There’s more to being a successful manager than being a motivator, a tactical genius and a wheeler-dealer. You can lack all three of those seemingly essential traits and still land plum jobs that end with settlement payouts after a few months of failure just so long as you have friends in the media. Someone willing to endlessly crow about your virtues safe in the knowledge that if its spread over enough column inches the proles masses will eventually start to repeat it rote-fashion and it will eventually become “common knowledge” even if it is almost entirely false.
If ti sounds far-fetched a look at this weekend’s holiday season action should dispel any notions of it as fanciful or ridiculous. The pundits on Football Focus on were certainly unabashed about wearing their hearts on their sleeves when it came to their predictions, in particular that of Blackburn Rovers under the newly appointed, potentially short-term manager Steve Kean.Steve Claridge wasted no time in saying that the decision to fire Sam Allardyce was “ridiculous” and that the club were in freefall. This after Kean had only taken charge for one game, a dull and disappointing display against the masters of anti-football, Stoke.
He confidently predicted that they would lose their game and then felt comfortable talking about how the new owners knew nothing about football, that if they did they would have treated Sam Allardyce better. They overlooked statistics that suggested the team had problems long before Kean was in charge and stated that Allardyce was guaranteed premier league safety, without really explaining the grim realities of what that meant for any football club with such low aspirations.
Within two minutes Blackburn had taken the lead. “What’s going on?” They said if it was some sort of huge upset in the making. By the time West Bromwich Albion had equalised they were back to sticking the boot in to the hapless manager, stating it was now almost a certainty that they would go on to win against the away team. Blackburn managed to triumph 3-1 in the end, despite being reduced to ten men, the first time they had won by a two goal margin or greater away from home in a year. No room in the day’s summary for that statistic and no credit afforded to Kean at all. By the end of the day “Big Sam” was being linked to a job at Burnley.
Later that evening Birmingham managed to steal a draw in dubious circumstances against the side many see as title favourites, Manchester United. While the goal was certainly dubious on the grounds that there was a use of the arm, so much was made of the incident that it was suddenly deemed worthy of being front page news. “Manchester United draw 1-1 with Birmingham but are controversially denied victory” read the BBC website headline. Can you think of any other set of circumstances where that detail would be relevant enough to sneak onto the front page? Me either – if not getting decisions awarded in your favour was big news Wolves and West Ham would never be out of the public eye.
But this is Manchester United and everything the BBC publishes about the mighty reds is now simply one long apology letter to Sir Alex Ferguson for their documentary detailing the club’s clear favouritism when it came to using his own son’s agency to sign players. Indeed, even though Ferguson was supposedly on his last warning eighteen months ago to not criticise a referee in public again, he felt comfortable giving both barrels to Lee Mason. Despite his insistence on not talking to the BBC, again something that lesser manager would be hauled over the coals for given that it is a contractual obligation, Auntie felt quite comfortable in not only reporting on his rantings, but giving them credence in their description of the events that lead up to the equaliser.
Twenty Four hours passed and Liverpool were beaten at home by bottom of the table Wolves in what was proclaimed by all who witnessed it to be one of the worst Liverpool displays of all time. Still, in the media there was a huge reluctance to lay any blame on the new manager, Roy Hodgson, for that. His friends in the media had been instrumental in setting him up for the job and hyping his arrival as a good mvoe for the club and a just reward for years of great service. Indeed, it seemed to go unmentioned that the bandwagon declaring that Hodgson was manager of the year – for a low mid-table finish and defeat in a European cup final – were likely the same people calling for Mclaren to be sacked when he achieved a similar feat with Middlesbrough.
Still, Hodgson knows the importance of having friends in the right places and even though the players clearly have no faith in his vision, the fans would rather have the one man wrecking machine of Benitez back (as banners unfurled during the game proclaimed) and he has now lashed out at the fans saying they need to get behind the team, making him something akin to a 63 year old Wayne Rooney, there hasn’t been one dissenting voice in the media yet. They like Roy, he always gives them quotes, interviews, exlcusives and speaks candidly and politely at all times. It’d be a real shame if he want…
So that is the reason you will read nonsense such as “Hodgson was a logical choice by Liverpool’s board to succeed Rafael Benitez. Mature and experienced – not to mention manager of the year after taking Fulham to the Europa League final – he looked the perfect fit to oversee what would inevitably be a transitional period on and off the pitch” (thanks Phil McNulty) qhile trying to keep your breakfast down in the face of it. Nothing to do with the facts, that Hodgson was a largely unsuccessful journeyman, or how he represented a radical departure from the usual managerial recruitment methods for Liverpool, or how there were much better options on the market.
No, Hodgson, like a select few, will be protected and supported no matter what happens. It is only the discerning football fan that knows you certainly can’t believe everything you read.