The Manager: Inside the Minds of Football's Leaders

by Carson, Mike

  José Mourinho

  Mourinho would also go on to play a significant role in Rodgers’ story. Meanwhile, one of his own great sources of inspiration goes a fair way to explain his affinity with England. ‘I was a lucky man because I have had some crucial moments in my career and one of the crucial moments was when I had the chance to work with Mr Robson.’ The young Mourinho famously encountered Sir Bobby Robson at Sporting Clube de Portugal in the early 1990s, where Mourinho worked as his interpreter. They would go on to work together at FC Porto and at Barcelona before Mourinho struck out on his own. ‘He was not just a great manager – he was a great person. I think everybody that had the chance to meet him and had a few moments, or in my case a few years, felt privileged. I learned so much from my experiences with him. I always remember with a little smile that after I was upset by a defeat he said, “Don’t be sad because in the other dressing room someone is bouncing around with happiness.” So I always remember good moments with him, and every moment was a good one.’

  André Villas-Boas

  Villas-Boas’ first interest in embarking on a football career came from a chance encounter with the same man who would become both his and Mourinho’s great inspiration. ‘I was a fan of Porto. Bobby Robson was the manager, and he came to live in the apartment block where I lived! Out of the blue, without me making questions to him, he took me on board and started taking me to training sessions. My first thought was I have access to something normal people don’t have, because he would take me to training and he would give me his training session plans! It was truly interesting. Obviously, when you are a young boy, everybody wants to be a football player, but not everybody has the talent to do it. I didn’t have the talent, but I wanted something relating to the game and I found this interest in managing from being with Robson on a daily basis. Then I went on the coaching courses and that opened the door for me to start coaching at Porto.’

  Chris Hughton

  Hughton cites two contemporary managers as inspirational for him: Glenn Hoddle and Martin Jol. Hughton served under no fewer than ten managers during a 14-year period as assistant at Spurs, but these two stand out for him: ‘Glenn was a talker. He was very much involved in everything that we did, and Glenn would generally get excited. We would speak in the changing room or in his office, we would speak about players he was trying to get and the positions he was trying to put them in. There would be a real genuine excitement about players and about the work that he was doing. Martin was the man who got me most involved – where I grew the most. He was a really good coach and a really good man.’

  Why it works: the reference point

  Each manager has his own reference point: Carlo Ancelotti knows how much he owes to Nils Liedholm, as does Keegan to Shankly and Paisley. When someone is determined to take up this uniquely exacting profession, it is almost always because of someone they respect and admire in the game. Knowing who that is – and what it is they admire – provides a reference point for years to come. The story of Villas-Boas and Sir Bobby Robson is a perfect case in point: ‘From the conversations that we had he obviously saw in me a boy full of motivation and interest in being a manager, and whether in football or business, a truly motivated person is able to transcend himself when he is doing something that he loves. Then he can achieve something that is difficult to achieve. So when I think of Bobby Robson, I remember that he saw in me the motivation that I had to become a coach, even at a young age, and he chose me to work with him.’ When times get tough, and the unfolding story becomes unclear, Villas-Boas understands at least this one thing: Sir Bobby believed in his potential. Whatever pressures threaten the leader’s story, the source of inspiration remains intact.

  As the Story Unfolds: Making Sense of your Career Progression

  For all of us, the story unfolds one episode at a time. At times we feel in control, at other times not at all. As his career takes shape, the leader needs constantly to be making sense of what is happening, maintaining a perspective that allows him to make good decisions going forward. In leaders’ stories there are defining moments: where and how their career began, how opportunities arose, how they performed at the new level, how they took the tough decisions. A leader needs to reflect on these and put them into context if his story is to hang together well.

  Getting started

  In the event, Rodgers played senior football for only four years. A recurring injury that would have demoralised most people was the spur for him to move into something exciting and new. ‘In my final year at Reading I was injured quite a bit, so I took some reflective time. I genuinely felt that I’d wanted to be the best I could, and play at the highest level I could. Now at 20 I realised that I wasn’t going to play at the level I wanted because of my knee. I was a typical player, good technically, gifted; I believed I knew the game. I could go and play non-league football, but I didn’t have the physical qualities to do what I wanted. I probably came to a conclusion much quicker than other people and I made the decision that if I couldn’t play at the highest level then I would set my sights on one day coaching at the highest level.’ So Rodgers arrived in the manager’s chair through a mixture of circumstance, decisiveness and resilience. Looking back, he would understand the value of these qualities – including his ability to rise above personal disappointment.

  Many leaders take strength from the way their careers began. Howard Wilkinson may have stumbled into football coaching, but he realised from the earliest moments that he was built for it: ‘It was a Road to Damascus moment. I was in Brighton in 1966 [aged 22, playing for Brighton & Hove Albion]. I was in digs, and I was bored. I went down to the gym pre-season, saw a coaching course advertised and thought I’d give it a go – one night a week and a Sunday morning and it’ll be something to do. Within two sessions, I knew that was what I wanted to do. It was as if I’d walked into a shop and found a suit that was made to measure.’ It still took some effort, of course. Wilkinson studied for his licences, and, aged 27, made his decision: ‘I thought, I can go on playing here or I can do something about what I want to do. I spoke to the Director of Coaching at the FA, Alan Wade, and he suggested I’d learn a lot from a degree in physical education. So I went as player/coach to Boston United with Jim Smith and followed a degree course at the same time. Within a year Jim left, and the chairman at Boston asked me to take over. I was now 28 and in charge of a football team.’ Wilkinson was up and running.

  Seizing the moment

  Sometimes the opportunity to move on and up comes to you when you least expect it. Rodgers’ reputation for building something different in the youth team at Reading had attracted the attention of Steve Clark who had been the youth coach at Chelsea. Rodgers recalls: ‘I’d had ten great years at Reading as a coach, developing all the way through. I felt like I was on a magic carpet ride – it was fantastic. I loved my career; I loved my life. But then I felt it was time to test my ideas and way of thinking – could all that work at a club that was looking to move into the European elite? José got the job [at Chelsea] in June 2004, and Steve Clark did a pre-season with him, so had got to know and understand what he was looking for in the youth role. And, of course, Steve’s teams played against my teams, so he understood the kind of thing I was doing. The club was restructuring the academy, and the academy director, Neil Bath, had been put in place and was really starting from scratch. So in September they asked me to help form the youth structure – something that José supported at the top end. I was being asked to implement a philosophy that was close to my own way of thinking.’ Rodgers hadn’t realised he was ready to move on – he was just enjoying doing what he did. But when the call came, he knew it was for him. One of the key skills for leaders pursuing careers is to recognise opportunities when they present themselves. It then requires a choice and often courage to make the move.

  Like Rodgers, Hope Powell was very happy in her career. She was 30 years old and still playing when the Football Association called: ‘I thought they were going to ask me t
o work with a new youth team that were setting up – but they offered me the senior England job. It was a real shock. I asked all sorts of questions and debated it – I wasn’t quite sure. In the end, someone said to me, “Look if you don’t take the job you’ll be in the changing room sitting there thinking actually I should have done it.” My family and friends also told me I’d be an idiot not to take it! I loved the game, I wanted to get paid for working in the game and suddenly I had my chance.’

  Hughton had spent 14 years as a coach at his old club Tottenham Hotspur when he seized the opportunity to take a step closer to management with a move to Newcastle United. He describes it as a deliberate ‘move out of my comfort zone’. ‘I had decided that management was what I wanted. I got a call from Kevin Keegan. Although I didn’t really know him, I’d met him on a number of occasions – normally when Spurs played Manchester City. He asked if I’d be interested in going to Newcastle and assisting him. For me at that time, having had so much time at Tottenham and all of my time in London, that request was too good an opportunity to turn down. It was the road to management – a completely different direction for me, but one I knew I had to take.’

  For some managers, the call comes unexpectedly. Others find something stirring inside them, realise it’s time and decide to go looking for it. What they all seem to have in common is the courage to seize the opportunity when it comes.

  Life on the Big Stage

  Many excellent football coaches never manage leading sides. The ones who do have to adapt pretty fast to life on the big stage. The figures make harsh reading: the average tenure for a manager in English professional football is 16 months and 55 per cent of all first-time football managers are never appointed to a second management job.

  In 2007, Mourinho left Chelsea. Rodgers describes that time as ‘three years of working with arguably the best day-to-day manager in world football’. Rather than seeing Mourinho’s departure as a setback, Rodgers viewed it as an opportunity to move up a gear in readiness for the big chance: ‘I then had a year’s experience of working without him. I felt by working alone I would be fully prepared for what would come next. I had worked with kids of eight and nine through to some of the biggest talents in world football, and I felt I had gained the respect and confidence of players at that level, both from a technical coaching and from a human perspective. So I believed that if I got the opportunity I would be prepared to give that a go and take on the challenge alone.’

  In 2008, after nearly 15 years on the coaching journey, Rodgers finally got the opportunity at Watford, a supportive club that was renowned for giving young managers a chance. ‘I will always be grateful for the great start that Watford gave me. Although I have to say that the first day walking out at Vicarage Road when the curtains went back and the lights were shining right on me, it felt like I’d had no preparation at all!’ Later, he realised that wasn’t the case: ‘After a short time I realised that all that learning and all that underpinning knowledge was gold, and held me in great stead for my journey as a manager. But I also felt very much that I was now responsible. Now I had not only thousands of active supporters, but also a whole city looking at me. I felt inspired.’

  A fascinating feature of leaders under pressure is how they are inspired by it. Analysts in the City and soldiers in the desert pick up on it quickly: the appetite for the big challenge is half the battle. For leaders, welcoming pressure is an integral part of pursuing a career.

  The tough decisions

  As leaders become successful, so more opportunities arise. The leader who adapts to the big stage and succeeds can expect to face some tough decisions. For Rodgers, after just seven months at his new club, this happened when his old club came calling: ‘It happened pretty quickly. I had no desire at all to leave Watford. My plan had been to be at Watford for four or five years. The club had given me a chance, and I wanted to repay them that favour – stay for a significant period of time and learn from the ups and the downs. In the end, my heart overruled my head. I would never have left Watford for any other club, but with Reading it was like going back home. They were the first club I went to at 16, they were a club I felt I knew, they had been in the Premier League, they’d been relegated, they’d just missed out on promotion again and it was a great challenge. But the biggest thing for me was knowing the chairman. I was given a great bit of advice early on in my career, which was if you are a young manager pick the chairman and not so much the club. That’s what happened at Watford – the chairman gave the young manager a chance. And going to Reading I knew I would be working with a good chairman. We had a strong relationship. It was definitely a case of the heart taking me back. Once I made the decision I was OK, but it was far from ideal.’

  Rodgers tends to make his career decisions at a heart level because of the make-up of his personality. Others will deal with them quite differently. Hope Powell, even with her first big decision, was sceptical: ‘To be perfectly honest I thought it was a token gesture. Female, black – I thought it ticked a box and I wasn’t prepared to be a tick in the box. There was a player more experienced than me in terms of playing ability, probably not in terms of qualifications, who was the England captain at the time so I challenged [the FA] – why not them, why me? They had to convince me that they’d really looked at my credentials, my reputation on the field (I only had one yellow card in my whole career), that I was well respected in the game as a player ... I only wanted the job if they believed I could do it. Once I took the job, I knew I could not fail, because it could have been, “Well, there you go – we’ve put a woman in place and they aren’t up to it.” I wasn’t going to have that.’

  Why it works: self-awareness and self-belief

  Leaders who take time to understand their own career journey – how they began, how opportunities have arisen, how they’ve adapted and how they’ve made decisions – these leaders develop self-awareness.

  After more than 30 years as a football leader, Neil Warnock knows where his strengths lie – and where they don’t: ‘I think I have been naturally a leader since about 20 years of age. I always quite enjoyed getting my point over! I was never good enough to be a top player, but I knew what I wanted a team to be. I now know that I’m great at leading in the Championship. There’s a lot I don’t enjoy about the Premier League – the money that’s involved, the money that players earn, the discipline, the morals – but I am proud to have led both Sheffield United and QPR into the Premier League. For me, the Championship is more of a workingman’s bread and butter – I enjoy the cut and thrust. I’m good at getting clubs promoted. I’ve done it seven times, and I want to set the record by doing it again.’

  This self-awareness is an important step to self-belief. Sports psychologist Professor Graham Jones defines this as an objective understanding of our own abilities to deliver against what is required. This is an excellent tool to have when tasked with rapid and difficult daily decision-making, and the perfect antidote to the pressure of the moment. The heightened tension that comes from inflated expectation can all too easily knock a leader off balance. With self-belief, he can be what his players need him to be – strong, assured and calm.

  Managers who are confident in their proven abilities find they have the inner resource to deal with heightened tension. For Rodgers it is about taking ownership: ‘I bring it all back to personal responsibility. I have a lot of help from lots of people – lots of support, lots of influences – and I’m grateful for it. But I’ve arrived where I’ve arrived by being out there and taking my own responsibility, rather than waiting for the phone to ring or somebody to support me. Knowing what I am capable of has served me well in the tough times – on and off the field. My parents died young, so there have been lots of personal challenges as well as professional. That inner steel, that resolve, that perseverance, has served me well since my time at Reading. I know it’s there.’ This is the mark of a leader under career pressure. Success is often dependent on inner strength and perseverance, and these
in turn are often built up through adversity.

  For Carlo Ancelotti, self-belief includes a commitment to what others believe is a weakness: ‘Sometimes when I have a problem, at Milan, the owner would say you are too kind, you have to shout and fight against the players. I know I am kind because it is in my character. My philosophy is if you have a horse and you try to teach it to jump, you can stay behind the horse with your whip or you can go to the other side of the jump with a carrot. The result may be the same, but with the whip you stay behind and the horse can kick! And I am not dealing with horses. I am dealing with professional, adult men. We manage men with big responsibilities – family, kids, lots of money. Such a man has to take the responsibility to be professional and motivated.’ Others may criticise: Ancelotti knows what works for him and believes in his abilities. He may adapt his approach, but his self-belief means he won’t try to change the essence of who he is.

  And, of course, both self-awareness and self-belief are excellent weapons against the inner voice, providing the right focus and the inner strength. The Alex McLeish approach is excellent: ‘How do I shoot the parrot? I rely on past experiences. I think, “Well, wait a minute. I’ve got presence in this game; I’ve been successful. I’ve solved problems before – I can do it again.” You can’t get your knickers in a twist. I’ve seen some coaches and some colleagues say, “What if they win tomorrow and we don’t?” and they all sit by the television looking for the results. If I can’t control it, I leave it. I block all of that out and try and stay in the focus of what my own team is going to do.’ As theologian Reinhold Niebuhr has it: ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’ Mick McCarthy cites that very quote: ‘Those are really wise words for me. I can’t change what happened at Wolves. I had my opportunity – I had five and a half years, great years, I look back and think I am satisfied with my time there. I’m proud of what I achieved at Wolves with a million quid and ten new players. So I look back and for 90 per cent of it or more I can pat myself on the back and say, “Well done, mate.”’