The Manager: Inside the Minds of Football's Leaders Read Online Free

right players to the club and coach them to play
in a way that brings success.’
    So the powerful owner is very much a part of modern football, and he has a great influence on the game. But to be successful, he needs a manager who can share his vision, convey it with clarity
and passion, take ownership for outcomes and deliver on all his professional responsibilities in the face of enormous expectation.
    Agents
    The nature of the chairman himself is not the only evolution of the last 20 years. Harry Redknapp believes that, for managers, the rise of the player’s agent is
threatening not only the sacred bond between them and their players, but also the critical stability of their relationship with the chairman. ‘If a player had a problem, he would come and see
the manager and speak to the manager: “Why aren’t I playing, gaffer? I think I should be in the team. What am I doing wrong? Why don’t you give me a chance?” But they
don’t come and see you any more. Instead, the agents ring the chairman and complain that you aren’t picking their player! Very, very few players knock on your door – they all go
through their agent now. So agents build relationships with chairmen, not managers. They aren’t silly, they know that the chairman owns the club and that managers come and go. This can be
very undermining – and it’s happening all the time. More and more chairmen are choosing players in the transfer window. In the past, players were chosen and the chairman wouldn’t
know anything until the player arrived! It’s very different now.’ It’s in this climate that the critical relationship between manager and chairman needs to stay watertight.
    When it all works
    The owner-manager relationship is absolutely critical and can create or destroy a club’s chances of success. Gérard Houllier tells how it can have a direct impact
on team performance: ‘I remember one specific moment when I came to a club part way through a season. I wondered after a few months if maybe the team was not clicking, or maybe the players
were not playing for me. Particularly in the Barclays Premier League, the players play for the manager in some ways, so I thought that maybe because I had changed a few things they were not playing
for us. So I went to the board and I explained that maybe we have to take some action. One of the board members stood up and said, “Well Mr Houllier. We don’t have the best quality in
the world, but there are two qualities we do have: patience and trust. We are patient and we will trust you do what you have to do.” So when I left the board I went to my staff and I said,
“Now we are going to start winning,” and we won. Because the more the board trusts you, the more assertive and the more strong you will be in your management.’ This is an
excellent example. Martin O’Neill agrees: ‘The owner–manager relationship is of paramount importance and I don’t believe that can be underestimated.’ Above all others,
this relationship can be the most painful one for managers.
    Pain
    For Neil Warnock, the pain comes most of all from not being understood. ‘I said to Amit Bhatia [QPR Director] when I left, “You don’t really know what
I’ve done at the club.” I don’t think people understand what managers do. Yes, they are managers, but they are also fathers, brothers and friends to everyone at the club. The way
QPR is run I was actually sort of Mother Superior to everybody, the cleaner included. I made everybody feel important and that’s not easy to do. No disrespect, but you don’t get that
from a university. You can’t put what we do behind the scenes into qualifications.’
    And once the relationship between the manager and the chairman-owner is broken – as with many other relationships – it is hard to rebuild. Warnock says: ‘I always work better
when I work for one person who I trust totally. I have fallen out with a few chairmen in my career, but I only fell out