Only after Football Manager 2011 have I even begun to comprehend the immense difficulties of managing a team. I'm quite sure the case is the same for any sort of management, but this job epitomizes leadership and genius. If the whole of our life was stuffed into 90 minutes of power-packed highlights, I'm sure it'd result in a game of football. Football after all is a reflection of life in the closest possible way.
Most of us have played various versions of PES and FIFA over the years and many of us consider ourselves tactical geniuses. Set a staggered 4-2-3-1, push your players up and play a short passing game and lo, you win the Champions League. Well, it would be that easy if everyone shared the exact same thinking-space like on your computer. Sadly, a game of football involves 11 different minds playing for your team. The probability that any two of them independently have the same idea at any point of time is close to zilch. Well, that's where the manager comes in.
To impose your ideas on an entire squad is possibly the toughest task you can ask a man to do. Not only does he do that on the pitch, like begging the hot-headed Defender on a yellow-card not to throw himself into tackles, he needs to do it off the field as well. And that's something for which I've begun respecting AVB so much for. You would think it is impossible for a man of 33 who has never been a pro-footballer himself to handle legends of a club which has only recently tasted success. People like John Terry and Frank Lampard are probably as big as the club, and therein lies the problem.
While Sir Alex could threaten Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney with a good spanking now and then, and command awe and veneration from one and all with the simple question "Who's your daddy?", hardly any manager can claim to be the true daddy at Stamford Bridge. Thank you, Mr. Abrahamovich.
Surely, it couldn't have been easy at all for the manager of Manchester United in 1986, but he was given time... And time is the most precious commodity available to a manager of any sort. To cajole the Torreses into firing goals, to create legends like Leo Messi and to fill the CR7s with enough pride and vanity to etch them into footballing lore forever... all these require time. There is only one Mourinho - 2 Minute Success-Recipe - in this world and even he is to be tested over a long period of time. One could probably say that since The Special One was the closest anyone was to being daddy of a new Chelsea team in 2004 and a new Galacticos team in 2010 - hence, his jobs aren't the most difficult ones available.
I'm not taking anything away from TSO: it takes tremendous vision to see that Terry+Lampard+Drogba = GOOALLS; something Mancini is achieving through trial-and-error, buying everybody available in the market and taking United-want-aways. All I'm saying is that such success cannot live beyond the aforesaid manager's tenure. And the next guy in will almost certainly face the firing-squad. You can never change daddies overnight.
I'm writing this in the immediate aftermath of a 3-1 defeat at Old Trafford, one which has filled me with a new belief that AVB might be the man to change Stamford Bridge's destiny forever. Not often would I be in such high spirits after a loss but I feel this young man is a genius. The result could have been a lot different, and while we deserved no points from the game, the scoreline definitely doesn't say the whole story.
One thing is apparent to me: this fellow AVB has, to use a euphemism, guts. But he'll need a lot more of that (those) to ensure that the legendary numbers eight and twenty-six come off the bench more often. The big man Drogba isn't going to be around forever either and he should be made to understand that. There's no point being a sentimental fool and having these fellows occupy space in a football pitch, hoping that one day they'll produce a glimpse of their glory days. I believe AVB is doing a great job by remaining in the good-books of men almost as old as himself - men who are more decorated than he is - while politely reminding them that they aren't as young as they used to be.
I just hope this fellow sticks around... For truly, the times, they are a-changin'!
Absolutely smashing post! Especially about the "coming off the bench part". My respect and belief in AVB has gone sky-high after this great performance away at OT. Even skysports pundits are praising him for his gutsy approach to this game. This could be the start of a new era for chelsea, when they could finally come out of Mou's shadow.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Desi. Well, they certainly have to. Lampard is almost non-existent these days and he takes too much time on the ball. And Terry - he's too frikkin' slow!
ReplyDeleteAnd even with these fellows, it ended 3-1.
A few months with AvB, and Chelsea will certainly start kicking some a$$!
ReplyDeleteChelsea look like a useless team past its prime, clearly epitomised by Terry's lethargy, Cole's villainy and Lampard's disappearance after half-time. But they've still got a a lot of fight in them. Mata is one to keep an eye out for. But I cannot understand for the life of me why Luiz didn't start.
ReplyDeleteThis was the United fledglings' baptism by fire, and I daresay they did a fine job. I will remember this as a night when the Glaswegian Knight taught the Portugese chap 36 years his junior a lesson in blooding promising youngsters and building teams for the future.
Shaumik, I'm certain of that.
ReplyDeleteMGay, They'll be back... I'll be surprised if they aren't a brilliant side by the time you visit Stamford Bridge. While I don't expect silverware this year, AVB has the ability to create a Barcelona-beating-side.
As I said, every manager needs time. Ferguson has had 25 years.