What it may be, however, is the apparent lack of influence from an assistant manager. When you look at most great teams, or most great managers, there is an unsung hero behind the man. He’ll be there in the dug-out, with a book, inanely scribbling notes and dealing with press conferences when the manager isn’t talking to the media.
Sir Alex Ferguson has Mike Phelan and before him he had Carlos Queiroz, Steve McClaren, Brian Kidd and Archie Knox. All assistants went on from their post under Sir Alex to manage themselves. Andre Villas Boas was assistant to Mourinho at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan before pursuing his own career. Pat Rice has been Arsene Wenger’s assistant at Arsenal since day one. There is a lot to say for the importance of the assistant manager and witnessing it first hand at my club, Southampton, Andy Crosby is as vital to Nigel Adkins as Peter Taylor was to Brian Clough.
West Brom have just lost their assistant manager, Michael Appleton, to Portsmouth where he has taken the managerial post. When Hodgson was questioned on his feelings concerning losing his assistant manager his reply was less than resounding, “we are not desperate to bring someone else in.” If ever there was a premature damning “vote of confidence” to be issued, that was it.
His comments insinuate Appleton was of little use during Hodgson’s spell and Appleton’s tenure at the Hawthorns began in 2009, 2 years before Roy’s spell began. If Appleton was never any use and was so useless that Hodgson sees no point in hiring another assistant manager in his departure, not only have Portsmouth inherited a potentially talentless manager, but West Brom are missing a trick.
Hodgson, according to Ray Lewington, who was his assistant at Fulham, “does a lot of the coaching himself even at 62 years of age, at least 75% of it.” This may well explain why he isn’t too bothered about the departure of Appleton, “Roy is in the minority of managers in respect of doing most of the coaching himself,” said Lewington, who is again the assistant manager of Fulham. If there is a missing link to the success of Hodgson, this may well be it.
He has achieved success in many different countries, but a lot of the time it is nearly-achievements, for example he has guided two teams to the final of the Europa League, (firstly, Inter when it was the UEFA Cup and then Fulham as the Europa League) but he has never won it. His title successes come in Scandinavia, arguably not as strong as the Premier League or Serie A, and hiring a young hungry enthusiastic assistant manager in the AVB mould might just give West Brom that edge in an attempt to build on last season, not dwell on it.
Written by Jordan Florit for www.maycauseoffence.com/ For more articles visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit
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You are probably correct in saying we need a talented assistant manager but, let’s not lose sight of the obvious, Albion have had more than their fair share of injuries this season, and in my opinion not the rub of the green when it comes to referees decisions. But the fact still remains, the team that scores more goals than the opposition wins the game and the points! Until we get hold of fully fit and reliable goalscorers we can’t progress!