Is Laudrup the man to replace Hughton?
Swansea City announced last night that they have parted company with their manager Michael Laudrup. With their league results falling and the amount of losses accumulating the chairman deemed it time for him to leave. Another manager who is now available for appointment. Does this mean Norwich have finally got a realistic candidate to replace Hughton should they deem necessary?
Michael Laudrup was the man to lead Swansea to their first major trophy in decades, winning the league cup final and taking them into the Europa League. Surely this would be a feat worthy of some job safety? Apparently not in the world of football. The culture within football at this current time appears to be that managers are given a very short span of time to provide a quick fix to the clubs league form and provide as many wins as they can to keep the team in safety. Failure to do so will result in an imminent loss of job and no time to rebuild a team or club for a long-term project.
Stability is a word that is not necessarily attributed to football, especially with the back-room staff and managers. However, when you look at the teams which have kept their manager for numerous years, one thing you will begin to see is an element of stability at the club. When you take Arsene Wenger, he has been manager of Arsenal for almost the same amount of time as all 19 other managers combined have been at their respective clubs. This is a phenomenal achievement but it also points an argument that stability with a manager leads to a more stable club and potentially more stable place in the league. I believe the bigger clubs of this division are beginning to realise this, Alan Pardew for instance has been awarded an 8 year contract with Newcastle and Chelsea have re-appointed José Mourinho who says he wants to stay at Chelsea for the remainder of his career. I feel that these are the first clubs who are realising that stability is more likely to bring success over the long term.
The one thing about football clubs is that you will never have the same group of players that you did maybe one/two seasons ago. With the squad being an ever-changing part of the club, it is difficult for managers who are on short-term contracts to identify where they can build the basis of their team from. Because of the short-term nature of both the managers and the players, more often than not they look directly to the players who have been at the club the longest. What this then means is that they are very limited in the approach they can take because they are restricted to sometimes unadaptable players who are used to playing in a set way. These players then don't want to see change and then turn on the manager. This is something which happened to AvB at Chelsea. The experienced players didn't respond to his "revolution" and therefore his was driven out.
Another thing I have noticed as a result of the AvB case, is that he is reportedly still being paid by Chelsea. What sort of incentive is there for a manager if he is still being paid from a club he was sacked from? Clubs offer managers contracts which, if they are sacked whilst still under contract, the club are contractually obliged to pay out the remainder of the contract. So in essence, there is no incentive other than pride and will for the job for the manager to do well. Coming back to the Laudrup situation, one could theorise that he felt that whatever happened after winning the cup, he had credentials worthy of another job and therefore didn't need to worry so much what happened with Swansea City. Looking at the facts, after the cup final the results fell from 33% matches won to 23%. The loss percentage also increased by 21%. This is not something that could ever be asserted and proven to a definite but it is just a theory.
And then, based on this theory I would have to argue that no, Laudrup wouldn't be the man to replace Hughton. Chris Hughton is a manager who I feel could give stability to a club. My issue with him is that his fundamental principles don't lie alongside mine. I as a supporter want to see us adopt the Bayern Munich approach. Press high and win the ball in the attacking third, rest in possession and create through passing, as opposed to the constant "ball to the wing and cross". My belief is that Hughton would be a successful manager with another team, he would bring stability to another team, I just do not feel he is the right fit at Norwich.
No comments:
Post a Comment