England Expects

ENGLAND EXPECTS!

As the search for England?s next manager intensifies, a leading academic from Edge Hill argues that it doesn?t matter whether the FA opts for a foreign coach or home grown talent, as long as the manager is lucky!

Graham Smith, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Physical Education at the university, says that these days professional football is a very chancy business, with the desire to succeed surpassed only by the need to survive.

"An unnamed manager was once asked what makes some managers more successful than others and he said that they were just luckier than the rest," comments Smith. "Graeme Souness took it a stage further and said 'Far better to be a lucky manager than a talented one!? My research shows that while this might have been said in jest, there is an element of truth in it."

Smith believes that he has devised a formula to construct a profile of the perfect manager and that the game?s governing body should take note of it before they make any appointment as to who should be the boss of the national side. "It is more the managers than the players who play the vital role in any team?s success and I believe the harder they work, the luckier they get!"

Smith?s personality profile makes interesting reading:

L ? Long term strategy / philosophy that everyone buys into to U ? Understanding players at every level C ? Communication skills K ? Knowledge of the game at a technical / tactical level I ? Innovative and inspirational E ? Experience and expectancy R ? Recognising and recruiting talent

"Great managers possess some or all of these qualities and the most successful managers are not just luckier, they are also better!" stresses Smith. He also believes that as well as impeccable football credentials, the best managers also have individual character traits that make them stand out from the others in their field and which would make them just as successful in business.

"There are Paternalists like Joe Mercer and Bobby Robson and Disciplinarians such as Clough and Reid whose style of management is in decline; sometimes great players make great managers, like Dalglish and O?Neill; there are Marketeers like Atkinson and Fry and Charismatics such as Mourhino and Venables, who duck and dive and bob and weave; then there?s Tacticians, the best being Wenger, and Media Magnets like Docherty; finally, there are the Alchemists, the quick fixers in the Redknapp and Bassett mould. It takes all sorts to make a manager!"

Smith also has one interesting conclusion from his operational analysis; "The one manager who overlaps all of the above is Sir Alex Ferguson! On paper he is the ideal man to manage England!"