Football Manager Files footballmanager

Deep insights into the role and life of a modern football manager, with contributions from some of the biggest names in the business.

Part Six – The End

They say that in life nothing is certain, but death and taxes. For football managers, however, that list needs a third addition… the sack.

Everyone who dreams of being a football manager thinks that one day they’ll oversee a dynasty, but the reality is far different. Statistics published by the League Managers Association show that the average tenure for a manager in the Championship in 2015 was 0.87 years, while the average across all English leagues in 2016 was just under 1.3 years.

So if you’re going to manage a football club, you’re going to get sacked. But how does that feel? How do you work to long-term objectives in such a short term business and, most important of all, how do you respond when the inevitable happens?

Iain Macintosh discusses the dreaded drop with a few of the select group who’ve experienced it for real; Alex McLeish, Sam Allardyce, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Stuart Pearce, Slaven Bilic, Alan Pardew, Chris Powell and Garry Monk

Written and presented by Iain Macintosh
Produced by Ben Green
A Muddy Knees Production
© Sports Interactive 2017
www.footballmanager.com
@footballmanager

Deep insights into the role and life of a modern football manager, with contributions from some of the biggest names in the business.

Part Five – The Match

You’ve built your squad, settled upon your tactics and got everything working like clockwork. Now it’s time to put it all into effect… it’s matchday.

By all accounts, this is the hardest part of football management. You’ve done everything you can, but now the players have crossed the white line it’s pretty much all out of your control.

What's it like on the touchline, with 50,00 people either singing your name or baying for your blood? What can you do in those few minutes where you have the players’ undivided attention at half time? And when the game is won or lost (or, indeed, drawn) how easy is it to move on?

Of course we’ll never really know until we’ve tried it for ourselves, but Iain Macintosh takes us as close to the touchline as humanly possible in the company of a number of men who’ve been there and done it… Garry Monk, Alex McLeish, Stuart Pearce, Slaven Bilic, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Chris Powell.

Written and presented by Iain Macintosh
Produced by Ben Green
A Muddy Knees Production
© Sports Interactive 2017
www.footballmanager.com
@footballmanager

Deep insights into the role and life of a modern football manager, with contributions from some of the biggest names in the business.

Part Four - Tactics

So you’ve found a club and built your squad, now all you have to do is send them out on the pitch with everything they need to know to beat the opposition. That’s right… it’s time to talk tactics.

As a wise man once said, football is like a game of chess… except that there are 22 pieces and each one has a mind of its own. So how do you take a group of players with different personalities and different talents and mould them into a unified force all pulling in the same direction?

And even if you manage to solve that problem, then you have to take the opposition into account? Do you adapt your tactics to the team you’re facing or stick to your plan no matter who you’re up against?

To solve this problem, Iain Macintosh steps up to the chalkboard and starts to furiously scribble in the company of Alex McLeish, Slaven Bilić, Alan Pardew, Sam Allardyce, Garry Monk, Stuart Pearce, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Chris Powell.

Written and presented by Iain Macintosh
Produced by Ben Green
A Muddy Knees Production
© Sports Interactive 2017
www.footballmanager.com
@footballmanager

Deep insights into the role and life of a modern football manager, with contributions from some of the biggest names in the business.

Part Three - Recruitment

No matter how great a tactician or motivator you are, your reputation as a manager will ultimately depend on the quality of player you send over that white line, so you need to make sure that every one of them is up to scratch.

So how do you bring in new talent? Do you use the modern scouting tools, depend on your scouts and gut instinct or employ a mixture of both? Do you choose character over ability… and how do make sure that the players you bring in are better than the ones you already have?

Finally, once you’ve been through the long and rigorous process of identifying new talent, how do you convince the players you’ve chosen to sign for you?

To answer these questions and more, Iain Macintosh draws on the vast experience of Alex McLeish, Sam Allardyce, Slaven Bilić, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Garry Monk, Stuart Pearce and Mick McCarthy to delve deeply into one of the most complex elements of football management.

Written and presented by Iain Macintosh
Produced by Ben Green
A Muddy Knees Production
© Sports Interactive 2017
www.footballmanager.com
@footballmanager

Deep insights into the role and life of a modern football manager, with contributions from some of the biggest names in the business.

Part Two - Man Management

It seems simple enough... to be a football manager, you need to be able to manage footballers. But do you do this with the proverbial hairdryer, or use the 'arm around the shoulder' technique? In the second part of our series, Iain Macintosh speaks to a number of the biggest names in the business - Mick McCarthy, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Sam Allardyce, Alex McLeish, Stuart Pearce, Garry Monk, Slaven Bilić, Alan Pardew, Quique Sánchez Flores and Chris Powell - to find out how they go about motivating groups of young millionaires... each with their own personality, skills and needs.

Written and presented by Iain Macintosh
Produced by Ben Green
A Muddy Knees Production
© Sports Interactive 2017
www.footballmanager.com
@footballmanager

Deep insights into the role and life of a modern football manager, with contributions from some of the biggest names in the business.

Part One - Picking A Club

Here in part one of this series we look at the questions that face every manager setting out with a new club. How do you go about picking a club? Do you, as Sir Alex Ferguson once suggested, choose the owner, not the club? And once you're in, what are the first steps? How do you inspire a group of players and bring them together? Then, do you fit those players to your preferred formation, or devise a formation that suits their disparate talents?

To find the answers to these and many other questions, Iain Macintosh draws on the experience and insight of a number of the biggest names in the business: Alex McLeish, Mick McCarthy, Chris Powell, Alan Pardew, Quique Sánchez Flores, Sam Allardyce, Stuart Pearce, Slaven Bilić, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Garry Monk.

Written and presented by Iain Macintosh
Produced by Ben Green
A Muddy Knees Production
© Sports Interactive 2017
www.footballmanager.com
@footballmanager