A football team, including the reserves, comprises of many players, but the most talked about personalities are the managers of the clubs. All the major controversies in the football world are always linked with the managers. Whether a team is giving a below-par performance or doing exceptionally well, everything is the manager’s dilemma. He is praised for the good and blamed for the bad, but in the end, he is always humble enough to take all the responsibility while still praising his players.
First of all, we must understand the role of a manager. He is a true supervisor of the squad and responsible for everything that his player does. He is the one who arranges all the training sessions, and hires staff to assist him in that regard. The manager also devises all the strategies for the team, and he possesses all the knowledge about the opponents. He is also responsible for the team selection and the buying and selling of the players during the transfer window. A manager is also a media manager, as he is supposed to give all the comments to the media and arrange press conferences. A few managers, like Arsène Wenger of Arsenal, are also managing the finances of the club. Every year, Wenger makes a lot of profits for the club; although these profits are earned at the cost of trophies, as Wenger follows a very strict wages budget and spends very less in the transfer market. However, the profits are making the owners happy and Wenger is still keeping his job, as many other big clubs in the world are in big debts at the moment.
There are a lot of examples where a manager has made his mark in the football world. Sir Alex Ferguson, of Manchester United, has done it all. He has won many trophies in his career and made the club the best in the EPL. He did it not by the assistance of many exceptional players, but by disciplining a squad of a few good and average players, and only one or two world class players. Similarly, Gus Hiddink has done so much for the National sides, as he led South Korea into the World Cup Semi-Finals in 2002. In Euro 2008, Hiddink led the Russian team very effectively in the tournament, and made it to the Semi-Finals of the tournament. Jose Mourinho is another example of a manager who has done it all for the team. He won a lot of trophies for FC Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan, including two Champions League titles. He is regarded as a great tactician, although his methods are sometimes regarded as anti football. All these managers have one thing in common, i.e. they did not have the best of squads at their disposal, but they managed to bring out their best at the desired times. This is what makes a manager important and exceptional.
Another job of a manager is to discipline his team. As England was in chaos, when they failed to qualify for the Euro 2008, Capello was brought in. Capello moved things around and did some shuffling and suddenly every player was fighting for his place in the team. He also made the training strict and controlled the behaviour of his players. The team, therefore, found its form back and is now regarded as one of the favourites to at least make the Semi-Finals of the tournament.
Sometimes a manager is supposed to do very less, especially when there are many World Class players in the team. However, this is a predicament rather than a blessing. This is the dilemma of Josep 'Pep' Guardiola, Barcelona’s manager. The real managerial skills needed in this case are behind the scenes, as the manager has to control all the players and keep them cool at all times. If he fails to do so, then the team goes to chaos and winning trophies becomes impossible.
The manager carries a very important role in the side’s winning and losing. In the coming World Cup, we would see some teams doing exceptionally well, like Brazil under Dunga and England under Capello. Maradona, the Argentinean manager, has not established himself as the best in this role, and his team would definitely face a lot of difficulties.
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