Management of football clubs

Management of football clubs: Should managers be sacked for poor performance of a club on the pitch?

 

Why Football Club Managers Should Not Be Sacked Due To Short Term Poor Performance on the Field

Football club managers should not be sacked because of a club’s poor performance on the pitch. This is because there are several factors that affect the performance of a team on the pitch which might not be necessarily linked to the managers. First and foremost, previous studies indicate that hiring a new coach does not automatically improve the performance a football club that has had a history of poor performance (Markham 2012). In other words, hiring a new coach can produce contrasting results with regard to a football team’s performance in the field which might either meet or fail to meet the stakeholders’ expectations (Markham, 2012). Out of previous nine studies carried out in six countries, five of such studies showed that sacking a manager who performs poorly in the field and replacing him with a new coach may improve a football club’s performance in the field to a greater extent (Markham, 2012). Perhaps such concept explains why most clubs in the English premier league usually change coaches when their teams face relegation. However, the research from Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Germany found that sacking a manager who performs poorly in the field and replacing him/her with a new manager do not often improve a club’s on field performance.

A manager’s performance should be analyzed based on the internal and external factors that directly influence such manager’s performance. Unfortunately, most football clubs do not often take into account the factors that have either positive or negative implications on a football manager’s performance. For instance, most analysts do not usually consider the fact that the level of unity and understanding among players may directly influence a football club’s performance in the field. Sometimes, football managers may not be in a position to comprehensively understand and solve misunderstanding between players. In such cases, it would be prudent to take into account the possible contribution of such misunderstanding on the overall performance of the club in the field. Sometimes, clubs employ wrong methods to rate the performance of manager on the pitch. Unfortunately, football managers usually face uncertainty regarding the players’ performance on the pitch (Soderman, 2013). According to Thompson and Martin (2010), the best way to evaluate a football club’s performance is to appraise the club’s standards based on the perception and opinion of a neutral professional analyst. For instance, Fizel (2006) notes that football clubs should always include aspects such as the manager’s age, management experience at the club, and the characteristics of the player to gauge the actual performance of the manager. Nonetheless, it is possible that managers may sometimes contribute to a club’s poor performance on the field by selecting the wrong team, alienating the media and the team’s supporters, failing to take advice from other member of the staff for the club, and accepting too much advise from third parties (Nesti, 2010). However, this does not necessarily imply that all managers undergo the same experiences and should be judged on these bases not unless it is proved otherwise by a neutral or independent analyst.

Most football clubs do not often consider the overall expectation of the fans, football administration, and the players when one is analyzing the overall on field performance of a football club manager. For instance, a manager who has been given enough money to buy high quality players should be gauged based on whether the manager’s new signings have brought significant improvement in the overall on field performance of the clubs. This is because football club managers are usually expected to possess relevant analytical skills that would enable them select and assign appropriate and viable players to bridge or fill the previous gap. In other words, a football manager’s performance depends on the ability of such manager to understand the kind of players that can fit in teams and the financial valuation of such players. In this regard, a manager who has not been given enough money to purchase the players of his/her taste should not be appraised in the same manner in which the one who had adequate resources to select and assign the right players into the club during the open-window transfer or signing period. According to Markham (2012), managers’ on field performance is usually affected by several factors that are beyond his/her control. Such factors include total player wage bill, net transfer expenditure, player injuries, suspension, and other factors that may make a player unavailable in the pitch.

Moreover, the appraisal of a manager’s performance on the field should be done on the club’s performance vis-à-vis the performance of other clubs in the same league. For instance, a manager of a club that has just been promoted from relegation cannot be evaluated on the same manner as the manager of a club which finished in position one in the previous season. In some cases, sacking a manager may bring negative implication on the overall performance of a football club. In most cases, a football club will incur significant financial costs to hire a new manager. Moreover, new managers usually spend a significant amount of time to adapt to the environment and expectations of a new football club. Unfortunately, a football club is likely to record poor performance during the grace period when the manager is adapting to the club. According to Armulf (2012), excessive focus on the individual manager may interfere with the long performance. More specifically, changing a manager when a club is in crisis can improve the club’s fortunes in the short run (Barnes, 2013). However, such move often causes long term instability in the club’s performance. In some cases, changing a manager may not improve the results of a club that is performing poorly. For instance, “after releasing Villas Boaz in March 2012, the performance of Chelsea did not improve” (Barnes, 2012, p.1). This example justifies the fact that a short term decline in the club’s performance should not encourage a club to fire its manager.

In most cases, football clubs that hire new managers tend to record a positive upward trend in performance immediately a new manager is hired. Nonetheless, research show that a team that is undergoing a crisis usually records such ‘come back’ even if the club maintains its manger (Barnes, 2013). According to Barnes (2013), football clubs operates more or less the same manner like any other business enterprises. That is, the type of industry that a business firm belongs and the period that a firm has conducted its business usually contribute significantly to the overall success of the business enterprise. In this regard, “the things that are set in stone at a club like Manchester United” that is regarded to possess great stadium, tradition, and other facilities are supposed to contribute to the success of the club (Barnes, 2013, p.1). Barnes (2013) asserts that a football club’s success on the pitch depends on other factors other than the manager’s leadership effectiveness at the club. Nesti (2010) argues that sacking of football managers due to poor performance may sometimes exert unnecessary pressure on a football manager to impress the owners and fans of a club. In most cases, “a manager can go from being celebrated to being castigated within a short period of time” (Nest, 2010, p. 98). This is regardless of the fact that poor results on the pitch may be caused by poor decisions by match officials and the absence of key players on the pitch due to certain unavoidable circumstances such as injuries.

However, some people argue that football management should be analyzed based on Pierce’s leadership process and the trapdoor models. According to the ‘trapdoor’ model that was developed by Dr. Chris Hope of the judge business School, Cambridge University, clubs should set a minimum threshold of average minimum points a manager achieves per game to gauge the performance of the football club managers (Northouse, 2010). Based on the model, managers who do not meet the average standards set per game would be unfit to lead the club. On then other hand, according to the pierce’s leadership model, leaders are expected to guide, direct, and motivate other people to do the right thing (Northouse, 2010). The pierce’s model expects leaders to be at the center of every decision making process in the organization. The model further expects leaders to take responsibility for their management decisions. Based on such argument, football managers are expected to train, advice, and guide their players to deliver victory at all costs (Northouse, 2010). The pierce model assumes that football managers should comprehensively understand the club’s football and business environment before they make important management decisions. Northouse (2010) argues that the Pierce model attach the success of a football pitch on the manager’s ability to motivate the players, to select the bets captain, administer the appropriate training, and to develop the right mindset among the players.

Normally, the leadership process model holds that managers should learn to identify hiccups on time, fix such hiccups, and give appropriate feedback to his/her followers and the stakeholders as appropriate (Northouse, 2010). In the case of football clubs, managers are expected to identify mistakes, including possible emotional instability and disagreement between players in order to solve such problems on time. This would particularly prevent such issues from affecting the performance of the club on pitch. The model further suggests that football managers should be able to solve all the existing conflicts and disagreements between players in a way that may enable the club to achieve success on the pitch (Lang, 2011). Unfortunately, some football managers may not have the professional and psychological capability to solve conflicts. At the same time, the idea that managers ought to take responsibility for the club’s performance on the pitch does not take into account the inefficiencies that may be caused by a player sickness, injury, suspension, or any other factors that may negatively affect the overall performance of a team.

In conclusion, clubs should always take into account all the external and internal factors when appraising the performance of managers. Based on such fact, clubs should not back managers because of short term poor performance of a club on the pitch. On the contrary, football club managers should be assessed based on their long term performance and contribution to the clubs. This is particularly based on the fact that the overall performance of a club is dependent on other factors that might be beyond or out of the manager’s jurisdiction.

References

Armulf, JK, Mathisen, JE & Haerem, T 2012, ‘Heroic leadership illusions in football teams: Rationality, decision making and noise – signal ratio in the firing of football managers,’ Leadership, vol. 8, 169-185.

Barnes, H 2013, Does it make statistical sense to sack a football manager? Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23724517

Fizel, J 2006, Handbook of sports economics research. Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe

Lang, M 2011, Transformational leadership: Fundamentals-models-Differences-Impact on employees, GRIN Verlag, Munich.

Mallinger, P 2008, So you think you want to be a director of a football club: A view from inside the Boardrooms at Newcastle United and Kettering town, AuthorHouse, Bloomington.

Markham, T 2012, ‘the sacking of football managers as an exact science: who got it right and wrong,’ SportingIntelligence, 23 April, p.1.

Nesti, M 2010, Psychology in football: working with elite and professional players, Routledge, New York.

Northouse, P G 2010, Leadership: theory and practice, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks.

Soderman, S 2013, Football and management comparisons between sport and enterprise, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Thompson, JL & Martin, F 2010, Strategic management, Cengage Learning, Andover.

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