Can a manager succeed having never played pro football?

[derfblade.3]

Maybe i'm the last to know but i just read an article that Selles never played football of any note. He was coaching an amateur team in Valencia called Parreta FC at the age of 16.
Question is, if you were a Blades player knowing he had never played, would you be taking him seriously?

 

[jt64]

Yes. Next?

 

[HuddersfieldBlade]

There are a few according to ChatGPT

Managers Who Never Played Professionally

1. Arrigo Sacchi

• Notable for: Transforming AC Milan in the late 1980s.
• Clubs Managed: AC Milan, Italy national team.
• Playing Career: Never played professional football; worked as a shoe salesman before becoming a coach.
• Famous Quote:
  “I never realized that to become a jockey you have to have been a horse.”

2. José Mourinho

• Notable for: Winning the Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan.
• Playing Career: Played semi-professionally; shifted focus to coaching early on.

3. André Villas-Boas

• Notable for: Winning a treble with FC Porto in 2011.
• Playing Career: Never played professionally; started coaching in his early 20s under Bobby Robson.

4. Maurizio Sarri

• Notable for: Coaching Napoli, Chelsea, Juventus.
• Playing Career: Played amateur football while working as a banker; never played professionally.

5. Julian Nagelsmann

• Notable for: Young, highly tactical manager (RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich, Germany).
• Playing Career: Promising youth player, but retired early due to injury and never played at the top level.

6. René Girard

• Notable for: Winning Ligue 1 with Montpellier in 2012.
• Playing Career: Played, but not at a high level; better known for coaching.

7. Vítor Pereira

• Notable for: Managing FC Porto, Olympiacos, and other top clubs.
• Playing Career: Played in lower leagues only.

These managers show that deep tactical understanding, leadership, and communication skills can often matter more than playing experience at the highest level

 

[Blade45]

Arrigo Sacchi didn't play a minute of professional football, yet he won two European Cups with AC Milan and is probably one of the 10 best managers in the history of the game. Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard are modern footballing greats, yet are currently (rightfully) unemployed.

Your experience as a player has nothing to do with your skill and talent as a manager. If any player tries to discredit Selles as a manager because he never played professionally, perhaps they aren't a player you'd want at your club anyway.

 

[RAP51]

Maybe i'm the last to know but i just read an article that Selles never played football of any note. He was coaching an amateur team in Valencia called Parreta FC at the age of 16.
Question is, if you were a Blades player knowing he had never played, would you be taking him seriously?

Dave Bassett played a lot of non league football but only a few games in the league for Wimbledon.
Bertie Mee who managed Arenal when they won the double in 1970/71 played less than 20 league games.
Arsenal Wenger played less than a 100 games.
OK, these all played a few games but became very successful managers.
I think being outside the professional bubble can sometimes be an advantage.

 

[Blade1959]

Lawrie McMenemy

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Rafael Benitez.

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

Yes.

Wikipedia/ Chat shit GPT :
Most footballers are thicko's who played footy rather than going to school. Better with someone who thinks about stuff and is more brainy.

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

Ted Lasso?

 

[steve26272]

Fergie and wenger didn’t have standout playing careers

Rooney and Gerrard did

Brains and brawn

Lampard was the one I thought would come good as seems intelligent enough, maybe will

Anyway, could have had a career as a fluffer on a midget porn set - if it helps getting us up

 

[ATL Recs]

Thomas Frank

 

[dexter101]

Maybe i'm the last to know but i just read an article that Selles never played football of any note. He was coaching an amateur team in Valencia called Parreta FC at the age of 16.
Question is, if you were a Blades player knowing he had never played, would you be taking him seriously?

If our squad are professionals, which I would like to think they are, then the fact he hasn't played professional football won't even cross their mind.

Its not like its Joe Bloggs off the street who just randomly applied and has no idea what he is doing.

If anything, I think that the fact that at a young age he knew he wanted to coach and committing to that as a career means he is around 20 years ahead of ex professionals of a same age (for example, Michael Carrick is pretty much the same age. Although yes, he played for potentially the greatest football manager of all time, he will have only seen things in a very limited way). Where as Selles has coached in 6 different countries seeing a wide range of ways of doing things, worked with different structures, budgets etc.

Will he be successful, who knows. Was he the right appointment, who knows. But at least if feels there is a clear thought process from the board with the appointment and we now wait and see how the squad develops.

Although they will always say this, getting Bindon on loan looks to have been at least in part due to being able to work with Selles again, good signs on being taken seriously so far.

 

[DifferentClass]

Dave Bassett played a lot of non league football but only a few games in the league for Wimbledon.
Bertie Mee who managed Arenal when they won the double in 1970/71 played less than 20 league games.
Arsenal Wenger played less than a 100 games.
OK, these all played a few games but became very successful managers.
I think being outside the professional bubble can sometimes be an advantage.

Warnock never played above the old third division IIRC.

 

[mattbianco1]

Gerard Houllier, Brendan Rodgers and Kieran McKenna are another 3 not mentioned

Then, to flip it the total opposite.
Wayne Rooney
Steven Gerrard
Frank Lampard
Gary Neville

 

[RAP51]

Warnock never played above the old third division IIRC.

And of course we've had our own examples of talented footballers not being good managers. Bryan Robson, Martin Peters and David Weir spring to mind.

 

[Gin&Juice]

We’ve had great players manage us in the past to great success.


Peters
Heath
Robson
Jokanovic

Honestly think if it’s not broken, don’t fix it

 

[KMC-1889]

If anything being an elite footballer makes you a worse manager.

Some of the interviews coming out of Plymouth this season talk about how Rooney was asking the players to do things that for him were easy, but for their level were incredibly difficult. I’ve heard similar comments about the English ‘golden generation’ that have gone into management.

All the top managers in history have had, at best, average playing careers.

 

[RAP51]

If anything being an elite footballer makes you a worse manager.

Some of the interviews coming out of Plymouth this season talk about how Rooney was asking the players to do things that for him were easy, but for their level were incredibly difficult. I’ve heard similar comments about the English ‘golden generation’ that have gone into management.

All the top managers in history have had, at best, average playing careers.

A former player at Preston told me that when Bobby Charlton was manager, a player mishit a pass in a training match. Charlton came on to the pitch and from the centre spot gave a demonstration. He said 'If you want to pass to the left you do this' and then pinged a pinpoint 50 yard pass to someone out on the left wing with his right foot.
He then said 'To pass to the right do this' and used his left foot to do the same thing to a player on the right wing.
He then walked off to the sidelines,end of coaching session.

 

[Davalon]

Maybe i'm the last to know but i just read an article that Selles never played football of any note. He was coaching an amateur team in Valencia called Parreta FC at the age of 16.
Question is, if you were a Blades player knowing he had never played, would you be taking him seriously?

There's load of examples and if some of the world's best players can cope with it, I'm sure ours can.

 

[loyalblade95]

If anything being an elite footballer makes you a worse manager.

Some of the interviews coming out of Plymouth this season talk about how Rooney was asking the players to do things that for him were easy, but for their level were incredibly difficult. I’ve heard similar comments about the English ‘golden generation’ that have gone into management.

All the top managers in history have had, at best, average playing careers.

Looking at that Golden Generation who did get into management, most of them haven't been successful at it.

Rooney: couldn't keep Derby up (albeit with a massive points deduction, 21?), poor at Brum and Plymouth.

Gary Neville: by his own admission he was out of his depth at Valencia, couldn't speak the language and lost the plot a bit towards the end.

Phil Neville: is he even still managing?

Carrick: started off really well at Boro but looked completely lost last season, be interesting to see where he ends up next.

Gerrard: always seems to start off well but always falls away which leads to him being sacked.

Lampard: did well with Derby and Chelsea, thought that Everton stint had damaged his managerial credibility, but he's doing well at Coventry.

 

[steve26272]

I Rooney was asking the players to do things that for him were easy, but for their level were incredibly difficult. M

All the top managers in history have had, at best, average playing careers.

Not really, Pep, Alonso, Enrique, Zidane, Dechamps - all world class players and very successful managers

Difference is your 1st point, they all manage world class teams

How would Pep do with a Rotherham or Barnsley?

 

[GrayBlade]

Harry Bassett spent most of his playing career in non league football

 

[utd4ever]

Maybe i'm the last to know but i just read an article that Selles never played football of any note. He was coaching an amateur team in Valencia called Parreta FC at the age of 16.
Question is, if you were a Blades player knowing he had never played, would you be taking him seriously?

Maybe that’s where Wilder went wrong. He was a defender so most likely defensive minded.
You could see that in the cautious play/ build up.

Managers who never played football don’t have any such bias to play

 

[Carlton Blade]

At what point does having played football in a different era become less relevant than being a good teacher and communicator?

 

[DeanLearner'sCat]

All the top managers in history have had, at best, average playing careers.

This isn't really true. People like Guardiola, Cruyff, Ancelotti, Conte, Del Bosque, Munoz, Capello etc were all top players and managers. Zidane and Beckenbauer didn't exactly have bad managerial careers either.

 

[Torrix1889]

Will Still

 

[coaxingstar71]

Not really, Pep, Alonso, Enrique, Zidane, Dechamps - all world class players and very successful managers

Difference is your 1st point, they all manage world class teams

How would Pep do with a Rotherham or Barnsley?

Also Cruyff and Beckenbauer. Edit : DeanLearner'sCat beat me to it.

Out of our 1966 World Cup winning side, only Jack Charlton and to a lesser extent, Alan Ball, have had decent careers in management.

 

[Le Cynique]

If anything being an elite footballer makes you a worse manager.

Some of the interviews coming out of Plymouth this season talk about how Rooney was asking the players to do things that for him were easy, but for their level were incredibly difficult. I’ve heard similar comments about the English ‘golden generation’ that have gone into management.

All the top managers in history have had, at best, average playing careers.

I heard similar about Lampard when he was at Derby - he was expecting players to be able to do what he could do, and they obviously couldn’t reach those levels. Frustrating for both him and his players.

 

[KMC-1889]

This isn't really true. People like Guardiola, Cruyff, Ancelotti, Conte, Del Bosque, Munoz, Capello etc were all top players and managers. Zidane and Beckenbauer didn't exactly have bad managerial careers either.

A lot of those examples were fortunate enough for their first managerial roles to be at clubs where they were already an established legend and teams full of superstars. There are a fraction of a percent of managers in this position.

A perfect example of this is Kompany, stunk the place out at Anderlecht & Burnley but managed to walk the Bundesliga (and to be fair the Championship) by the fortune of having better players and resources than his competitors. Despite spending vastly more and having a better squad to start with he barely did better than Heckingbottom in that premier league season.

 

[Not_a_Cheat]

Maybe i'm the last to know but i just read an article that Selles never played football of any note. He was coaching an amateur team in Valencia called Parreta FC at the age of 16.
Question is, if you were a Blades player knowing he had never played, would you be taking him seriously?

No. End of thread. Pashun and energy cannot be instilled via Airy fairy tactical know how. 11th