It’s a statement that is always banded around, following a managerial sacking: Arsène Wenger is in a class of his own in terms of Premier League management longevity.
Anywhere else, it can feel like a ticking time bomb at times. There are exceptions obviously, with the long term faith invested in managers like Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martinez among others. But in a season full of managerial sackings, can teams in fact benefit from looking in-house for successors.
Take the dismal looking Tottenham side of AVB. One Spurs fan likened it to ‘buying all kinds of furniture, then trying to arrange it all in a one bedroom flat.’ However, when Daniel Levy (for now at least) overlooked foreign suitors and gave the reigns to coach Tim Sherwood.
Since then, their battle for fourth is still on, a vital achievement for a club still in Arsenal’s shadow. One thing about coaches given the bump up to ‘head coach’ is they seem to get the best out of diamonds in the rough. For all the money Tottenham spent in the summer, in Sherwood’s short time in charge, arguably the stand out performers have been the forgotten man Emanuel Adebayor, and the unknown man, Nabil Bentaleb.
They have the benefit of working day in, day out on the training ground, and should have the man management skills to give those players belief.
The aforementioned Brendan Rodgers had the experience of being a coach under Jose Mourinho. As did Steve Clarke, however I focus on Rodgers, because while Clarke found himself unlucky to be out of a job at West Brom, the latter got Swansea promoted and now takes charge of an exciting Liverpool side, who have an outside shout in what is now a four way title race.
Rodgers’ old club, Swansea, have an interesting scenario of their own. Garry Monk started the week of the South Wales derby a player; he then found himself in charge for the game, following Michael Laudrup’s surprise sacking last month. Since then, the performances have been impressive, if a little unlucky in games against Liverpool and Napoli and the side looks rejuvenated.
There are obvious exceptions to the theory, which do make the debate interesting. The bizarre set up at Fulham this season left a lot to be scrutinised this summer, should they go down.
Under Martin Jol, Renee Meulensteen was appointed in a strange coaching role, only to later be promoted to manager, with Ray Wilkins as head coach and Alan Curbishley in the role vacated by Meulensteen. By February, they all found themselves out of a job at Craven Cottage, with German veteran Felix Magath now at the helm.
The question can also be asked about long term success. While coaches can give struggling teams the ‘kick up the arse’ they sometimes need, once the honeymoon period is over, can heart outweigh experience? There will always be examples in favour and against, but a lot of clubs who look abroad for new managers outside the Premier League could do a lot worse than looking for bright young minds already embedded in their club structure.
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