Clubs splash out for players, so why not for managers?
After Everton broke their transfer record twice, they sacked Ronald Koeman, , but offered Watford only y£ £10m for Marco Silva to replacep him
Everton’s signing of Gylfi Sigurdsson this summer was one of those transfers that stretched on to the middle of August, the Icelander only making ng his debut as a substitute in the fifth game of the season, by y which point the side were still unbeaten – a trend that, so it transpired, pired, was not to continue.
In the case ase of Sigurdsson, the fee of £45 million was well established, so, too, the player’s eagerness to move and the salary was s not an issue, but in the weeks eks leading up to the deadline, dline, Swansea found themselves dealing with ith different individuals s at the club. Where re Bill Kenwright t has usually controlled the e transfers, there is now the new influence of majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri oshiri and director of football Steve eve Walsh.
As Ronald ald Koeman’s chief target, there was never any question that Everton on would sign Sigurdsson, it just t seemed unclear who would do so and when they would do it. He was considered a priority and hence they paid their record rd transfer by some distance, because what club who have ambitions itions of breaking into the Champions pions League places are unwilling ing to spend the big numbers?
Three months on and the picture at Everton erton is very different, with Koeman man sacked, the team in 15th position on going into their fifth game under er a caretaker manager and the suggestion uggestion that they might have e fouled up appointing Sam Allardyce. dyce. Big Sam, it should be remembered, bered, has managed more Premier mier League clubs than any other, and appointing him has not been en beyond the wit of Blackburn Rovers, Newcast Newcastle United or that beacon of compecomp tency that is David Sullivan’s W West Ham. Most curious about Everton’s Eve pursuit of a new manager has been the compensation sum offered to Watford for the services of Marco Ma Silva, one of the summer’s hot hottest available managerial properties properti who others may already regret regre passing over. Watford face West W Ham on Sunday ninth in the th table and six places better off than Everton, with Silva, even after three defeats, still exude ing the dependability of the 1980s Wall Street corpocorpo rate whistle-blower he so resembles.
The compensation th that was informally offered for his services was in excess exce of £8.5 £8.5million, million, now und understood to be rising to £10 million, a little more than t the sum that Watford paid Everton for the permanent perma acquisition of Tom C Cleverley. In the context contex of both clubs’ seasons, season the migration of Silva fro from Watford to Goodison Park would be fundamental. fundamen Despite his relegation relegatio with Hull City, Silva would give Everton the reassurance of a route rou out of their mess. F For Watford, it would sims ply be the inheritance inherita of Everton’s signifi significant problem, and for a price of £10 million, mill less than Sky Sports pay for each live game they broadcast.
Everton paid around £5 million in compensation to Southampton for Koeman in the summer of last year, although that came soon after the end of the season, with plenty of time to appoint a replacement. This time, Everton want their new man in mid-season and they are depending on an old assumption that it simply works differently for managers, who seem able to leave clubs much more cheaply than the players they rule over.
Given what is at stake for both clubs, and the importance they attach to Silva, why would Everton not be willing to pay a much higher price? Why not the kind of fees they were prepared to pay in the summer to acquire the targets that their former manager had deemed vital?
Silva is under contract for two Villas Boas in 2011, a reign that barely lasted nine months.
As the relationship between Villas Boas and his players deteriorated and results got worse, it was always the young Portuguese coach’s conviction that the money paid to Porto would discourage Roman Abramovich from sacking him. How wrong he was. Yet when one considers how readily Chelsea would spend £13 million on a player who might never play for their first team, it seems fanciful to say that £13 million would be a lot for a Chelsea manager – even in 2011.
Clubs are reluctant to spend big on managers in all but salary even though these are the men upon whom they hang so much hope. Perhaps they believe that the range of coaches who could do a good job is that much greater than the range of exceptional players who could change a team’s fortunes.
Therefore, signing a manager is more a question of shrewd judgment, picking the right man for the circumstances, rather than the more objective evaluations that can be made about players.
Either way, when one considers the efforts Everton went to this summer, breaking their transfer record twice on Jordan Pickford and then Sigurdsson it feels like £10 million is very little to solve the biggest problem they currently face.
Managers often have no guaranteed resale value, although by way of balance they tend to improve for longer into their careers than players, or so the theory goes.
More than any club in recent years, Watford have taken the manager off his pedestal and made him just one component, part of the hierarchy that governs the team’s success, but that would not be a reason to let a good one leave cheaply. After all, in English football, what does £10 million buy you these days?