Managerial Changes and Player Relationships
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| Jose Mourinho Post-match Press Conference Tottenham vs RB Leipzig |
It is never a good sign when a manager gets the boot from his football club when they are struggling for form. It is also not an easy job for the person who replaces him or her as the Interim Manager. This is because the players may have to adapt to the style that the new manager wants them to play. On top of this, there needs to be a good chemistry between the manager and the club, so that they can show faith in him. Chelsea have had a revolving door of managers in which most of them have had success in winning silverware.
At least five mangers have been sacked in the 2019-20 season including Unai Emre and Mauricio Pochettino.
During the 2015-16 season, ten mangers were sacked. This is the record for the highest number of managerial changes in a Premier League season.
If we look beyond Mourinho’s first stint at Chelsea, Avram Grant who was the club’s Director of Football, stepped in as interim Manager in September 2007. The Israeli guided the Blues to their first Champions League final in 2008 where they lost to United on penalties. Chelsea also reached the final of the Carling Cup in that same season, where they were beaten 2-1 by Harry Redknapp’s Spurs.
When Andrea Villas-Boas was sacked by Chelsea in March 2012, his assistant Roberto Di Mateo stepped in as interim manager and guided Chelsea to their first Champions League win. This was the first European silverware since 1998 where the Blues won the UEFA Cup Winners Cup under Gianluca Vialli.
Rafael Benitez also guided the Blues to yet another European title, when they won the Europa League in 2013. But in spite his success, he was never able to win over the fans because of the relationship Chelsea had with Liverpool when the Spaniard was in charge of the Reds. Benítez did not share a good relationship with Mourinho when the ‘special one’ was in his first stint at Stamford Bridge. This was because the Spaniard criticised the Portuguese for the kind of football the Blues were playing.
Benitez compared Mourinho’s Chelsea to Arsenal’s Invincibles, where he said that the Gunners played more a more attractive style of football. “To me, Arsenal played much better football two or three years ago. They won matches and were exciting to watch. Barcelona and Milan too. They create excitement so how can you say Chelsea are the best in the world?” This statement did not amuse both Mourinho and Chelsea fans, and that is why he wasn’t welcomed by Blues fans during his interim stint at Stamford Bridge.
Guus Hiddink was another interim manager who had two stints at Chelsea. During the Dutchman’s first stint in 2009, Chelsea won the FA Cup and finished in 3rd place in the Premier League behind Liverpool and Manchester United who were champions for the 13th time. Hiddink then had a second spell at the Bridge, when he replaced Mourinho during the 2015-16 season. The Blues finished in 10th place of the Premier League. This was their worst performance from a season in the Premier League.
Chelsea then called upon another Italian in Antonio Conte, who was sacked after guiding the Blues to their sixth Premier League title as well as an eighth FA Cup in the following season. But the former Italy boss was sacked after Chelsea failed to clinch a Champions Leagues spot despite their Cup success.
Maurizio Sarri, who took over from Conte at the start of the 2018-19 season won the Europa League. This was the club’s second Europa League title in 6 years. However, the former Napoli manager decided to move back to Italy with his family at the end of the season, so the club called upon Chelsea veteran Frank Lampard, who had just started his managerial career at Derby County in the 2018-19 season. Sarri’s short stint at the Bridge was a short but eventful one, especially when he had that ugly spat with keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who refused to be substituted during last season’s EFL Cup final against defending champions Manchester City.
So, it has been a revolving door of managers joining and leaving the club. Ranieri is the last manager to have a long spell at Chelsea without any silverware. The Italian spent four seasons at the Bridge, before returning back twelve seasons later to have the miraculous season with Leicester City.
However, Chelsea are not the only club to have had a constant change in management. Aston Villa have also had their share of having different personnel in charge, especially during the 2014-15 season, where the had a total of five managerial changes starting from Tim Sherwood, who replaced Paul Lambert temporarily in February 2015.
So how does a team cope with several managerial changes in such a short period of time? Well, know one really knows except the players. Each manager has their own agenda of how they want their team to approach the season this includes the tactics they employ for each game, for example what formation does the team start the game in and how they approach the game as a whole?
When a manager comes up with a plan of how he wants the team to play, it is then up to the players to respond to his tactics and implement them into the game. However, when a team frequently changes their manager, it can become very confusing for the players who are already at the club as they have to get used to a different manager and his or her tactics.
This can then lead to a misunderstanding between the manager and the players and result in the manager leaving the club. Take Mourinho and Paul Pogba as an example. One of the reasons in which Mourinho was sacked by United could have been based on his relationship with the players and in particular the French superstar.
The conflict between the pair was due to Pogba posting a story on Instagram based on United’s penalty shootout defeat to Derby County in the 2018-19 Carabao Cup. Apparently Pogba appeared to be laughing about United’s performance in the game, which displeased the ‘Special One’ and this resulted in a falling out between the two, which may have been one of the reasons why the club showed him the door. The other reason was due to a poor run of results.
As far as the Beckham-Ferguson saga went. The Scot was miffed at the former England Captain after United’s FA Cup loss to Arsenal. Ferguson’s expressed his anger at Beckham by kicking a boot at him, which left a nasty cut above his right eye. This forced the legendary superstar to leave Old Trafford and join Real Madrid in the summer of 2003.
This symbolises how important it is for managers to have a good relationship with their players, it also shows how important managers are to players.
Feature Image: by Steffen Prößdorf via Flickr Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 4.0
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