Do Clubs Know How To Choose A Manager? - 28/11/2006

The revolving door in football management is going round faster and faster. Even clubs like Charlton are sacking their manager after weeks in the job and the typical Championship manager lasts little more than a year. It was therefore interesting to read an article on the question of choosing a manager by respected football writer Simom Kuper in the Financial Times. He quotes Bjorn Johansson who runs a headhunting firm in Zurich who pointed out that in business in general an average search process takes four to five months. In football, a club usually finds a coach days after sacking his predecessor. When the FA took nine weeks to select Steve McClaren, the media accused it of being 'sluggish'. Of course, jobs elsewhere in business are not filled in the glare of endless media speculation. Kuper points out that the new manager is interviewed only cursorily whereas in business a series of interviews is usual. A new manager in Britain traditionally doesn't study for the job and is unqualified even if he has qualifications. The new manager is appointed either because he is free (which usually means recently sacked) or because he has got good results in the weeks before the appointment. Kuper observes, 'The new manager is generally chosen not for his managerial skills, but because his name, appearance and skills at public relations are likely to impress the club's fans, players and the media.' But as Ilja Kanezig, former general manager of Hannover 96, has commented, clubs would rather use traditional methods to appoint incompetents than do anything that looked weird.