Like any good amateur
or professional journalist I will plainly ignore what I said in a previous
article about giving managers time and not allowing fans to run clubs by making
the crazy assumption that people who own football clubs know how to run them. Not
only that but I'm going to give those people a godlike status.
The clubs in question
are Manchester City and Chelsea whose respective owner’s names shall not be
uttered in vain here as they are probably already known to you and if you they
aren't they don’t really matter any way. This entire thing will be undermined
if either club is sold in the near future however on the assumption that they
won’t be the article that follows will show that overall it's probably better
to round up and burn a singular prophet than turn against the entity which runs
the universe especially if you exist within that universe.
What I am of course
referring to is the regular smiting’s that take place around Stamford Bridge
and other super wealthy clubs whose manager’s always appear to be
the Archbishop of Canterbury or at least modern contemporary's of the
assassinated archbishops of old. Of course Kings are not gods but mostly
believe they are so for all extents and purposes the metaphor works
and if you disagree feel free to complain quietly to yourself and I'm sure one
of the owners will get the message, omnipotence and all that jazz.
Before however I
explain the relevance of the divine I shall jump to a third club, that club
being Manchester United. Now at Manchester United various players over the
years have been let go and success has both occurred before and after their
time at United. A few of these players being Jaap Stam, Eric Cantona, David
Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo. What all of these players have in common is that
they were hired and fired by one Sir Alex Ferguson who has and currently is
overseeing one of the most successful periods a club has ever had. Now if you
to ask a United fan whether they would have rather seen Sir Alex leave than one
of those players it would no doubt be the player that would be chosen to leave
every time.
Now undoubtedly fans
of Manchester City and Chelsea would love a period of sustained success to
match that of United but it is not the manager that is allowed to rule the
roost at either of those clubs. That does not however mean that the success
cannot be achieved or that allowing a manager an inordinate amount of time to
achieve success is the only recipe or method that should be followed.
Chelsea for example
with their current structure seem to be in constant transition in terms of
managers however at the more senior level it is certainly fairly stable and if
Roman is as in love with the club as he as he seems to be then in 20 year’s
time I'm sure his reign will be lauded by all. Whether in the near or distant
future Roberto Mancini will leave or be sacked is in the balance but all is not
lost for Manchester City as long as their owners stay put. With the current
owners in place I can almost safely predict a similar and equally as fruitful
period for Manchester City.
Why is this, well its
simple if you want to control something then you need the most powerful thing,
in fact not only the most powerful thing but the most powerful thing over an
extended period of time. Just a spoiler alert but power normally equates to
money and not the charge stored by electrons that scientists seem quite keen
on. Now back to this whole biblical direction that this article seems to be
taking.
The story of Noah's
Ark. (sort of)
Noah with prior
warning from the heavens and what seems to be an excellent aptitude for
building boats should be able to survive any flood. The flood in this case is
of course is the vast expendable income and ambition of the owner in order to
control society, by society I mean football as the chance of a lot of money and
a book being able to control swathes of people for a discernible period of time
seems absurd.
Anyway if the
manager/Noah is up to the task then the Ark will happily float above the flood
water riding a wave of success. However after the first flood Noah is unlikely
to be keen on building another Ark and will probably just retire to a place
that is placed significantly above sea level. God on the other hand needs
significantly more water than everyone else as taking a shower when you a
infinitely large is tricky and the need for a lot of success and attention will
probably irk God to cause another flood and find a new Noah to make sure his
pet project keeps running.
Noah is of
course now a model for success as opposed to a real person and will probably
not have the same ability and way with large floaty things (technical term for
Arks) due to the drowning of excellent
potential candidates leading to compromises on quality.
Therefore the flood originally designed to make Gods chosen man stand out from
the crowd or more accurately float on top crowd will backfire and look rather
embarrassing.
Through repetition
though a good Noah, who between rounding up expensive ineffective strikers and
finishing off his basic carpentry skills will be able to bring success again
before deciding mountains not only have excellent views but also lack seasonal
floods which will most certainly be much better alternative the ark building
business, kicking off the whole cycle again.
This of course
without digressing too much refers to the successful period Chelsea experienced
under the special one and the subsequent failings of his successors. However as
I pointed out good Noah’s are hard to come by and for every Ferguson or
Mourinho there are at least 600 McLarens. This is of course referring to Steve
McLaren and not the car make although to be honest the cars could probably do a
better job, they certainly have more drive. This is summarised by saying the
supernatural being that can create nearly infinite floods and find Noah’s is
far more desirable than one Noah that could possibly survive one flood or even
a couple before vanishing into the history books.
Which neatly brings
us round to the strength of Manchester City and Chelsea whose power is far
greater than that of any single manager and this is again assuming the owners
and their bank accounts of miracles stay in place. Even if several supposed
chosen ones get crucified there will still periods of success with below par
managers that will lead both clubs to success that will in time outweigh the
achievements of even the greatest manager the world has to offer. For example
the achievements of Sir Alex Ferguson when compared to those of Real Madrid
creep away into insignificance. Real Madrid being owned by its members (The
Socios) since its inception in 1902.
