Bob Paisley – Trouble & Squeak

Coping In The Dugout – Part Three

March 21, 2014December 8, 2019Posted in FootballTagged Barcelona, Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Eric Cantona, Football Manager, Jose Mourinho, Manager, Matt Busby, Paddy Vipond, Sir Alex Ferguson, Southampton, The 90-Minute ManagerLeave a comment

And so we head in to extra time. Following on from part one and part two, we now turn our attention towards development, recruitment and a vital skill that all great managers possess. The 90-Minute Manager has provided me with the spine of these articles, and as ever, all quotes are from that publication unless otherwise stated.

STRUCTURE AND FOUNDATION
In order for any project to be successful, the groundwork has to be laid first. The foundations must be solid, and if they are not, success will either be extremely short lived or very difficult to achieve. If a club is solely reliant on a billionaire owner then what happens when that owner decides to leave, or the money dries up? The club goes into free fall. Look at Portsmouth languishing down the bottom of League Two. Just five seasons ago Portsmouth were playing against the Likes of AC Milan in European competitions. How times change.

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Coping In The Dugout – Part One

March 1, 2014December 8, 2019Posted in FootballTagged 90 Minute Manager, Ambition, Barcelona, Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Culture, David Bolchover, Hunger, Jose Mourinho, Liverpool, Manchester United, Paddy Vipond, Pep Guardiola, Sir Alex Ferguson, Staff3 Comments

Continuing with my football related posts I have now turned my attention to the figure in the dug out. Arguably the most important, and the most difficult role in modern football, the football manager needs to be inspirational, tactically astute and calm under pressure.

A book I have recently finished reading, named the 90-Minute Manager, looked to compare the running of a business to the management of a football team, and although the book has its flaws and is a little dated, it is a pretty decent read. It has provided me with the inspiration for these articles where I focus on the role the manager plays, outside of the implementation of tactics and beyond the lone figure we see on match day.

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Manchester United: Ferguson’s Poisoned Chalice

February 2, 2014December 8, 2019Posted in FootballTagged 90 Minute Manager, Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, David Moyes, Inheritance, Legacy, Manchester United, Matt Busby, Old Trafford, Paddy Vipond, Sir Alex Ferguson, Success, Successor, Wilf McGuinness8 Comments

As much as it pains me to write about Manchester United – being a die-hard Liverpool fan – I feel that the almost, inevitable failure of David Moyes is a forgiveable topic. Whilst reading The 90-Minute Manager I stumbled across some valuable insight and historical analysis. It led to me believe that the recent below-par performance by Manchester United is not only expected, but it is set to continue. I may well be forced to eat my words one or two years from now, but if the day comes when Moyes gets the sack remember that you read it here first.

The 90-Minute Manager is a book written by David Bolchover and Chris Brady, it compares and analyses football management in relation to business management, concluding that successful football clubs should form the basis for how businesses are run. My inspiration for this piece comes from this book, and all quotes are taken from its pages, unless otherwise noted. I plan to write about this book in more detail in a later post, so for now let us just focus on the topic at hand. The current and future failure of Manchester United under David Moyes.

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