Managers who haven’t played

[mattbianco1]

Karl Robinson never played professional, he played for:

Caernarfon Town
Bamber Bridge
Marine
Oswestry Town
Rhyl
Kidsgrove Athletic
Prescot Cables
St Helens Town
Alsager Town
Warrington Town

He's managed:

MK Dons (Champ and L1)
Charlton (L1)
Oxford (L1)

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

Villas Boas’ story is superb.

Was living in the same apartment block as Bobby Robson at the age of 16 - ended up getting in a debate with him then Robson appointed him to Porto’s observation team! He then paid for his UEFA C license and it went from there.

No football background at even semi pro level.

So he's like the real life version of a football manager nerd! Genuinely impressive.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

Karl Robinson never played professional, he played for:

Caernarfon Town
Bamber Bridge
Marine
Oswestry Town
Rhyl
Kidsgrove Athletic
Prescot Cables
St Helens Town
Alsager Town
Warrington Town

He's managed:

MK Dons (Champ and L1)
Charlton (L1)
Oxford (L1)

Yeah but he's a smarmy prick, so he doesn't count.

 

[Silent Blade]

That's right. He got United relegated in his first season, and failed to get us promoted in 2 years in the second division, whereupon he resigned and went to Villa, who he also relegated.
.

He received an anonymous telegram from Sheffield. It said “Congratulations, Joe: You’ve done it again!”.

 

[Nick Jansky]

and whilst we're at it, why is there a requirement for ex-players to take a coaching badge ? Do they need the details explaining properly before they can take their careers further after finishing playing ?

Because in the majority of cases an ability to play doesn't translate into an ability to coach.

 

[Deleted member 875]

View attachment 44160

Former semi-professional, non-league, reserve goalkeeper.

More successful as a SUFC manager than our former decorated England captain..........

 

[Pinchy]

More successful as a SUFC manager than our former decorated England captain..........

Neither had any meaningful success.

 

[I should coco]

More successful as a SUFC manager than our former decorated England captain.......

Where the word 'successful' means a bit less crap.

Robson was taking us down but Blackwell ended up leaving us in a very similar position.

If your measure of 'success' was the uber crap POF against Burnley, then I agree Blackwell was a real hit for us.

 

[Pinchy]

Where the word 'successful' means a bit less crap.

Robson was taking us down but Blackwell ended up leaving us in a very similar position.

If your measure of 'success' was the uber crap POF against Burnley, then I agree Blackwell was a real hit for us.

Blades around me were celebrating wildly at full-time. All were full of gratitude to SP.

 

[Bert]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Reames

The Chairman who appointed himself manager.

 

[BushBlade]

Arrigo Sacchi

 

[Bartleby]

Similarly, why is there an assumption that being an ex-player is a big advantage ?

I worked in IT and quite a few times in those years I saw someone put in charge of the show who hadn't come from an IT background - often someone from finance or a background in whatever was the main business of the company. And it always turned to shit.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

I worked in IT and quite a few times in those years I saw someone put in charge of the show who hadn't come from an IT background - often someone from finance or a background in whatever was the main business of the company. And it always turned to shit.

I've also been part of IT teams where a non-IT person has come in and transformed the team, was better at organisation, man-management, planning, foresight, dealing with other people etc etc It's all about having a good team of people around you as much as anything. I agree that a former footballer will have some advantages but not a major one.

 

[Wright1889]

Alex Reid or something like that?

When from the boardroom to manage Middlesbrough or Charlton?

Didn’t Sunderland’s Chairman appoint himself as manager? Was it Nial Quinn?

 

[Bartleby]

I've also been part of IT teams where a non-IT person has come in and transformed the team, was better at organisation, man-management, planning, foresight, dealing with other people etc etc It's all about having a good team of people around you as much as anything. I agree that a former footballer will have some advantages but not a major one.

Yes I've seen that a team level to a degree, where man management and organisation are often the key things, and they have technical specialists in the team to handle the actual IT bits.

But at the higher level where they were put in charge of the department and responsible for defining the strategy (and I see that as more analogous the the football manager's role, unless he's controlled by a DoF), that was always disastrous in my experience when in the hands of people who, to be honest really didn't know how much they didn't know.

Also the best managers IMO tended to be the ones who did have an IT background but weren't usually the best technically, and that also seems to tie in with the football side where often it's the average players making the best managers - but they had played and did have the background.

 

[Smirth]

Brendan Rodgers.

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

Yes I've seen that a team level to a degree, where man management and organisation are often the key things, and they have technical specialists in the team to handle the actual IT bits.

But at the higher level where they were put in charge of the department and responsible for defining the strategy (and I see that as more analogous the the football manager's role, unless he's controlled by a DoF), that was always disastrous in my experience when in the hands of people who, to be honest really didn't know how much they didn't know.

Also the best managers IMO tended to be the ones who did have an IT background but weren't usually the best technically, and that also seems to tie in with the football side where often it's the average players making the best managers - but they had played and did have the background.

To me, the manager is the figurehead, the spokesperson for the club and Tufty does a damn good job, primarily because he is 'one of us' and knows the club and fans inside out. However, how much of the duties, and how much of his success is down to Alan Knill and the rest of his management team ? A former footballer will bring certain advantages to the table but as many have found, there's tons more to it than that.

Certain final decisions are his, and he will eventually stand or fall by them but I think we often over-estimate the manager's input and under-estimate the team around them.

 

[Bartleby]

To me, the manager is the figurehead, the spokesperson for the club and Tufty does a damn good job, primarily because he is 'one of us' and knows the club and fans inside out. However, how much of the duties, and how much of his success is down to Alan Knill and the rest of his management team ? A former footballer will bring certain advantages to the table but as many have found, there's tons more to it than that.

Certain final decisions are his, and he will eventually stand or fall by them but I think we often over-estimate the manager's input and under-estimate the team around them.

I agree - Knilly, Matt Prestridge and the rest of the staff play a massive part and have a big input into decisions no doubt, but I sense it's Wilder in charge of the strategy - as well as being brilliant at the PR.

I'm not really knocking the managers who have done well without the playing background either TBH (McMenemy and Mourhino being great examples) - think just got too much into recalling some of the cretins I had to work for in the past. Packed in work 5 years ago, I really need to let it go

 

[BushBlade]

To me, the manager is the figurehead, the spokesperson for the club and Tufty does a damn good job, primarily because he is 'one of us' and knows the club and fans inside out. However, how much of the duties, and how much of his success is down to Alan Knill and the rest of his management team ? A former footballer will bring certain advantages to the table but as many have found, there's tons more to it than that.

Certain final decisions are his, and he will eventually stand or fall by them but I think we often over-estimate the manager's input and under-estimate the team around them.

Research has been carried out into the effects of a manager and has shown that long term they can only improve a club by around 10%. Unfortunately I can’t recall the book (I think it may have been by Simon Kuper). The rest is down to the club’s ‘natural position’, how well the club is run by those above and how much money is invested (and the last two are very interrelated).

 

[davidblade]

I can top all these Nigel Adkins never played and never managed.

 

[Newbury Blade]

There's loads.

Roy Hodgson
Paul Clement
Brendan Rodgers
Avram Grant
Andre Villas-Boas
Carlos Alberto P.

I’ll have you know that Brendan Rodgers played for Newbury Town FC.