GRAHAM WESTLEY
‘Length of manager’s deal makes no difference these days’
NIGEL Pearson takes over at Bristol City until the end of the season, Jonathan Woodgate gets the nod for the rest of the campaign at Bournemouth.
So how difficult is it to take over as a manager on a shortterm basis?
For me, there are two big issues here: one is about joining a new club and the other is about the length of the deal.
Let’s nip the second one in the bud first. I’m not sure that players take much notice of the length of a manager’s contract nowadays.
You might think that the manager on a long-term deal has a greater motivational effect because players think of that person as the long-term decision-maker.
But a five-year deal can easily have a three-month notice clause in it. So a six- month contract might actually have more certainty to it!
Respect
Let’s ignore deal length. A manager is as secure as the last result. Players know that. It’s up to a manager to earn respect by ability, knowledge and work ethic.
When you join a new club, there are some really important things.
For starters, where are you in the table and what’s gone before? If you are 12th but expected to be in the play-offs, that’s a very different situation to being bottom with 11 defeats in 12 behind you.
The manner of dealing with a team with shot confidence as opposed to a team that just needs to wear more smile or run a wee bit harder is totally different. Then there’s the timing. If the transfer window is open or closed, the circumstances and approach are different. Players may want ‘out’; there may or may not be budget to add to the squad.
Then there’s environment and support. It’s different arriving with your own team of staff as opposed to inheriting people.
One thing to remember is that no two situations are the same. No manager is right for all circumstances. I have two experiences in my mind, at Peterborough and Rushden, in which I inherited incredibly good squads that had been losing.
I found it really easy to spread a bit more demand, and pick a team to play good football and attack our way out of difficult bottom end situations and get well up into the top half.
However, at Barnet and Stevenage in the last couple of years, I lasted for just 10-plus games at each because I tried to use a gentle approach to raise spirits and although our possession ratio massively improved, I couldn’t quite persuade the team to turn draws into wins.
Tough
It is a tough job being a manager in 2021. You are one cog in a big machine and so much is dependent upon people who you would once have controlled but you now only have interim partnerships with.
A manager often has to earn support and has to concede certain values and beliefs to generate a common vision, with the potential to lead more emphatically through education of a group over the course of time. It’s not easy.
The requirements for a manager’s skillset are becoming broader and deeper than ever before.
Relationship skills are more critical than ever. And relationships are more complex than ever.
Just as we’ll probably see football evolve over the next 50 years to involve no heading, so we’ll see a manager’s role evolve, too.
I do hope that more stability becomes possible so that capable and talented managers are more able to healthily influence a club’s long-term strategy and direction.
I, for one, am certain that I have more skill and experience than I am often allowed to use and that my potential to add value to a big picture is greater than a bad result or two.