has suddenly become the new craze?

One popular trend among those bosses is the takeover of a club in a crisis. Fulham turned to international man of mystery Roy Hodgson when it looked as if though they had a glimmer of hope for survival. Hodgson worked his travelled hands to produce one of the most astonishing turnarounds in such a short space of time. Fulham took a gamble in changing their manager after deciding that Lawrie Sanchez wasn’t the man to keep them up, but when your facing a crisis the reassuring face of experience is the most appealing.

Tottenham Hotspur a club that has spectacularly under achieved in the last 3-4 years looked to be sliding down a familiar slide at the start of the 2007-08 campaign. The excitement of winning the most least watched Carling Cup had simmered down and fans were demanding more from a squad that has numerous recognised international players attached with multi-million price tags. When the time came to remove Juande Ramos, the time for selecting from Europe’s younger, legacy chasing bosses was over. Tottenham needed stability. Harry Redknapp was installed much to the delight of Spurs fans and immediately the team began to produce even beating league leaders Liverpool.

Newcastle United are another struggling fish in the Premiership pool. Their structure and history deserve much better than a relegation scrap. Allardyce and Keegan had tried but ultimately failed to bring the glory days back to Tyneside although the latter was arguably pushed by Mike Ashley who has taken a bashing by enraged Geordie fans for his actions. There was talk of Alan Shearer returning to rescue his old team but that script reeks with nostalgia, the Magpies needed a strong figure to iron out the intrinsic problems that exist within the Newcastle set-up. The decision to appoint Joe Kinnear has marked a new chapter for life at Newcastle for Ashley who can hopefully ride on the coattails of Kinnear’s success until he finds a willing buyer for the club.

Newcastle, Tottenham and Fulham are all similar in the philosophy that an older, calmer head is needed when the club is in trouble. All have benefited and now stretching their necks looking up instead of nervously glancing down. But to say that 60+ managers are only needed in salvo operations is an unfair label to give, sure they are the first point of contact when trouble is brewing but in the modern game it seems that an older manager is just more successful.

This time next year, Arsene Wenger turns 60 and joins the elite club of the senior citizens Premier League bureau. He alongside Sir Alex Ferguson and Luiz Felipe Scolari are among the most successful managers in Premier League history. It makes sense that the older you are the more opportunities to win titles you have but an unseen attribute of the older manager is that experience grows and blossoms.

The ‘young manager’ was recently seen as the next revolutionary stage in football with players gaining their qualifications before they can enjoy the final twilight of their playing careers. However, recent evidence suggests that the ‘young manager’ may be falling out of favour especially in the Premier League where Roy Keane and Paul Ince have left their positions. Not surprisingly, Blackburn have turned their trust to the matured 54-year old Sam Allardyce as the man to lead the survival project.

Moving away from the Premier League, the international bodies are even looking for the ‘older manager’ has a quickfire flurry of tournaments approach. Viewing the success of 70 year old Luis Aragones who captured the 2008 European Championships with Spain maybe a factor for the appointment of Fabio Capello. The F.A’s decision to award 62-year old Capello with the nation’s most expensive contract outlines the faith that an older figure is needed to bring the best out of England.

So there you have it, a comprehensive report that managing a football club is an older man’s game. I for one am enjoying the sight of older bosses on touchlines as the game progresses into a billionaire’s ballroom. We need football people within football and the older managers maybe the start of a gritty determined fightback from the corporate clutches that are beginning to grip the game