UK Edition
Albert Einstein was a terrible teacher. In his first two terms as a university teacher, only four students signed up for his classes. His course was cancelled. Somehow, all of Einstein’s scientific brilliance didn’t translate from the page to the classroom. Einstein struggled with communication, it was said. Perhaps he simply found helping those who lacked his gifts exasperating.
It was a window into a broader truth: being a great doer does not make a great teacher. In football in recent years, Gary Neville, Thierry Henry and Paul Scholes have all shown as much. Over three undistinguished reigns - Neville at Valencia in 2015/16, Henry at Monaco from October to November this season and Scholes at Oldham for 31 days in February and March - the three won just 15 games out of 55.
Pep Guardiola and Zinedine Zidane attest to what outstanding players can achieve as managers. Yet statistics scotch the myth that a decorated playing career inexorably leads to greater success on the touchline.
A recent paper analysing 20 years of Bundesliga results found that clubs whose managers played professionally in the top two tiers underperformed compared to clubs whose managers did not. The rule even applied to the very best players of their generation. So ex-pros did worse than those who didn’t play: a fundamental challenge to how football, and sport more broadly, fetishises insider knowledge.
As the role of a football manager has evolved, being a brilliant ex-player has come to be less relevant. Controlling gargantuan sums of cash, managers - working closely with sporting directors - need to double as stock investors, buying players low and selling them high.
The rise of sports science, data and video analysis have all transformed the role. Roberto Martinez - who spent most his playing career in the English second and third tiers, but won the FA Cup with Wigan and led Belgium to third place in the World Cup - watches each match ten times afterwards, one for each outfield player. When asked once about the growth of managers who didn’t play, Jose Mourinho said simply: “More time to study.”
Those without distinguished careers on the pitch “had to start their careers at lower divisions and hence proved their competence by going through a very competitive selection process,” explains Gerd Muehlheusser from the University of Hamburg, one of the authors of the German research. Muehlheusser believes being awarded jobs solely on the basis of their results, rather than names, may be why such managers outperform leading former players.
The discrepancy creates opportunities for savvy clubs. Good managers without playing pedigree are likely to be cheaper, freeing up more money to spend elsewhere, says Omar Chaudhuri from the football consultancy 21st Club. Yet, compared with other European countries, Britain retains an unusual reticence in promoting those from outside the system: there are no equivalents of Julian Nagelsmann or Domenico Tedesco - who had no professional playing experience yet were coaching in the Bundesliga in their early 30s.
The paucity of British managers without playing experience in the football league means teams prepared to eschew orthodoxy may be able to exploit a market inefficiency and emulate Germany in uncovering fine managers who did not play.
John Herdman left Sunderland’s academy because he could see no pathway for someone without playing pedigree. He subsequently excelled as women’s manager for New Zealand and Canada, and has won his first five games with the Canada men’s team.
When Grimsby Town appointed Michael Jolley, a former city trader, last year, they declared that it represented a “move away from the classic ‘managerial merry go round’.” It has been quietly vindicated: first Jolley secured Grimsby’s League Two berth, after joining when the club hadn’t won for 15 games, and he has ensured no relegation scrap this season.
A stellar playing career can be the prelude to an equally luminous career as a manager - but it is neither necessary nor sufficient. Placing too much emphasis on playing experience when appointing managers artificially limits the pool of potential recruits - and risks ending up with someone who was better in their former career than in their new one.
Great players don't always make great managers - English football needs to start thinking outside the box