THE BOSS FACTOR
They’ve both been Premier League champions and earned themselves fortunes. Now Sherwood and Solskjaer are putting themselves under pressure as they try to prove they have…
AS PREMIER LEAGUE title winners who reaped the financial rewards of playing football at the very top, Tim Sherwood and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could reasonably be assumed to have made enough money never to work again.
Yet both seem still to want to prove themselves in a profession that is insecure, sometimes humiliating and often debasing — as football managers.
Eccentric and autocratic owners have to be appeased; prima donna players have to be cajoled; political conflicts with directors of football have to be negotiated. And, at the end of it all, you are likely to receive abuse from your own supporters by way of thanks.
But when Tottenham host Cardiff today, opposing managers Sherwood and Solskjaer will occupy the technical areas, their faces contorted with tension and emotion as their professional future is played out for millions to view as entertainment.
At 45 and 41 years old respectively, they represent the new wave of Premier League managers, having both taken over their clubs midseason with their respective campaigns precariously balanced.
With the average tenure of a football manager in the UK having fallen from two-and-a-half years in 1995 to just one year and 10 months now, you wonder why they bother.
‘I understand I am under pressure,’ said Sherwood, who played 93 times for the club he now manages as well as enjoying a seven-year spell at Blackburn, during which they became Premier League champions. ‘But I have to be honest. It is not all about experience. I have seen a lot of c*** experienced managers.’
Sherwood has started well, having lost only two out of his first 11 Premier League games, an extraordinary record for a rookie manager.
Nevertheless, with Louis van Gaal, who has met Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, and Ronald Koeman both suggesting they may take over at White Hart Lane in the summer, Sherwood has to deal with the everpresent threat of being replaced, especially if Tottenham fail to qualify for the Champions League.
‘There will always be speculation,’ said Sherwood. ‘Until you get a foreign manager of this club, nobody is happy. That is not the view of the club. That is the perception from outside.’
Solskjaer has different challenges, with Cardiff second from bottom after one win in eight games in the Premier League since he took over. The former Manchester United striker moved to Wales from Norway, where he had won two league titles with Molde and where he lived in an idyllic family home, had been knighted by the King of Norway and had received prestigious prizes for his work with UNICEF.
Solskjaer has spurned all that for Cardiff City, to work for Vincent Tan, a man who seemed to exist in a state of perpetual conflict with the previous manager, Malky Mackay.
‘Having had the career I’ve had, you can make a decision: do you have an easy life, sit back at home, coach your kids?’ said Solskjaer.
‘I’ve got enough money to live my life really well. But it’s about what drives you, the passion. I just like improving people, players. That’s not the reason I came here. It’s not a personal test. It’s to make Cardiff City a better football club.
‘It’s potential in the club. I can see that. I have turned a few clubs down. But timing is everything. I think, family-wise, this was a better time than before. That was the decision I had to make. I decided, “Yeah, this is what I want”. Then it was [talking] with the family, “Do I go or do we stay in Norway and the easy life?”’
For Solskjaer there is help and advice available. Both former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who had his own early struggles as a young manager, and his former captain, Roy Keane, who had his own relegation battles at Sunderland and Ipswich, have been sources of encouragement.
‘I’ve spoken to the gaffer,’ said Solskjaer. ‘He calls all his former players here and there. I spoke to Roy, who’s been a great help to me. Everyone who speaks to me, they [say] the same as me, “Just be yourself; don’t ever change yourself”.’
Sherwood, it seems, has had the same advice. ‘I try to be myself,’ he said. ‘It has been horrible since we lost last weekend at Norwich. It’s the worst job in the world but you cannot take that into the training ground.
‘You have to be professional. They don’t want to see me moping about — I am the leader. I have to be upbeat and say: “Look, we dust ourselves down. We weren’t great, I told you it was c*** and we have to improve. If you don’t we all have a problem — life will be difficult until the end of the season”.’
For Sherwood it is all about the top four and the Champions League; for Solskjaer, survival. Sherwood said: ‘He has had more management experience as he has gone to Norway to do his apprenticeship.
‘You don’t need me to tell you it looks like a difficult job. We have different pressures. I suppose the differences are that, in my job, one defeat is a disaster. It is not a disaster if they lose one game.’
Not that it felt that way last week at Cardiff after the 4-0 home loss to Hull. That prompted Solksjaer to cancel a planned training trip to Abu Dhabi. But he is coy about the suggestion that, for the first time last Saturday, he delivered his own version of Sir Alex’s hairdryer to his players and is at pains to point out the Abu Dhabi cancellation was not punitive.
‘Please don’t insult me and think it was a punishment for the players. You think you can get players performing better by punishing them? It’s about encouraging, coaching and bringing everyone together.
‘The decision was made for the right reasons. When I decided that I wanted to go to Abu Dhabi, I never thought it was half-term for the kids. So probably some of the players have had a good time with the kids.’
He is destined to justify every decision. ‘When I played, that was my job,’ he said. ‘Now I’m a manager this is part of my job.’
It must have been a lot simpler then. But you cannot help but admire the ambition that demands this secondary career.