Player control
This is the case because with the exception of a minority of players the only control managers ever really had was the money the players received. Yes there are other factors, such as a manager refusing to pick a player. Yet players such as Wayne Bridge or Carlos Tevez or Paulo Ferreira have shown that there are footballers out there that care little about being played as long as they collect their pay cheques. Without the ability to influence the money that these players receive the position of the manager is weakened. This might seem unimportant but in a season when we have already seen players such as Suarez, Rooney, Terry and others in the media spotlight for the wrong reasons it is clear a manager can never have too much control. We only need to look at the last week to see an example of this with Wayne Rooney, Jonny Evans and Darren Gibson all breaking curfew to go out for dinner, and that was under the management of the infamously discipline inclined Alex Ferguson.
Yes he exercised his power by dropping them for the next game yet he was the one who suffered as they lost 2-3 to relegation threatened Blackburn. If even he doesn’t have the ability to totally control his players then who does? Yes, he can fine them, but the damage is already done by their excessive contracts that you can be sure he did not negotiate. As Redknapp said in his interview:
“(The chairman) would discuss the terms with the selling club or whatever…and he would do all the deals with them. I wouldn’t be involved in it. I couldn’t even tell you the wages of a player at this club. You now the wages are something that he negotiates.”
Redknapp argues that the control is totally undermined by level of wages these days but admits that his inability to renegotiate the players’ contracts at the end of the year makes his job even more difficult:
“You don’t have that control that my manager would’ve had when I was a young player, when at the end of the year, you’d sign a new one year contract. Whether it was Bobby Moore, whether it was Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters –who played in the World Cup final – they’d go see the manager. You didn’t have an agent. You’d sit in the manager’s office and he’d give you maybe a five or ten pound a week rise.”
When you look at all of these factors together: the role of agents, the hands on approach of chairman, chief executives and directors of football, the increase in wages and the Bosman ruling you are left wondering whether managers really have enough control of their clubs or players. Whilst essentially their role is that of a head coach is that role not inextricably linked to the financial management of the players? Players, who, Redknapp says, are now “fragile characters” due to the amount of money they earn and agents who pander to their every demand.
Clearly at some clubs the situation is worse than others, at Chelsea for example it is obvious who is in control, and also clearly some managers are not up to the task of negotiating yet how can we truly judge the performances of those in charge of our clubs if they are not fully in control?
For more news and views follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay
Written by Hamish Mackay for FootballFancast.com
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