The magazine of the League Managers Association
“Having a strong spirit is essential” Martin O’Neill
Ossie Ardiles Aidy Boothroyd Herbert Chapman Terry Connor Roy Keane Matt Lorenzo Mark McGhee Gary Speed
Issue 10: Winter 2011
Team spirited
Martin O’Neill on learning from Clough, the art of team building and the challenges ahead
Issue 10: Winter 2011 £7.50
What do Leaders do?
The big question... asked and answered
second in command The assistant manager’s role revealed
boxing clever
The changing face of the TV rights market
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economic and political events in Europe’s autumn THE Recent have highlighted the dangers of reckless over-spending, debt management and short-sighted, short-term MANAGERS’ poor leadership. The macro-economic solutions being worked in Europe’s major capitals have micro-economic lessons VOICE on in them. Short-term fixes do not bring about long-term
“We hope 2012 will not see a repeat of vast sums of money being wasted from the game”
solutions, stability and prosperity. The LMA’s Annual Management Conference held in October at the magnificent Emirates stadium, brought football and business together for a day of discussion and debate on the subject of leadership. We heard from leaders from all walks of life, business, the armed forces, talent development and, of course, some of the LMA’s most senior members. The delegates present gained a fascinating insight into the variety of challenges that leaders face and yet, despite the diversity of experiences on stage, a group of consistent themes appeared; the setting of realistic targets, the building of a winning culture; support from the top down and, most notably, clear and regular communication. All of the speakers pointed towards the value of building a long-term vision and sticking with it. As we approach the end of 2011, we have seen a year in which football clubs in England have spent a record amount on the payment of compensation and legal fees in the dismissal of managers across the leagues. This defies the principles of building for stability and success and, more worryingly, is an expense that clubs, certainly in the lower leagues, can ill afford. As the squeeze on finances, from the global institution to the man in the street, continues, we hope 2012 will not see a repeat of the vast sums of money being wasted from the game. The end of 2011 has also seen a uniting of the football family, in sadness, at the awful news of Gary Speed’s death. On behalf of the LMA and all of our members we offer our sincerest condolences and our full support to Gary’s family. We wish them strength in what must be the hardest of circumstances. Gary was highly respected and well liked, and it is a wonderful testament to the man and a legacy for his family, that the outpouring of grief has been so heartfelt and magnanimous is its praise of him. It wasn’t just that he was a great player and a very promising young manager, but also, that across the spectrum from fans to his peers he was much admired as a true professional, a ‘good bloke’ and gentleman of the game. Richard Bevan LMA CEO
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The League Managers Association, The Camkin Suite, 1 Pegasus House, Tachbrook Park, Warwick CV34 6LW www.leaguemanagers.com Opinions expressed by contributors are their own. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited Editor: Ciarán Brennan Art director: Andrew Philp Contributors: Ossie Ardiles, Aidy Boothroyd, Michael Caulfield, Dr Dorian Dugmore, Daniel Finkelstein, Roberto Forzoni, Alice Hoey, Martyn Pert, Philip Smith, Howard Wilkinson, Alexandra Willis FOR THE LMA Publisher: Jim Souter Executive editor: Sue McKellar Commercial manager: Natasha Elliott Publishing enquiries 01926 831556 lma@lmasecure.com www.leaguemanagers.com Cover portrait: Henry Browne/Action Images Picture credits: Action Images, Arsenal FC, iStockphoto
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Editor’s letter Ask a simple question...
Throughout this issue, we continually return to one question... ‘what do leaders do?’ The question first popped up at the LMA’s Annual Management Conference back in October when it was asked (and, to some extent, answered) by the leadership expert Jeff Grout. A summary of Grout’s presentation is included in our look back at the conference, which begins on page 14. The asking and answering of that seemingly simple question isn’t confined to those pages, though; the newly-appointed Northampton Town manager Aidy Boothroyd asks it as part of an absorbing conversation with the management and education guru Stuart Timperley (page 38), while sports psychologist Michael Caulfield offers his own views on the subject (page 56). Away from that single question, Howard Wilkinson argues that all managers benefit from that scarcest of commodities, time (page 44) while Ossie Ardiles gives a fascinating insight into the border-crossing life of the football player and manager (page 68). Elsewhere within these pages we have an interview with Martin O’Neill (conducted just days before his appointment as manager of Sunderland) in which he reveals some of his own management philosophies and lifts the lid on life as a player under Brian Clough (page 20). Another manager who learned his trade under Clough, Roy Keane, was in fine, frank form at the LMA conference, where he was interviewed live on stage by Matt Lorenzo. For those of you who weren’t there, we’ve included the edited highlights (page 24). Like all highlights, however, these are no replacement for being there and witnessing the event live. Next year, you should try to make it along... it’s something that leaders do.
The Manager is supported by
Ciarán Brennan
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— welcome —
THE BACK OFFICE
44 The Technical Area
Howard Wilkinson considers the one luxury which all managers need, but very few are granted... time
24
30
28
32
46 Media Matters
12 KICKING OFF
8 From The Dugout
News, numbers and developments from both within the LMA and across the full football spectrum
12 Gary Speed
A tribute to the Wales manager, who died on November 27th
14 Management Conference
Highlights from the third annual LMA Management Conference, which took place at The Emirates in November
LEADERS
20 Martin O’Neill
Shortly before his appointment, the newly-installed Sunderland manager took the time to talk to The Manager
24 Roy Keane
The former midfield general and Ipswich and Sunderland manager on his love of the game... and being punched by Brian Clough
28 Terry Connor
Mick McCarthy’s right-hand man at Wolves lifts the lid on life as an assistant manager
30 The Insider
The FA’s commercial director Stuart Turner outlines the changing face of the broadcast rights market
32 The Outsider
ESPN’s senior executive producer Andrew Hornett on starting up
48 Financial Insights
Philip Smith of Barclays Wealth outlines some strategies for tax planning in the ‘transfer window’
50 The Coach’s View
Having observed coaching around the world, Martyn Pert argues that the UK needs to play to its strengths
52 Health and Wellbeing
How clever thinking can lead to a healthy heart, by Dr Dorian Dugmore
54 Castrol Analysis
Why Manchester United’s ‘treble’ was an even more impressive feat than you may have already thought
56 Mind Games
Michael Caulfield looks at the pressures of management and offers some strategies for dealing with them
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“You want to take on the challenge time and time again” Martin O’Neill
LMA PEOPLE
58 The Managers’ Cup
All the action from the recent Prince’s Trust-backed tournament
61 Hall of Fame dinner
Carlo Ancelotti joins the Hall of Fame at the LMA’s gala event
64 Hall of Fame
British cycling’s consultant psychiatrist discussses his unique role as a mental health practitioner in elite sport
A retrospective on one of the game’s greatest innovators, the former Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman
THE BUSINESS
The Barclays Premier League referee helps launch an educational website
34 Reputation Management How to maintain your company’s reputation in a world of raised expectations and near-universal access to global media
38 “Mutual Self-interest”
Northampton’s Aidy Boothroyd speaks to a leading academic about management education
43 Transferable Assets
John Shepherd of Sport Mobile looks at how mobile technology is changing the way we do business
67 Jon Moss
Reputation Management
How to maintain your organisation’s good name
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38 50
68 The Voice of Experience
Ossie Ardiles offers some thoughts on today’s overseas players
71 Mark McGhee
12
...reports back from a recent German coaching conference
73 Matt Lorenzo
The experienced broadcaster takes the helm of the LMA’s podcast
74 Stoppage Time
The countdown begins for Team GB’s Olympic football campaign
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Kicking off
— News —
Kicking off news and views from the dugout euro ticket sites open
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Fans of the competing nations in next year’s European Championship can apply now for tickets through 16 separate ‘portals’ which have been set up on the UEFA website. Applications opened on December 12th and will remain open until February 29th. The tickets will be distributed through a lottery, with fans from each nation guaranteed at least 16 per cent of ground capacity for each of the group games.
The introduction of goalline technology would put an end to incidents where legitimate goals are not counted, as in the England v Germany tie in the 2010 World Cup
blatter reveals goalline technology plan FIFA boss outlines provisional timeframe for adoption of goalline technology
Goalline technology could be in use from as early as next season, and will definitely be in operation for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, according to recent statements made by FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Since March of this year, nine systems have been put through a testing process by the International Football Association Board (IFAB). These systems have to meet four basic requirements: that the technology applies solely to the goalline and only to determine whether a goal has been scored or not; that the system must be accurate; that the indication of whether a goal has been scored must be immediate and automatically confirmed within one second and that the indication of whether a goal has been scored will only be communicated
to the match officials (via the referee’s watch, by vibration and visual signal). Speaking to the German newspaper Bild, Blatter revealed that: “There are now systems that combine precision, speed and are uncomplicated. We are now in the testing phase and the IFAB will vote in March 2012 in London over using this resource. If the final decision is made, it can be used from the 2012-13 season.” In a separate interview with the Spanish publication El Mundo Deportivo, Blatter added: “Brazil 2014 will have technology to avoid phantom goals. FIFA has two good systems that meet all the demands we set: reliability, immediacy and not being difficult to use.” It is believed that the two rival systems which Blatter referred to are from the British company Hawk-Eye and its German technology rival Cairos. the manager WINTER 2011
53
The total number of managerial movements in the top four divisions of English football during the 2010/11 season (of which 38 were dismissals). This is remarkably close to the figure from the previous season when there was a total of 51 movements (36 of which had been due to dismissals). During that season, the average tenure of a dismissed manager rose slightly, but was still less than 18 months. See ‘The Technical Area’ (on page 44) for more.
— News —
9.62
The average number of expatriate players on the pitch for Arsenal during the 2010/11 season, the highest figure in Europe. The top five in this list contained three further English teams; Wigan Athletic, Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea.
The Executive COACH with
ROBERTO FORZONI random thoughts
The LMA hosted an event in October for its business partner the New York Stock Exchange at the French national football centre at Clairefontaine. During this event, chief executive Richard Bevan met with the manager of the France football team Laurent Blanc (centre) and one of his predecessors, Gerard Houllier (right), to discuss Clairefontaine’s integral contribution to the success of French football in light of the impending opening of St George’s Park.
MANAGER OF THE MONTH
A run-down of the managers whose results and performances have most impressed the judging panels during recent months October 2011 AWARDS
CLUB
Manager of the Month Roberto Mancini
Manchester City
W 4
DETAILS D 0
L 0
Manager of the Month Chris Hughton
Birmingham City
W 4
D 1
L 0
Manager of the Month Lee Clark
Huddersfield Town
W 5
D 1
L 0
Manager of the Month Steve Evans
Crawley Town
W 5
D 1
L 0
AWARDS
CLUB
Manager of the Month Harry Redknapp
Tottenham Hotspur
W 3
D 0
L 0
Manager of the Month Tony Mowbray
Middlesbrough
W 2
D 2
L 0
Manager of the Month Martin Allen
Notts County
W 4
D 1
L 0
Manager of the Month Paul Sturrock
Southend United
W 4
D 1
L 1
September 2011 DETAILS
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In his book Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues that – no matter how clever we believe we are, or how much success is a consequence of what we do – chance plays a far larger part in life than we might care to admit. So, how does this fit in with the concept of having a strong work philosophy and using strategy to achieve your objectives? Having a vision, strategy and commitment to achieve remain the three underlying areas which I believe are the foundations for any success. However, this book highlighted for me that on occasion, no matter what we do, success and achievement can be the consequence of a completely random occurrence; a chance meeting in a restaurant leading to a contract, your defence being uncharacteristically distracted in the final five minutes of a game and conceding three goals, or simply an unexpected and unplanned call.
Develop a realistic vision and philosophy and commit totally to achieving success... but be prepared for chance to have some impact. I’ve worked with numerous managers (in both sport and business) who have tried to replicate every detail of a particularly rewarding phase, only to fail to achieve the same level of accomplishment; all because they’ve misunderstood the impact of context and timing.
www.robertoforzoni.com
— News —
43
The number of league games which Lee Clark’s Huddersfield went unbeaten between January and November 2011, beating the record set by Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest in 1977-1978
almost £100m spent on sacking managers Cost of managerial dismissals places huge strain on football’s finances
with
Mark hughes
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The former Wales and Manchester City manager takes our test 1. WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE A MANAGER? When the role was thrust upon me after the resignation of the then Wales manager, Bobby Gould. Myself and Neville Southall were given the job for one game against Denmark and although we lost I really enjoyed the experience. I felt that with my playing experience I could offer something, so I applied for the job and got it. 2. Which manager has influenced you most? People won’t be surprised that Sir Alex Ferguson is the manager whose drive, work ethic and presence has influenced me the most. 3. Who’s the best player you’ve WORKED with? I have been fortunate to work with many great players; Ryan Giggs and Brad Friedel to name just two. But as a football technician, Tugay stands comparison with anyone I have worked or played with. 4. What was the best advice you ever received? Be the best you can be. 5. What’s the best ground you’ve experienced? As a manager, I’ll never forget the atmosphere that more than 70,000 Welsh fans generated when we beat Italy 2-1 at the Millennium Stadium in a 2004 European Championship qualifier. 6. Who was your boyhood hero? I was a Wrexham fan and used to watch the likes of Joey Jones, Mickey Thomas and Bobby Shinton at the Racecourse Ground. 7. Maradona or Messi? Messi is the best player in world football and everyone should try to see him ply his trade live at some point in the near future if they can. He has a rare talent. Only time will tell if he will be as revered as Maradona (who I played against when he was at Barcelona) because he was able to carry his national team almost single-handedly to World Cup success. For all his talent, Messi currently struggles to influence the current Argentina team to the same degree.
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Clubs in the top four divisions of English football spent in excess of £99m on changing managers during the 2010/11 season, according to LMA data. This figure combines the costs incurred in paying compensation, legal fees and ‘double contracts’ (where one manager’s contract is honoured for a period after he’s been replaced by another), but does not include the cost of fees to agents or the expense of hiring and firing backroom staff to work with the new managers. The traditional ‘sacking season’ begins in October and carries on until the end of February; the LMA’s figures show that 25 clubs changed manager in that period during last season, with more than 100 coaches losing their job in the same period. The figures for the length of manager tenure are equally worrying, with the average tenure of a manager in the npower Championship now having fallen to below 12 months. The figures are only slightly better for the other divisions, with npower League Two managers lasting, on average, for 1.33 years, npower League One enjoying 1.67 years and Barclays Premier League managers lasting 2.07 years. Managers who lose their jobs take an average of 1.63 years to be reemployed, while almost half first-time managers never find a second management position.
£776
asides
The average amount of money spent by supporters of visiting Champion’s League teams during their trips to games against either Manchester City or United, according to figures released by Visit Manchester.
— News —
£92,000,000,000 The predicted revenues generated by the global sports business between now and 2015, according to a report by the professional services firm Price Waterhouse Coopers.
prozone and amisco host debate on the application of statistical data in football Performance analysis specialists use screening of baseball film to spark debate on the use of data in football
The potential for the use of empirical data in football management was debated by a gathering of LMA members and other experts at an event hosted by two of the UK’s leading providers of sports performance analysis systems, Prozone and Amisco, on November 21st. The event followed a private screening of the film Moneyball, which tells the story of the successful implementation of such methods in Major League Baseball by the Oakland Althletics and their general manager, Billy Beane (portrayed in the film by Brad Pitt, opposite). Chaired by professor Chris Brady (Dean of BPP Business School), the post-screening discussion panel consisted of former England manager Steve McClaren, LMA chairman Howard Wilkinson, the Barclays Premier League’s director of Youth Ged Roddy MBE and Tom Glick, CEO of Derby County. The panel discussed the importance of statistical analysis to their own roles and how it has enabled football clubs to make increasingly informed decisions in terms of their team selection and player recruitment. Glick highlighted the fact that statistical scrutiny works equally well when deployed to assess the progress of academy players as it does with the first team squad. Roddy agreed, stating that there’s a direct benefit in the use of technology in player education, as detailed analysis often facilitates vast improvements in the development of young talent. The panel agreed that, should football clubs more fully adopt the principles of performance analysis, it must be implemented top-to-bottom throughout an organisation. Citing Beane’s difficulties in convincing his coach to
believe in the Moneyball philosophy, Glick emphasised just how important a consistent methodological approach is to achieving sustained success; Wilkinson cited Barcelona as an ideal model while McClaren lauded the coherent structure he found in place during his time as manager of FC Twente.
€900m
The net revenue which UEFA expects to collect over the four years between 2014 and 2018 as a result of the collective selling of TV rights on behalf of its 53 member nations. This new agreement covers the rights to all qualifying games (both World Cup and European Championship) and a number of friendly matches. If achieved, the figure of €900m would represent a major increase on the estimated €540m previously raised by individual agreements over a similar period.
Performance of the Week
From basement battles to title deciders, FA Cup heroics to European exploits – any team’s efforts could earn them the LMA’s Performance of the Week award. Recent winners are... Week Ending
Manager
01/12
Dougie Freedman
24/11
Lee Clark
Huddersfield Town 2 Notts County 1
17/11
Owen Coyle
Bolton Wanderers 5 Stoke City 0
03/11
Arsène Wenger
Chelsea 3 Arsenal 5
27/10
Roberto Mancini
Manchester United 1 Manchester City 6
20/10
Nigel Adkins
Southampton 1 West Ham United 0
06/10
Martin Jol
Fulham 6 Queens Park Rangers 0
29/09
Dougie Freedman
Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Crystal Palace 3
15/09
Andy Hessenthaler
Hereford United 1 Gillingham 6
Performance Manchester United 1 Crystal Palace 2 (Carling Cup)
The F&C Thames River Performance of the Week is decided by a five-man panel consisting of Sir Alex Ferguson, Howard Wilkinson, Joe Royle, Dave Bassett and Barry Fry. The winner receives an engraved crystal vase, in a presentation screened on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday programme.
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OBITUARY
“His life was about standards, he had a high standard for everything that he did.” Sam Allardyce
“He became part of our football family after settling in these parts as manager of Wales, following a fine career as a true and honest professional. Our sympathies go to his family.” Sir Alex Ferguson
“He was a lad that I never, ever heard anybody say a bad word about... everybody loved him.” Harry Redknapp
Gary Speed September 8th 1969 – November 27th 2011
The LMa, like the rest of the world of football, was shocked by the news of the tragic death of Gary Speed on Sunday, November 27th. LMA chairman Howard Wilkinson, who gave Speed his first team début as a 19 year-old at Leeds United when he took charge of the club in October 1988, paid this tribute: “I am shocked and distraught at this terrible news. I knew Gary as a player, coach and manager and he was one of the nicest people I have met. He had so much to offer as a person and as a sportsman. I just find it unbelievable. For him to leave us at 42 is such a tragic loss. I cannot start to try to understand what his family are going through.” In a distinguished playing career,
Speed made almost 700 appearances for five clubs – Leeds United (where he was an integral part of the Championship winning side of 1991/92), Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United – and represented Wales on 85 occasions. He was the first player to make 500 Barclays Premier League appearances and is his country’s most capped outfield player. Although his management career had only just begun, Speed had already shown signs of enormous potential; having taken charge of the Welsh national side in December 2010, he had inspired significant improvement to its fortunes. Wales won their last three internationals the manager WINTER 2011
under Speed and the country’s football fans had begun to believe that they might now have a real chance of qualifying for a major tournament. “He changed the way we play and the whole mentality of our game,” said Wales winger Gareth Bale. “It’s a massive loss – but we will try to carry on the best we can in his honour.” The Football Association of Wales has announced that the national team’s game on February 29th 2012 will be a celebration of Speed’s life. Gary Speed, born September 8th 1969, died November 27th 2011. Survived by his wife, Louise, and their two sons Edward and Thomas.
Kicking off
— Management conference 2011 —
Understanding World Class Leadership The LMA’s third Annual Management Conference, sponsored by Barclays, provided an array of management insights to a packed audience of leaders from football and business
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more than 250 of the LMA’s
members, sponsors and commercial partners came together with delegates from the worlds of sport and business at The Emirates stadium on Wednesday, October 12th 2011 to take part in the organisation’s third Annual Management Conference, sponsored by Barclays. Following a welcome address from LMA chief executive Richard Bevan, the event began in earnest with a presentation from the leading business speaker Jeff Grout, in which he offered insight into how some of the UK’s top sportspeople and business leaders operate (turn to page 17 for more). Grout’s presentation was followed by an in-depth conversation with two former Middlesbrough managers, Gordon Strachan and Gareth Southgate, conducted by the event’s
host, the broadcaster Matt Lorenzo. This covered a variety of topics, including the loneliness of leadership and the inherent insanity of the managerial merry-go-round. Strachan offered his thoughts on how tough the job can be for those who are just starting out (“The early days in the job can make or break you.”) while Southgate argued that, despite the notorious ‘churn’ of managers in English club football, anyone going into the job should “...manage as if they’re going to be there for 10 years.” Southgate and Strachan were followed onto the stage by the former Red Arrows pilot Justin Hughes. Hughes, who now runs the management consultancy Mission Excellence, offered a behind-thescenes look at how the Red Arrows team is structured and how its
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management system functions. The most striking element of this – as demonstrated by a ‘fly on the wall’ video of an actual flight debrief – was the air of open dialogue which is encouraged between all members of the team, regardless of rank or experience. The policy is that each debrief begins with an address by the team leader, who admits his own failings and notes how he could improve his performance, before handing it over to the other team members to do the same. This, Hughes believes, leads to a culture of learning and accountability which is vital in the high-pressure environment of formation flying, but is equally important in any team situation, whether in business or sport. After a short break, the floor was turned over to the chairman of the
— Management conference 2011 —
FA’s National Football Centre at St George’s Park, David Sheepshanks, who gave an update as to the current status of the development (which is on track for its 2012 opening) and an overview of the impact it will have, not only on football, but on a wide range of UK sports. Sheepshanks’ presentation was followed by an interview with the Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger. In an absorbing talk, Wenger spoke about his love for the game and of the continuing search for excellence which keeps him motivated. Wenger also offered a fascinating insight into what it is that motivates professional footballers, saying: “The players who make it to the top are the ones with a very strong internal need; you have people who are in there because they love to win and you have people who are in there because they hate to lose. This is not exactly the same... I would say that people who love to win are strikers and people
who hate to lose are defenders. The needs may be different, but the final focus is the same.” The French manager added his voice to those congratulating the Barclays Premier League on reaching its 20th season, but also warned about the challenges it faces. Now, he suggested, might be a good time for all interested parties to get together to plan for the next 20 years. The interview with Wenger was followed by what, for many, was the highlight of the day, a presentation on the workings of the brain by the British cycling team’s consultant psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters (see ‘The Outsider’ on page 32). Dr Peters’ address ‘Optimising the Human Mind’ explored how the brain works – what it can and can’t do – and how it has developed through evolution to be where it is today. In a fascinating, entertaining (and often bewildering) half hour, Dr Peters showed how a small, but ➽
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“I was six weeks into management at Coventry when I realised that I knew absolutely nothing about the job... it’s only when you’re in it that you realise how much mental strength you need to manage or lead any group.” Gordon Strachan
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➽ powerful remnant of man’s primitive brain has not only survived, but now competes with the more evolved elements. This second ‘voice’, which is inside everyone’s head (and is five times stronger than the rational ‘you’) is what Dr Peters refers to as ‘the chimp’. This chimp is an extraordinary thing; as Dr Peters put it: “At its best, it’s fun... at its worst, it kills you.” What Dr Peters showed is that it’s neither possible nor desirable to silence the chimp. What is possible and desirable – and what he works with athletes to achieve – is to work with the chimp, amplifying its positive effects and removing the negative. Although Dr Peters crammed more into his presentation than could possibly be absorbed in such a short time, he had a huge effect on everyone in the audience – so much so that the ‘chimp’ was not only mentioned in every subsequent presentation, it was also the focus of the majority of the conversations in the post-event bar. Dr Peters was always going to be a hard act to follow, but the panel session on ‘The Challenges of Building For Success’ hosted by TV pundit Garth Crooks did a good job of doing just that. Featuring the combined wisdom of AA president Edmund King, former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan and (the man who Crooks introduced as “the most important man in English football”) FA chairman David Bernstein, this panel covered a variety of topics, including the art of team building, how to deal with the media and the lessons that business and sport can learn from each other. The event was rounded off by a frank, insightful and hugely entertaining interview with Roy Keane, once again conducted by Lorenzo (extracts of which can be found on page 24). The LMA would like to thank all of the speakers, its members who attended the event and also the teams at The Emirates stadium and Fireball Events for their assistance in making this year’s conference such a resounding success.
“Our conference provides a fascinating insight into the twin disciplines of leadership and management from both business and football. Our aim is to build on our initial success over the past three years and cement the position of the LMA’s Annual Conference as a landmark event for those working in the corporate, football and sporting worlds.” Richard Bevan
“Everybody thinks that all of your problems will be from the players, but the dynamic of your management team, the areas that they need to be strong in to cover your deficiencies are crucial. I didn’t have the chance to learn structures of business or those procedures that need to be in place for an organisation to run smoothly and that is crucial.” Gareth Southgate
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What do leaders really do? Business consultant Jeff Grout demonstrated at the LMA’s Annual Management Conference just why he’s one of the UK’s top speakers on the subject of leadership. The following is an extract from the presentation he delivered on the day Everything, it seems, from the collapse of society to sporting success can be put down to good and bad leadership. Such is our fascination with leadership that a quick internet search will reveal more than 100,000 books on the subject. Most of these cover theories and models, but it seemed to me that it would be better to learn about leadership from people who knew about it at first-hand, so I set out to meet with a number of leaders from business, the military and sport to ask them what it was that they really did. And what did I find? In essence, great leaders do three things:
- They dictate the direction of their organisation - They narrow the vision of their organisation down to a simple, clear objective and a narrow and clearly defined range of priorities - They recognise that setting goals and objectives is essential for success
On this third point, the former world and Olympic 400 metre sprint champion Michael Johnson put it beautifully when he said: “I craft my dreams into ambitions... I refine my ambitions into goals... I turn my goals into plans.” The British Olympic swimmer Adrian Moorhouse says much the
“Setting goals and objectives is essential for success” same thing when he tells the story of how he worked his way to the top of the podium. Moorhouse planned to become Olympic champion at the age of 12, having just watched the 1976 games. With the help of an understanding coach, he worked out
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the difference between his own best time in the 100 metres breaststroke (78 seconds) and the time he expected the gold medal winner to achieve in eight years’ time... which was 63 seconds. The coach explained to Moorhouse that the 15-second gap between these times would be closed if the budding athlete improved his performance by less than 1/5,000th of a second per day over the next eight years. Simple... all Moorhouse had to do now was put the work in. Moorhouse, it turns out, was using a ‘goal-setting’ technique that’s been employed by countless Olympians: first set an outcome goal (in this case, Olympic success) then attach a performance goal (63 seconds). After that, it’s all about focusing on the process of delivering those goals. To focus on this process, however, your team needs to be motivated and a key element of motivation is communication. Leaders know that good communication is ‘two-way’ ➽
— Management conference 2011 —
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➽ and great leaders go to great lengths to engender this ‘conversation’. When Greg Dyke became director general of the BBC he was aware that his predecessor John Birt had been accused of being remote, aloof and, particularly, London-centric. So, very deliberately, Dyke spent his first 100 days away from London, visiting locations that no BBC director general had ever visited before. Dyke used this ‘tour’ as an opportunity to speak to as many people as he could at all levels of the organisation, asking them all the same two questions; “What one thing should we do to improve our service?” and “What one thing should I do to improve your working life?” Dyke then spent his second 100 days implementing as many of those suggestions as he could. The whole process took more than six months, but when it was finished Dyke had 17,500 employees of the BBC onside, following him. Dyke realised that without followers, you’re not a leader. Not everyone can spend 200 days on a communications project, but all leaders need to find the time for dialogue. Every day, every leader will be approached by at least one member of their team who will ask if they can “have a minute”. What these people are really asking is: “Can I have a few moments of your undivided attention?” Some years ago, I interviewed the YO! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe in front of a live audience. This began as quite a disconcerting experience, as there was a marked pause between the end of each of my questions and the beginning of Woodroffe’s replies. However, all became clear after a few minutes when Woodroffe explained, saying: “A few years ago I realised that when I was in conversation, about halfway through the other person speaking I began to formulate my response and, as a result, was no longer listening 100 per cent. So now I’ve taught myself to listen and, only when the other person has stopped talking, consider my reply.” Most leaders live very much ‘in the now’
and find it very difficult to give such undivided attention, but it’s something that many should learn. Perhaps the biggest challenge faced by any leader is the management of change. Change is generally a good thing; change delivers innovation, change delivers continual improvement and change can deliver better performance. However, there is one major drawback to change... human beings don’t like it. Change is complicated, change is stressful and change is inherently messy, but change will probably be a necessity if your
“If you are to change, though, you will need to challenge and question everything” organisation is to remain successful. Leaders need to recognise the need for change, must be motivated to make that change and must be prepared to take others with them. If you are to change, though, you will need to challenge and question everything. None of us will ever have all the answers and I take the view that If you’re not going to have all the answers, then you need to equip yourself with most of the questions. Einstein was once asked: “If you were given an hour to solve a problem that your life depended upon, what would you do?” The great scientist replied
About Jeff Grout
that he would spend the first 55 minutes determining what was the right question, because he would be confident that he could answer it in five minutes. So are you asking the right question? I wouldn’t presume to tell you what the right question is, but I would offer you four questions which will provide debate and discussion around your organisation’s performance: - What are the good things you do that you must keep doing? - What are the bad things you do that you must stop doing? - What are the things you do occasionally that you must do consistently? - What things don’t you do that you must start doing? The last of these is the most difficult, because we don’t know what we don’t know. A good way to find out, though, is to ask someone who’s relatively new to your organisation. This will work even better if you’ve already taken the time to establish good two-way communications. Successful organisations learn from their past performance; they review both successes and failures because, as Lord Coe once put it: “If you don’t know why you’ve failed, how can you improve? And if you don’t know why you’ve succeeded, then it must have been an accident.” The reality is that most organisations examine their failures and celebrate their successes. In fact, they should examine both, because it’s success that they’re trying to replicate... not failure.
Jeff Grout is a business consultant specialising in leadership, people management, team building, peak performance, recruitment and retention issues. A graduate of the London School of Economics and former UK managing director of the world’s largest specialist recruitment agency, Robert Half International, Grout has also been business manager for Sir Clive Woodward and worked with the former England rugby coach Martin Johnson. Listed in the ‘100 Best Business Speakers in Britain’, Grout works for a variety of clients including Morgan Stanley, Barclays, HSBC, the FA and Saracens RFC. www.jeffgrout.com
the manager WINTER 2011
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— Martin O’Neill —
Back in the Just days before his appointment at Sunderland, The Manager met with Martin O’Neill to discuss his career to date and reveals which managers throughout the decades have inspired him words sue mckellar PHOTOGRAPHY henry browne/action images
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It’s said that a week is a long time
in politics. If that’s true, then those same seven days must represent an eternity in the world of football. When The Manager sat down to talk with Martin O’Neill he was ‘between jobs’ and clearly keen to get back to the dugout. Just four days later, his wish was unexpectedly granted when he was appointed manager of Sunderland. O’Neill makes no secret of his childhood allegiance to Sunderland, but it is pedigree not sentiment that has secured his appointment at the helm of the Wearside club. Adept at assembling teams built on foundations of strong camaraderie, he brings to Sunderland a wealth of experience and an impressive list of honours that includes two League Cups, three Scottish Premier League titles, three Scottish Cups, one Scottish League Cup and an appearance in the UEFA Cup final (where his Celtic side were beaten by José Mourinho’s Porto). In a fascinating and insightful interview, O’Neill told us of how his love for the game began, talked us through the highlights of his career to date and revealed the managers who have inspired him over the years.
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hen did the football bug W first bite for you? My earliest memory would probably be the World Cup final of 1958. I was very young and our family didn’t have a television. Three houses away from us lived the man in the village who owned TV shops and he invited my family to come down and watch the World Cup final. It was an afternoon match and the curtains
“We had a really good time which, to me is what professional football is all about” were closed so that we could see the screen without any sunlight coming through. A very young man called Pelé scored a couple of goals as Brazil beat Sweden in the final. In 1960 Real Madrid were the
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big club side of the time and one of my older brothers, who I looked up to greatly, had read the Puskas autobiography which revealed that as a kid Puskas could keep an old tennis ball up with his feet 200 times without dropping it. I genuinely believed that if I could keep a tennis ball up 200 times that I would be as good as Puskas. To begin with it used to fall off my foot after about two or three goes so before my brother headed back off to university he said ‘when I come back for the midterm break I want to see a real big improvement’. Every single minute I had that tennis ball with me; it even went to school me. Within three months I could keep the tennis ball up 200 times and when he came back from university I was able to do it. You were studying law in Belfast when Nottingham Forest came calling. Was it a big decision to drop out of university? Interestingly for me I didn’t think there was any decision to be made because football was what I wanted to do. However, my mother who was a great believer in education and had done everything in her power to have all of the family educated was less convinced and thought being involved in law was more of a proper job. I went from being an amateur player for Distillery in Northern Ireland on the Tuesday evening to a professional by Wednesday afternoon after Nottingham Forest paid £15,000 for me. It was a fair difference to the lifestyle I had been used to; training
game every day was a joy not a burden but the training was hard for me. That first year was exciting in many aspects because I scored on my début and then a couple of weeks later I scored at Old Trafford against George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law but it was a big adjustment. This was a time of amazing dreams for me even though Nottingham Forest were struggling that entire season. We got relegated that season and the football club as a whole was just trundling along. John Robertson, Tony Woodcock, Viv Anderson, Ian Bowyer and I were waiting for a Messiah to arrive... and he arrived in the shape of Brian Clough. You went on to great success under your ‘Messiah’. Were you conscious that you were playing for one of the all-time greats? We knew that we were having a really good time and to me this was what professional football was all about. You had camaraderie within the team, Brian Clough was one of the greatest managers of all time but you weren’t every single day in awe of that fact. There were times when he would produce something and you’d think ‘yeah that is sensational’ and he would be very unorthodox in his approach and you’d think ‘yeah that’s very bright, it’s very simple, but it’s a great ploy’. What managerial traits of Brian Clough’s did you admire? Not everything was always perfect and rosy in the garden. He no ➽
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— Martin O’Neill —
➽ doubt had moments when he would have done something and might have gone back into the room and spoken with Peter Taylor and thought ‘wait a minute that might not have been so clever.’ But overall most of his decisions were brilliant; he knew the game inside out. Sometimes when you are dealing with a group of players you can’t always give the individual the amount of time that he might want. I felt that I needed more individual attention and perhaps John Robertson and others sometimes felt the same. Despite my arguments with him, overall his man management was par excellence. The biggest compliment I think I can pay him is that he and Peter Taylor (who was excellent for Brian Clough and for the club as well) took a team from the second division to win the League Championship, a couple of European Cups and a couple of League Cups to give us an extraordinary time of our lives for three or four years. We had great players that would have graced a lot of teams but without Brian Clough I know we wouldn’t have won the Championship, two European Cups and two League Cups. Did you start to think of yourself as a leader when you became captain of Northern Ireland? Billy Bingham made me the Captain in 1980 just before we started the 1982 World Cup campaign and
that was a great honour for me and it pleased me greatly. At that time Nottingham Forest was the team who were heavily involved in Europe and we had already won the European Cup the previous year. The responsibility of captaincy really grew on me over a couple of years. We qualified for the 1982 World Cup in Spain from a difficult group that included Sweden, Portugal, Scotland and Israel; eventually Northern Ireland and Scotland went through. I think getting the captaincy gives you really great confidence both in your performances and your ability to a lead a group of players. Obviously Billy Bingham gave the team talks but I’d get in a huddle with the players as it were and be able to converse with players and hopefully get them into the right frame of mind. It’s the role that you are always hoping as a manager that your club captain will be able to do for you. How important were your first steps into management with Grantham Town, Shepshed Charterhouse and Wycombe? Being Grantham Town manager did me a lot of good. I treated it as if it was the best club in the world and treated the players with great respect. I felt I learnt a great deal from taking that route. By the time that I joined Wycombe a couple of years later I felt as if I’d had a really decent grounding
and of course the days at Wycombe were just absolutely splendid. I had a great group of players and it was a smashing club which was very well run, providing an excellent platform for me to do my job. Looking at the team you assembled at Leicester City it is evident that you create a very definite culture of camaraderie when you join a club; would that be a fair assessment? I know that lots of people will say that camaraderie has to be strong and at Nottingham Forest it was very, very strong indeed and it wasn’t always through the manager doing that. We as a group of players nearly all went out together and Brian Clough would never have discouraged that because he would have felt that this culture was so, so important. I always feel at a club that if you can create it yourself or it happens vicariously, having a very, very strong spirit is essential. At Leicester we were fighting the odds every week so it was particularly important. However, that would be a disservice to the players who came to Leicester with a point to prove. The likes of Neil Lennon, Muzzy Izzet, Robbie Savage, Stevie Claridge, Matt Elliot... you could go through every single one on them and they all had something to prove in the game. I think when you get that desire collectively with a group of players, each week having a point to prove, never feeling that they had achieved something then the camaraderie and achievement goes from strength to strength. How much does that culture guide your recruitment policy? In an ideal world I absolutely look to do this. However, is there such a thing as an ideal world now? The chances were that 15 years ago you were managing a group predominantly of British players but nowadays you are working with an eclectic bunch and you have to make subtle changes in your approach. If you are taking a player from the other side
O’Neill (left) challenges for the ball with another future manager, Bryan Robson, in a 1979 encounter between Nottingham Forest and West Bromwich Albion
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— Martin O’Neill —
now driving things and everything is immediate but you expect that and cope with it.
Proudly displaying the Conference Trophy, won with Wycombe Wanderers in the1992-93 season
of the world and thrust him into the Barclays Premier League and he gets a bit lost then he needs a bit of help and individual attention. So you create camaraderie whilst still taking the individual’s needs into consideration. You’ve managed in the ‘old firm’ cauldron and well as the Barclays Premier League; what’s your approach to managing stress and expectations? It goes with the territory and you know the minute that you take on the job that it will be stress related and full of tension. I think that every manager will say that this is what draws you to the profession. It is an addiction and you do want to take on the challenge time and time again. If you start thinking about stress from the minute that you step into the job you’ll never be able to get up and function effectively as a manager. So you go along with the environment, you try and win football matches because stress is alleviated by winning games and you know that if you don’t win the games you will find yourself in a spot of bother. It certainly seemed in the times of Shankly, Clough and Bill Nicholson that managers only got sacked as the very last straw if results had been going so badly for a fairly lengthy period of time. Nowadays somebody is waiting to take your job if you don’t get a result in two games. There is a different type of media
Other than Brian Clough, who has inspired you in your career? In Brian Clough, I worked under probably the most charismatic manager that has managed in England and from my experience there is no question about that. But Clough did manage at a great time when players had little or no say and he could run a football club in a manner that he wanted to and lots of things were in his favour as a manager at that time. There were very few channels on television so he became a very powerful figure who was terrific as his job. Although I didn’t recognise it every day, I was very fortunate to work under such a great manager. Nowadays you can’t think other than Sir Alex Ferguson as someone to admire. To manage at a club of the calibre of Manchester United for 25 years and have that level of success is absolutely extraordinary. To still maintain that enthusiasm and constant determination is remarkable. 15 or 20 years ago Italy seemed to be the divine power and so you looked
up to those managers maybe more than those who were managing in Spain at the time. I have admiration for the likes of Italian managers who have achieved over the years like Marcello Lippi and Giovanni Trappatoni who is still doing well now with the Republic of Ireland which is terrific for him. Plus Carlo Ancelotti who excelled as a manager in his own country and then arrived in the Barclays Premier League and won the double at the first time of asking. Now Spanish football is at the forefront and I think that Pep Guardiola’s approach at Barcelona is absolutely fantastic; he also happens to have the best player in the world playing for him which helps greatly. José Mourinho has made things happen during his career so hats off to him in this modern day to do so exceptionally well. When he looks back at his career perhaps winning the Champions League with Porto might still rank as his greatest achievement amongst his host of great achievements at Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid. www.leaguemanagers.com/ managers/profile-1151.html
Stop Press... boyhood club comes calling
Shortly after his appointment at Sunderland, The Manager caught up with O’Neill to ask how pleased he was to be back in football management “I left Aston Villa in August 2010, never thinking that some 15 or 16 months on I would not be back in management. I have had a number of opportunities to return in that time but other events seemed to obstruct the issue. However, Sunderland was a chance that I wasn’t going to spurn. My will and determination to succeed is as strong as ever. Growing up, I was a Sunderland fan. I remember listening to the quarter final second replay in the 1964 FA Cup (when Manchester United eventually beat Sunderland) on my little crystal set whilst I was at boarding school after lights out. I was caught by the Dean of the college, the radio was taken off me and I lost my privileges. So what a terrible evening that was... Sunderland losing, despite my prayers, and my privileges lost for the next two school terms.”
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— Roy Keane —
leading by example One of the finest – and most successful – players of his generation, Roy Keane talks candidly about his two decades in the game and his aspirations for his future in management words ciarÁn brennan Interview Matt Lorenzo
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Mark McGhee, who played under
Sir Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen, received a call from his former manager one day in 1993. “Sir Alex was unusually excited,” he says. “He told me that he’d just signed the best player he would ever sign… and I don’t think he was far wrong.” The player in question was Roy Keane. Keane’s playing career went a long way towards justifying his former manager’s claim, as he contributed enormously to Manchester United’s subsequent dominance in a period which yielded seven Barclays Premier League titles, four FA Cups and one Champions League. Keane started his football career in 1989 in his native Cork with the semi-professional Cobh Ramblers. His performances attracted the attention of Nottingham Forest scout Noel McCabe and the following year he found himself in Nottingham, playing under one of the true greats of English club management, Brian Clough. Clough gave Keane his first team début at the beginning of the 1990/91 season. Keane took this opportunity and by the end of that season had established himself as a regular. Although he made two Wembley appearances in his three seasons with Forest, the team was in decline and
was relegated in the 1992/93 season. Keane had not gone unnoticed, however, and Forest’s relegation prompted the country’s biggest clubs to come calling. He came close to signing for Blackburn Rovers, but Keane eventually chose Manchester United and thus began an association which was to last well over a decade. Despite the fact that the Manchester United team sheets of
“I always aimed high in my playing career and I’m not going to change” that era read like a Who’s Who of footballing talent, Keane became Ferguson’s most valued asset: “Roy’s obsession with winning and the demand he put on others made him the most influential player in the dressing room,” he said. “When they start picking the best teams of all time, he’ll be in there.” The strength of character which made Keane such a successful on-
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pitch leader pinpointed him as a natural to make the transition to management and in his first position, with Sunderland, he led his team to the Barclays Premier League. A less successful spell as manager of Ipswich ensued. Now having analysed and learned from this experience, Keane is ready for a return to management. He retains a great love of the game and is still driven by a fiercely competitive spirit and will to win. All of this was demonstrated in a highly entertaining and insightful interview which he gave at the recent LMA management conference. Here are some of the highlights...
Q
Do you ever look back at your successes, or do you only look forward? I’ve never achieved anything as an individual; everything I won was as part of a team. That’s why I love football so much, you’re working with other lads and you’re all depending on each other. In answer to your question, though, no... I’m not a great one for looking back. If anything, it only frustrates me because we should have won more than we did. We won the Barclays Premier League seven times when
I was with Manchester United, but maybe that should have been ten. Also, we lost some big domestic cup games and some big semi-finals in the Champions League. And, of course, I should have done a lot better as a manager too. Is it possible to carry the ‘lead by example’ philosophy you had as a player into management? It’s difficult. Playing and managing are like chalk and cheese. When I was playing, particularly when I was captain, I found leadership very easy, but that was because it was about actions rather than words. When I became a manager, that situation changed; you’re a lot more dependent on your staff, for example, and I certainly didn’t find that transition too easy. I’ve always had a great enthusiasm for the game and I was surprised when I went into management to be working with people who maybe didn’t have the same level of enthusiasm... that knocked me back a little. You played for some great managers. Have you ever found yourself trying to emulate them, remembering what they’d said to you and repeating it? No, not really. I was very lucky to have played under some very good managers; Brian Clough, Sir Alex Ferguson, Gordon Strachan, Jack Charlton, Mick McCarthy, Brian Kerr. I might have disagreed with some of them, but hopefully I learned something from each of them too. I appreciate that I got to play under them, but copying them would be impossible. There are things that I’ve taken into my own management style from everyone I’ve worked with, but I’ve always been my own man. Is it true that Clough once punched you after a game... and you thought that was fine? I remember that well. It was a cup game against Crystal Palace and I tried to send a pass back to our goalkeeper Mark Crossley, who wasn’t the ➽
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— Roy Keane —
➽ fittest player on the planet. Anyhow, John Salako scored from about 45 yards as a result and that meant we’d have to go to London for the replay. Clough didn’t really like to travel, so he was really frustrated and, yes, he punched me... which, to be fair, surprised me. I really wasn’t too upset about it, though, and I never held it against him. I never considered ‘downing tools’ or anything. Put it this way... I didn’t do it again.
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Tell us about your career as a manager to date. I didn’t want to go into management as quickly as I did. I actually turned the Sunderland job down when it was first offered to me because I was still earning my coaching badges. But when I did take the job, things started out well enough. I started to struggle in the Sunderland job at about the time that the club was sold. All in all, though, I think I did reasonably well up there, we got promoted and managed to stay up. It was different at Ipswich, as I never really got going
“There are a lot of good managers looking for work at the moment” in that job. However I was very proud to manage the club to its first cup semi-final in 33 years. I also gave eight players from the Ipswich academy their first team débuts, which is something I’m proud of. When I was at Sunderland, I relied on my gut feeling a lot. But then, probably because things hadn’t ended too well there, I stopped using my instinct and started listening to too many people, which backfired on me. Looking back, I’m surprised that I made such a basic mistake, as I’ve always followed my gut feeling throughout my career and that’s usually served me well.
Keane celebrates winning the 2002/03 title with Manchester United in May 2003
Managers in all walks of life talk about the loneliness of the role. Did you find the job lonely? When I was a player, I enjoyed being part of the team and I would go drinking with my teammates and whatever, but I’ve never minded being in my own space either. Football management is a form of madness, but you ask anyone who’s done the job and they would tell you the same thing... given half the chance – and hopefully with the right club – I’d go straight back into it. It does sound like madness... so why does it attract you? It’s the challenge... the buzz it gives me. Whatever bit of success I might have had as a player, I was never satisfied. I think that will always stay with me. I’m enjoying working for ITV, but I see myself getting back into management. It’s the nature of the game that jobs will come up and if an opportunity arises for me I will certainly look at it. But I could be waiting a long time, because there are a lot of good managers looking to get back into work at the moment. Do today’s players have the same motivation that you had? I don’t think so. The people I played against – the likes of David Batty and Alan Shearer – had a real love for the game, but in my short experience as a manager I found that players want the rewards before they put the work
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in. For example, I think I played about 100 games for Forest before a pay rise was even mentioned... and that was probably a good thing. I’ve had calls from agents of young players who might have played just 10 games asking about a new contract. Sometimes clubs give in to the pressure and then, a couple of months down the road, you find these players have lost ‘the eye of the tiger’. Nowadays players are sitting on long contracts and they don’t seem to be bothered in the least if they’re not in the team on a Saturday. People should get involved with the game because they love it, not because they think they might get a Bentley and a blonde. Do you have an ambition to take over from Sir Alex? No. The only reason you’re even asking me that question is because I used to play for Manchester United. The next Manchester United manager will have to be world class and I’m certainly a long way from being that. As far as I’m concerned, I’m only starting out as a manager. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t aim high; I always aimed high in my playing career and I’m not going to change that. I’ve made some mistakes in my short career as a manager, but hopefully I’ll learn from those mistakes and be a better manager because of them. www.leaguemanagers.com/ managers/profile-1585.html
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— Terry Connor —
The righthand man Who are those mysterious men beside the manager on matchday and what exactly do they do? The Manager talks to one of them to find out
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Is there any role in club football as mysterious as that of the assistant manager? There are, of course, a few instantly recognisable and well-known examples; Steve Clarke at Liverpool, Roberto Di Matteo at Chelsea, Kevin Bond at Tottenham, Mike Phelan at Manchester United and, of course, Pat Rice… who has been beside Arsène Wenger in the Arsenal dugout for more than 15 years. But for the most part, the assistant manager is a silent and relatively anonymous figure, working behind the scenes whilst his higher profile boss fronts the highs and lows of the club’s campaign. Terry Connor is a perfect example. He’s in his fourth season as assistant
Mick McCarthy (left) and Terry Connor celebrate Wolves’ Championshipwinning season in 2008/09
“Mick is definitely the man in charge… the final decision always rests with him” manager to Mick McCarthy with Wolverhampton Wanderers, having previously worked under John Ward and Dave Jones. So how does Connor describe the job? “I’m sure the role has different aspects and responsibilities at every club,” he says, “but here at Wolves it’s really quite simple… my job is to assist Mick in every aspect of what he does, both on and off the training pitch.” With the variety of pressures that they work under, the modern manager is often required to attend to duties away from the first team and the training ground. This, Connor believes, is where a good assistant manager comes into his own. “The manager has to deal with a whole range of things in his job – the press and other things that go on around the club – and when he’s called away he needs to know that
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everything will carry on just as if he were there,” he says. That said, Connor still sees his role as amplifying the manager’s message, rather than replacing it. “If the boss says something – either to the group or to an individual player – I can usually add some ‘meat to the bones’,” he says. “Mick often has to deal with 30 players at a time, and so has to deliver his message in general terms. I get to work with smaller groups, so I can go a bit deeper into things. But the assistant’s role is not just about deputising for the manager when he’s away from the training ground. Connor believes that he and McCarthy operate best when they’re working in tandem. “We share an office,” he says, “so we’re always planning ahead… always working on trying to improve things.” The fact that they work in such close proximity means that there’s little or no need for a formal structure to their work. “We don’t put meetings with each other in the diary or anything like that. We’re always talking football – even when we see each other outside of the working environment, on the golf course or socialising with our wives – so there’s no real need for us to do things more formally… the fact is, we’re in one ongoing meeting.” It helps, Connor believes, that the two men have different (but
complementary) personalities and styles. “Mick and I were both raised in Yorkshire and we have very similar attitudes and views on how to play the game, but we couldn’t be more different in the way we go about things,” he says. So is it a case of playing ‘good cop, bad cop’? “Yes, it often is,” says Connor, “but either one of us can be the good cop or the bad cop, depending on the situation. I’ll hear Mick dealing with a player in one way and I’ll pick up on that and think ‘I’ll approach that from a different angle’. That way, the player gets the same message, but with a different delivery. That’s worked well for us.” But even if they approach things in different ways, Connor believes it’s imperative that the manager and assistant present a united front. “Mick allows me a lot of input and I give that as honestly and knowledgeably as I can, but once we’ve had our discussion and a decision’s been made, as soon as we leave the privacy of the office we talk and act ‘as one’. The players know that if they’re talking or listening to me, they may as well be dealing with the gaffer.” There are times, however, when Connor doesn’t share things with McCarthy – and that’s when he’s acting as a ‘buffer’ between the manager and other members of the Wolves staff. “Mick has a lot on his plate, so if I can sort things out without getting him involved then I will do that. It may be that a player or another member of staff needs a sounding board, or it may be that there’s a situation that needs to be defused; either way, if I can keep it from going all the way to the manager’s office then I’ll do my best to make that happen.” It’s rare, but it has happened that assistants have found themselves running the first team in their own right – for example, earlier this season when Harry Redknapp had health issues and Kevin Bond had to step into the breach. Is that something which Connor is prepared for? “Of course,” he says. “If the
manager wasn’t around for whatever reason, I would step up and do the job to the best of my ability, but as soon as he returned I would revert back to my role.” And what about Connor’s own ambitions? Would he like to take charge of a club in his own right one day? “Every assistant gets asked that question and I’m sure they would each give you a different answer,” he says. “Personally, I don’t think it’s something you should be looking for when you’re in the assistant’s role and I wouldn’t even think about it unless I was actually offered a job. You’ve got to remember that we’re
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running a Barclays Premier League club here. That’s a very big job, so it would be a major decision to move away from that.” Ultimately, Connor – like McCarthy – is judged by what happens on the pitch (albeit in a far less public way). So what influence does he have when the Wolves players cross the white line? “It’s not all that different to how we operate on the training field,” he says. “Mick allows me to have a great deal of input and we tend to talk everything through. But Mick is definitely the man in charge… the final decision always rests with him.”
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the fa’s commercial director reveals the two major changes which will affect the way that he, and everyone in the business of football, works with broadcasting rights For a man who doesn’t get to watch a great deal of television, Stuart Turner’s working life is dominated by the small screen. As the Football Association’s commercial director, Turner’s main focus is maximising the organisation’s revenue and – like most organisations at the top end of football – the majority of that revenue comes from broadcasting rights. Turner, who has been with the FA for six years, has been in charge of commercial operations since June of this year. Although his role covers a variety of activities, including marketing, events, business development and publishing, two elements dominate; the partnership programme and broadcasting. “The partnership programme is immensely important,” says Turner. “We’ve got two new and ambitious lead partners, in Vauxhall for the England team and Budweiser for the FA Cup, both of whom are looking to build their positions within football.” But while all of those activities are important, television dominates. “Television probably accounts for somewhere between 65 and 70 per cent of all our revenues,” says Turner. Turner has a deep knowledge of the value of TV rights, as prior to taking his position with the FA he was on the other side of the table, negotiating to buy those same rights for BSkyB. So is he a ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’ or is it the other way around? “You can look at that whichever way you want,” he says, “but either way, I know where
all of the holes are in the fence.” There are two major issues currently dominating the business of football broadcasting in Europe; one inspired by a court case taken out by a pub landlady, the other inspired by a more familiar face to those who follow the politics of European football, UEFA president Michel Platini. A long-running dispute between the Barclays Premier League and the
“The new scheme will ensure a more level playing field for smaller countries” Portsmouth-based landlady, Karen Murphy was finally settled in October of this year when the European Court of Justice delivered its ruling on the matter. Although the ruling was (as these things often are) more complex than the headlines might have suggested at the time, the main outcome was that the court found that the “...system of licences for the broadcasting of football matches which grants broadcasters territorial exclusivity on a Member State basis and which prohibits television viewers from watching the broadcasts with a
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decoder card in other Member States is contrary to EU law.” “You could argue that nobody lost this case and nobody won it,” says Turner. “While the European Court of Justice ruled that it’s still permissable to sell rights on a territory-by-territory basis, you cannot deliberately prevent cross-border access to that territory’s games. This means you could now have a scenario where all broadcasters in the European Economic Area are effectively showing the same content at the same time. So what we have to do is ask what it is that differentiates those products?” The answer, Turner believes, is language. “We’re fortunate that the European Economic Area has such a diversity of language,” he says. “There are, of course, crossover areas such as Germany and Austria or the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but these would always have been treated as single entities in terms of selling rights packages, so they make little difference. So what we and other rights owners are looking at is selling rights packages in specific languages. To give an example, a Greek broadcaster could have the Europewide rights to our content, but they could only broadcast those games in the Greek language.” Turner believes that the ruling also works for rights owners in that it places limits on how individual broadcasters can market their content to end users. “Let’s use the Greek broadcaster again,” he says. “If I’m a
UK national of Greek descent and I want to get that Greek feed of, say, FA Cup games, in the Greek language then there’s nothing to stop me from buying the relevant subscription and decoder hardware. However, the Greek broadcaster is not allowed to market its service to me directly – it’s the difference between what’s known as ‘passive’ and ‘active’ marketing. There’s a fine line between the two, but it effectively means that Greek broadcaster can’t target a UK national of Greek descent and say ‘come and buy your decoder and card from us’.” There is, however, at least one major question which remains unanswered. “What the European Court of Justice was not asked to rule upon was the whole question of internet and mobile rights,” says Turner. “This could have a major impact, as there’s no need for end users to buy special decoder equipment to pick up internet or mobile feeds and there is also no need for active marketing. However, as it wasn’t covered in the current ruling we can continue to treat those rights as we have done previously and deal with any problems if and when they do arise further down the line.” Like all of these things, the ruling will take time to reveal its full impact, but Turner believes that it will not have too great an effect on the FA’s current round of rights sales. “We currently have our European tender in the marketplace,” he says, “and we’re getting every indication that [the ruling] is not having an impact on what we’re trying to achieve.” Something which definitely will have an impact on the European TV football rights market is UEFA’s decision to sell the rights to international tournament qualifying games as a single package from 2014 onwards, a scheme which the FA signed up to in March of this year. Up until now, each of UEFA’s members has sold the rights to its team’s qualifying games on an individual basis; now all 53 associations have agreed to sell their rights collectively.
This scheme has been devised to ensure a more level playing field for the smaller nations. Under the old system, smaller countries lived in hope of maximising their revenues by drawing one of the more bankable teams in qualifying for the World Cup or the European Championships. “It’s a reworking of the collective selling model that UEFA’s been so successful with in the Champions League and the Europa League,” says Turner. But won’t this levelling of the playing field have a negative effect on the larger and more successful nations, including England? “We, along with Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Holland, have been the most successful in marketing our rights, both domestically and overseas, so in theory we would have the most to lose,” says Turner. “However, we’ve all agreed a minimum payment structure which will run throughout the scheme’s trial period – from 2014 to 2018 – so we should get what pretty much amounts to financial parity with where we’re at the moment. The idea is to grow the whole market, so there’s more available to everyone.”
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What’s not quite so clear, in Turner’s opinion, is how this change will affect the FA’s revenues from its own major domestic competition. “Up until now, we’ve always marketed the rights to the FA Cup in tandem with the rights to the international team’s games,” he says. “Now, however, we’ve had to decouple those rights and we simply don’t know what kind of effect that’s going to have.” So when all of these rights issues have been cleared up, will Turner actually get the time to sit down and watch any of the games? “I try to watch as much televised football as I can,” he says. “Not just because I have a keen interest in the game, but also because we can all learn from the different ways that broadcasters present the game.” There is, however, one ‘rights’ issue that even Turner can’t negotiate his way around. “I record an awful lot of matches,” he says, “but there’s only so much football that someone with four children will ever be allowed to sit down and watch.” www.thefa.com
leaders
THE
Dr Steve Peters words ciarÁn brennan
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One of the men behind British Cycling’s phenomenal success in recent years explains how he’s helping to keep the wheels spinning… without reinventing them To say that British Cycling enjoyed a successful Olympics at Beijing 2008 is a little like saying Sir Alex Ferguson has done reasonably well at Manchester United; the nation’s ‘spokes-people’ contributed eight gold medals to Team GB’s total haul of 19, making it the single most successful part of the most successful UK Olympics team of all time. There are many reasons put forward to explain this success: the clever apportioning of increased budget resources to a sport where funding can make a real difference and the talents of the team’s performance director Dave Brailsford being just two. However, one factor which certainly contributed to that extraordinary success story was the appointment of psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters to the team’s support staff. While sports psychologists are legion, Peters is probably the only current practitioner in the field of sports psychiatry. His work with the British cyclists has been widely praised, particularly by those who directly felt its benefits (including gold medallists Sir Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Victoria Pendleton) but Peters is quick to point out that he’s just one small cog in a large (and well functioning) machine. “Some people attributed the [Olympics 2008] success to me, saying that I was the missing factor, but that’s just ridiculous,” says Peters. “I can optimise function in certain people, but I can’t put the talent into the athletes and I can’t coach them. My contribution is that I can sometimes add the missing piece of the jigsaw.
We had an amazing coaching team and myself and the rest of the medical team were there to clear the barriers and let them get on with their jobs.” So what exactly is the difference between a sports psychiatrist and a sports psychologist? According to Peters, the difference is very clear. “I’m a doctor who works with the brain,” he says. If I were a cardiologist, people would know immediately that I’m a doctor who works with the heart; well, I do exactly the same, but with
“I teach athletes to manage their minds the way they manage their bodies’” the brain. I look at neurotransmitter systems and neuroanatomy… basically looking to see if the brain is functioning well. Sports psychologists, on the other hand, work to optimise performance.” Peters brings a wealth of experience from his 20 years with the NHS to his work in sport; not just from his clinical casework, but also in the techniques he acquired when training junior medical staff. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a footballer who’s about to take a penalty kick or a student who’s taking an exam… the same
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chemicals are going to be released,” he says. “The expectations might be slightly different, but the way they deal with them will be more or less the same. I knew that I could translate my work with medical students to this new field, but what I had to do was learn the nuances of sport.” And sport, it seems, has many nuances. Even within cycling there are different ways of working. “There’s a culture within, say, the BMX team that’s not present on the track,” says Peters. “You have to tune in to those cultures, otherwise you can’t function properly. What I could never do is bring in my own ideas and impose them... that would never work.” What does work, according to Peters, is the application of classic psychiatry techniques. “I’m not inventing something here,” he says. “My expertise and knowledge is limited… I’m just one person coming in to an enormous field. I try to remain invisible and help the athlete to get to where they want to get to.” Although his work is, by nature, personal to each athlete, Peters sees a common thread among his subjects. “You do get recurring themes; ‘competition anxiety’ being the most common,” he says. “Athletes come to me and say that they do all of this training and when they come to the moment of truth they find themselves ‘choking’. They ask if I can remove that and my answer is usually ‘yes’.” It’s possible that one of the reasons that Peters enjoys such success with athletes is that his interest is more than just academic. Despite the fact
that he’s in his fifties, Peters still regularly competes on the track in ‘masters’ competitions. “I’d been a regular runner until I was 40,” he says. “I was just on the point of giving it all up when I was told about the British Masters Athletic Federation. I went along to the British Championships and, despite the fact that I hadn’t really trained, I won the 400 metres. This rekindled my love for the sport and, for the first time in my life really, I started to train seriously.” So successful, in fact, was his new training regime, that Peters even attracted interest from a very unlikely source. “When I started to train seriously, my times improved dramatically, to the point where I ran a 200 metres in 21.9 seconds… at the age of 44. This resulted in me getting a letter from the Olympic selection committee, asking if I would like to attend an Olympic training camp with other ‘up and coming’ athletes. I had to write back to say that it was very flattering, but that I was probably a little too old for that sort of thing.” Peters’ success with Britain’s cyclists has led to invitations to work with other sports; he’s done some work with rugby players and even some Barclays Premier League footballers (although, to date, none have been willing to go public about the fact that they are working with him). Whatever the sport, though, the process remains the same. “Sportspeople always come to me with an agenda,” he says. “We usually start by me asking ‘what do you want to do and why can’t you do it?’. Once those basic facts are established, I get to work as what the professionals call a ‘mind mechanic’. “If I had to summarise it succinctly, I would say that I teach athletes about their brain; I teach them what it does and doesn’t do and I get individuals to recognise that we’re all working to an individual blueprint. Once that’s established, I can get them to start managing their mind the way they’ve always managed their body.” Dr Steve Peters first book, The Chimp Paradox, will be published by Ebury Press on January 5th 2012
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THE BUSINESS
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The fastest route to a great reputation is great performance. However, when things go wrong, it’s how you respond as a manager that makes or breaks it words alice hoey
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— Reputation management —
When Jeff Jarvis discovered multiple faults with his new Dell computer in 2005, he didn’t just call the technical helpline. Turning to his own online blog, Jarvis vented his frustrations at the hardware and the poor service he’d received in a rant entitled ‘Dell sucks, Dell lies’. The post soon became a honeypot for other disgruntled Dell customers, snowballing into what Jarvis described as “a weblog mini-series”. The whole episode should, of course, have been small fry for Dell, one of the largest technology corporations in the world. Yet, Jarvis’s post was cited by many when Dell’s customer satisfaction rating, market share and share price all subsequently fell in the US. Research in Motion didn’t need to scour the internet to feel the negativity towards its Blackberry device in October, 2011. Originating with server problems in the UK, the 73-hour network blackout spread to much of the globe and led to an avalanche of unhappy tweets. Blackberry users were disgusted at the ongoing technical problems and astonished by Research in Motion’s ill-handling of the situation – two tweets in three days and an apparent lack of any kind of crisis management plan. It’s too early to tell what damage has
Grosvenor House general manager Stuart Bowery
been done to the company’s reputation in the long-term. However, like the Dell example, it demonstrates the power that consumers now have in making or breaking a reputation and how important it is that businesses respond appropriately. One-off events, good or bad, can cause a sudden sea-change in opinion, but ensuring consistent standards is an obvious first step to a great reputation. As general manager of London’s iconic Grosvenor House hotel, Stuart Bowery (below) has a considerable reputation to uphold. At its prestigious Park Lane address, Grosvenor House is steeped in heritage, having welcomed everyone from royalty and heads of
“To maintain customer loyalty you have to look after your people” state to celebrities of the era since its opening in 1929. Today, the JW Marriott hotel hosts high profile events for some of the most influential figures in politics, business and entertainment. “Generations of families have stayed with us and many of the world’s best hoteliers cut their teeth here; there’s a long story behind this hotel,” says Bowery. “Everything we do upholds that heritage and reputation.” For a customer-facing business such as his, the error of just one person can be very damaging, especially when the bar is set so high. According to Jason Nisse, who runs the emergency relations practice at PR firm Fishburn Hedges, reputation management is about everything you do as an organisation. “You have to ensure all of your employees, all of your activities and all of your public pronouncements conform to the standard you set for the organisation,” he says. “Otherwise,
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no amount of PR or marketing can prevent your reputation being harmed by the failings of the weakest link in your organisation’s chain.” There must be consistency in the messages that you send out, he adds, whether that is a public announcement to the media and customers, internally to staff or to suppliers and key stakeholders. At Grosvenor House, that means a clear set of standards and expectations and well defined roles and responsibilities. “I have to take responsibility for articulating our vision and the strategies that underpin it to everyone who works here,” says Bowery. “We support our staff with ongoing training and development, professional and personal,” he adds. “To maintain and grow your customer loyalty you have to look after your primary asset... your people.” Of course, to manage a reputation, you must also be aware of what people think of you and your organisation. Online blogs, forums, review sites and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook can give you an ear to the ground, as well as allowing you to respond to complaints quickly. Nisse recommends using the channels that are most popular with your customers. “If you know, for example, that many of them use your company’s Facebook page, then use that to connect and get your message across,” he says. An online presence also demonstrates that you are an open and accessible organisation. Grosvenor House’s chairman, Bill Marriott, blogs weekly, for example, while the company’s various loyalty schemes provide ample opportunities for two-way communication between the business and its customers. That’s important, says Bowery, because it enables them to address any issues directly and early on. “We’ll always try to reconcile a guest’s problem before they leave the hotel,” he says. “But we also respond to many online comments and use an agency to gather online feedback and collect and analyse key data about the hotel ➽
— Reputation management —
Five essential steps towards managing your reputation
The historic Grosvenor House has been frequented by royalty, celebrities and business leaders since its opening in 1929
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➽ over time. That enables us to see how we rank against our competitors on things such as the quality of our food and the check-in experience.” Sometimes it doesn’t take much for a business to end up with a black mark against its name. Even unfounded rumours can be harmful, leaving doubt in people’s minds that can be hard to shake off. But whether you’ve failed your customers or are the victim of hearsay, it’s essential to nip things in the bud. But how? Should a manager speak out immediately and ‘take one for the team’ or shy away from public announcements until all the facts of a situation are established? According to Nisse, it doesn’t matter too much what you say, provided it’s honest and swift. “Don’t mislead or prevaricate,” he says. “Customers will afford you time to give a full explanation later if you give them something now. ‘No comment’ can be a very weak answer, but sometimes it is the only one. However, you should always try to qualify that answer by explaining why your lips are sealed.” Bowery adds that it’s important to listen and to empathise objectively with what the customer is saying. “Don’t get into a needless battle over an issue that can easily be resolved by meeting their needs and don’t let it detract from what you’re about as a business,” he says. As well as handling negative feedback, it’s also the manager’s job to build on the positives. However, customers tend to respond badly to self-promotion by companies. Nisse believes the key is to find advocates
who can spread the good word for you. “Keep an eye on who is active on social media sites and who is influential with your customers,” he says. “Then provide them with the information and encouragement they need to support you and your business. You can only demonstrate, you can’t tell.” At Grosvenor House, thousands of advocates pass through its doors
“Customers are more willing to stay loyal if problems are dealt with properly” every week, interacting with staff from concierges and guests relations to waiters and event management. Under Bowery’s direction, every member of staff must play their part to ensure those customers pass on a great experience and uphold its longestablished reputation. No company or individual is perfect, but customers are more willing to forgive you, stay loyal to you and even view you in a more positive light if problems are dealt with in the right way. Give it some consideration... your reputation may depend on it. www.marriott.co.uk
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1. Raise the bar Your reputation is more likely to withstand the occasional blip in customer satisfaction if your overall standards remain consistently high. Focus on ensuring that everyone within your organisation is aiming high and working to achieve the same goals. 2. Monitor and listen Track comments and feedback about your brand or company on social media sites as well as those made in the in print and broadcast media. As well as helping to flag up problems that require action, this can help you to benchmark your performance and allow you to find ways to improve. 3. Always act quickly When faced with an unhappy customer or allegation, don’t bury your head in the sand. Respond quickly – ideally before they have a chance to lodge a formal complaint – and always be open and honest. 4. Talk on their level As soon as an issue is identified, respond by using the means of communication that your customers are most likely to be exposed to (and to which they will most closely relate). 5. Education, education Make sure that problems are minimised – and reactions are optimised – by constantly investing in the training and development of your staff.
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THE BUSINESS
— MANAGEMENT EDUCATION —
"It's all about mutual self-interest" As part of a research project into football management education, The Manager sent a current practitioner to interview an expert in the subject words Aidy boothroyd
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With the opening of St George's
Park imminent, many of us involved in football have been thinking seriously about the role of management training within the context of the game. The role of the modern day football manager is, in one way, quite simple – keep winning matches and you'll usually stay in the job. However, it can also be quite ambiguous and complex, depending on variety of factors including the size of the club you work for and the individuals you report to (and who report to you). All of us do, however, have to coach, manage and lead at various times during our working day. Usually, the way we find out how to do these things better is by listening to the wise words of a more experienced colleague or, more often, by learning on the job (often through our mistakes). There are, of course, some educational routes we can follow – the UEFA coaching badges and the LMA's management course at Warwick University, for example – but the facilities offered by St. George's Park will increase these options. During the 'free' time I had prior to my recent appointment as manager of Northampton Town, I worked on a project for the LMA, canvassing a variety of people from within the game
as to what they would like to see in future football management education. Before I started this project, though, I thought I should speak to an expert in the field of management education. I found the perfect person in Stuart Timperley. Stuart understands both football and management as he's not only a director of Watford FC, he also has 30 years practical experience both as an academic and in the private sector working as a management and leadership consultant.
“Leadership is about giving things a sense of direction” I spent an intense couple of hours with Stuart, during which our conversation covered a wide range of subjects. The following are some extracts from that conversation, where we touched on the fundamentals of leadership and management. AB: So, Stuart, I would like to start with the whole question of leadership versus management. Are they two
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different things, or the same thing approached from two different angles? ST: There are differences between the two – and a lot of that has to do with time frames. Management is essentially about influencing things in 'the now', while leadership is more forward-looking, it's about shaping and guiding things, giving things a sense of direction. Leadership is about philosophy, it’s about values, it’s about choices and it’s about strong views; it’s about weighing one thing up against another and making a decision. You can have all the data in the world, but that data won’t make a decision for you – it's your interpretation of the data and the situation that's important. AB: So management is about short- to medium-term action, while leadership is more about long-term thinking? ST: Yes. There is a difference between taking charge of an organisation that's in 'turnaround' or leading something which needs building. In the former situation you make quick choices; you can't be too scientific or too analytical, but you will be active and you will, out of necessity, be very directive. I did some work once with the global corporate turnaround practice for the company that's now called Accenture, where we looked at a range
Stuart Timperley (left) passes on some of the wisdom accumulated over a lifetime in business and academia to Aidy Boothroyd
of companies which had spiralled downwards. The interesting thing was that the reasons for these downward spirals all came from a common list; loss of financial control, lack of marketing focus and too wide a range of projects or products. But almost always at the top of the list was a lack of capability in the management. Building an organisation, on the other hand, requires a plan. It's a journey that the whole organisation takes collectively, so the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. This, more often than not, requires a lot of dialogue and a lot of robust debate around the board table. Whenever you take you place at a board table you bring two hats with you; first you have your functional hat – whether you're
a football club manager, a commercial manager a chief executive or whatever – which you wear in your everyday job. When you sit down as part of a management team, you have to remove that hat and replace it with your organisational hat. AB: But surely when you go to the board room, it's part of your job to get the other people there to 'buy in' to what you're doing? ST: First of all, you have to accept that everyone is motivated by selfinterest. This needn't be a bad thing, as in business it's all about 'mutual self-interest'. When you develop a strategy for any organisation, you have a far better chance of making it work it if those people who are the key implementers have been part of
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the process of developing it. If you can develop a sense of ownership, commitment and understanding for your organisation's strategy, then all you have to do is add a time frame and then you have the beginnings of a workable plan. AB: It’s often said that the most important relationship in a football club is the one between the manager and the chairman and I assume that it's similar in other organisations outside football. How do you best manage that relationship over the short, medium and longer term? ST: When I work with managers – not just football managers, but managers in any field – I always start by asking them what their mandate was when they came into the job. ➽
— MANAGEMENT EDUCATION —
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➽ I like the word mandate rather than job description, by the way. A job description is one thing, but a mandate is something which is agreed more informally between, say, the chief executive and the chairman. It's important that any manager knows what the people above them are looking for. If you don't have this mandate – and you'd be surprised how often it's the case that there isn't one – it's vital that you get one sorted out as quickly as possible. Your mandate doesn't have to be formal and it doesn't even have to be in writing. Once you've developed an understanding of what's expected of you, it can be as subtle a process as continually repeating this mandate – in board meetings, discussions or whatever – until it becomes widely understood and accepted. A mandate is not fixed, either. It's iterative and changes as the needs of the organisation change. So if you work to an adaptable mandate, rather than a job description, you're already setting things up to work in the longer term. Some people prefer to work without such a mandate, as they feel that it gives them the freedom to plough their own furrow, but I think this is a high-risk strategy. Business and sport almost never work in straight lines and, without a mandate, you can find yourself in trouble at the first sign of difficulties. You substantially lower that risk if everyone knows what the agreed aims are – and this is the protection that having a clear mandate gives you. AB: I understand that, but it's easier said than done... particularly if a manager does too well too early. And as you've just brought it up... how do you best manage risk in business? ST: Risk in itself is a very interesting area. Most organisations nowadays have a risk register and these can be very extensive... often too extensive. You can usually reduce the list of potential risks in any organisation down to two or three key things. You have to be honest about risk too. I did some work on risk for a very big company recently and it had compiled, as always, a lengthy risk
Stuart Timperley: "Life is about forks in the road and the judgements that people make or don't make when they reach them"
register. However, one risk which hadn't been considered was the risk attached to either the chairman or chief executive leaving the organisation. It's all very well building up a broad list of potential risks, but that list has to be honest and address issues which some people might find uncomfortable. AB: How do you feel about the process of continuous learning? ST: I’ve had an academic career as well as business career and I’m passionate about education; for me education is about change and it should be applied, rather than pursued for its own sake. It goes back to the 'nature versus nurture' debate. A good manager influences those who he or she is managing. This can be done in many ways, but what you're ultimately aiming to do is help people take personal responsibility. Education is a great way to facilitate that. Life is about forks in the road and the judgements that people make or don't make when they reach them – and education helps people at those crucial transition points. Education allows people to understand the implications of their choices and allows them to grow. For me, businesses grow as a result of individuals growing and individuals grow as a result of businesses growing.
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About Stuart Timperley Professor Stuart Timperley has extensive experience in working with organisations on the management of strategic change and corporate transition. He is an alumnus of the Universities of London, Strathclyde and Liverpool. For many years a Professor of Strategic Management at the London Business School, he was also a Sloan Foundation Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Senior Associate at the Judge Institute, Cambridge University, and a faculty member of the Harvard International programme. Stuart is a corporate advisor to a number of international companies and has worked with, and on, boards in a range of sectors. He has been Chairman of a number of organisations, including Freightliners Ltd., Consulteque.com S.P.A., English Regional Arts Boards and Watford Football Club.
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THE BUSINESS
— technology —
The Future’s In Hand John Shepherd of Sport Mobile discusses the opportunities and threats offered by the recent advances in mobile telephony
When I first started in the
mobile phone industry in 1986, the average handset was the size of a couple of house bricks (see below). I thought about this recently when I was travelling by car (as a passenger, of course) and a document which required my attention was emailed to my BlackBerry. I needed to proofread this document, make alterations and return it. I also had to pass on selected information from it to some other people. I was, of course, able to do this without even turning in my seat. It struck me that it’s not computers that have liberated us from our desks, as we once thought they would; for many of us, our mobile phone has now practically become our office. The new smartphones allow us to access the internet, pick up email and even watch TV. This is even more extraordinary when you consider that only 20 years ago, mobile phones didn’t even have text messaging capability (this wasn’t introduced until 1992). My recent car journey experience made me realise that with all these data services available ‘sending a quick text message’ will soon be a thing of the past. There are other advances too. The recent launch of ‘cloud-based’ services mean that personal data such as contacts and pictures can be remotely stored away from the handset. Gone are the days of losing your phone and with it all your contacts (something which many of us have experienced). Video calling is also likely to become more prevalent when the ‘4G’ mobile network is launched.
With all these data based services it is clear that the modern day mobile call and text will soon no longer exist; you won’t choose your mobile package based on minutes and texts, but instead by how much data you require. There are however, drawbacks to all of this technological advance. The increasing use of data and high resolution HD screens is adding extra strain to the smartphone battery life and battery technology has not kept
“For many of us, our mobile has become our office” up with the rapid development of the modern mobile phone. This could soon become more of a concern. Perhaps of more concern, though, is that our reliance on mobile data services will probably mean that mobiles will soon become susceptible to viruses similar to those that attack our laptops on a daily basis. This
is important to note because we all carry a wealth of sensitive business information with us in our pockets these days – the type of information which we would never have let out of our offices a few years ago. With this in mind, Sport Mobile has invested heavily in anti-virus and antispyware software for our customers’ smartphones. These now sit alongside the Government-grade encrypted calls, secure mobile billing and protected voicemail which have always been a part of the package we offer. But the advances in mobile technology far outweigh these small drawbacks and I can’t wait to see what the next decade will bring.
www.sportmobile.co.uk
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Brought to you by
The LMA chairman considers the ingredients that go together to create a successful club manager and reveals the single attribute required of all applicants... the ability to make time Howard Wilkinson
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In all walks of life, people
talk about ‘having a mountain to climb’ – and nowhere can this be more appropriate than in football club management. Given the everdecreasing tenure of managers (see ‘The Sack Race 2010/11’, opposite) many would argue that Everest poses fewer threats to the man in the dugout than the pressures of his job. In the five seasons up to the end of 2010/11, England’s 92 league clubs had employed a total of 214 different managers. Of these, only five have remained in continuous employment with the same club throughout. For many of the 214, their introduction to football management turned out to be their only experience of the job. Only the very best players can make time on the ball; in management, the skill to make and earn time is a requirement for everyone, which makes the achievements of managerial ‘Galacticos’ such as Ferguson, Wenger, and Mourinho even more remarkable. So what are the key ingredients that separate the best from the rest? UEFA’s Technical Director Andy Roxburgh identifies three major skills required of all successful coaches: 1. Technical knowledge (and the ability to communicate that knowledge clearly)
2. Organisation (the daily, weekly and monthly attention to all detail) 3. Leadership With regard to ‘leadership’, the former Hanna Barbera and Lucasfilm CFO Alan Keith summed it up perfectly when he said “Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen” (as quoted in The Leadership Challenge,
“Leaders have strong values and beliefs which underpin everything they do” by Kouzes and Posner). There is a growing awareness within the LMA and among Europe’s senior coach educators that the education of would-be managers needs to focus much greater attention on this critical element of leadership. There are great technicians and there are great organisers, but without great
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leadership, no amount of technical ability or organisational skills will make a great manager. In today’s world of specialisation and delegation, it is excellent leadership that makes the difference. Successful managers – and great leaders – have to start somewhere, but in club football management, getting started is the hardest thing of all. In 1992, the average tenure of a manager in English football was three and a half years. By 2009 it had dropped to roughly 16 months (and continues to fall). Despite these depressing figures, the best still succeed and survive. Some achieve success quickly, but for most it takes time. Research shows that, on average, it takes roughly 300 games (or, in other words, six years) for most managers to achieve major success. When you add up the time spent in preparing for and managing those 300 games, the total time is well in excess of the ‘10,000 hours’ suggested as the practice time required to acquire expertise by the Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson in his paper Expert Performance and Deliberate Practice (and later popularised by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers). Most of those we would consider to be ‘the best’ agree that success in management demands the following:
- Management is their life… and a way of life (there’s no talk from them of a ‘career/life balance’) - Learning and preparing to do the job is a must - Learning on the job is critical - Staying in the race long enough to make winning something a possibility makes ‘survival’ an achievement in itself Lawrie McMenemy, the former manager of Southampton and Sunderland, compared management to riding on a carousel: “Whatever it takes, you have to hang on. Fall off, especially at the beginning of your career, and the odds are you won’t get the chance to ride again.” When looking to appoint a manager, club administrators would increase their odds of employing a true leader if they looked more keenly for the tell-tale signs, which are quite easily discerned. Great leaders have a vision of where they want their team to go and how they intend to get there, they have strong values and beliefs which underpin their working lives and everything they do. They create their own unique culture within their club, they know who they are and what they stand for. Like good players, great leaders know and play to their strengths. But can leadership skills be learned? Leaders answer this question themselves. If they are excellent at teaching and changing others, then clearly they themselves have been taught and have learned. All of the great leaders I have spoken to on this subject (including Sir Alex Ferguson, Fabio Capello, Arsene Wenger, Roy Hodgson and David Moyes) confirm that an obsessive commitment to the game is critical and equally, all are unanimous that learning must be a never-ending journey. I am totally convinced that the key ingredient to achieving success on this long journey is leadership. Leadership brings about successful permanent change; leaders change how people think, what they think and how they
THE SACK RACE 2010/11 The LMA’s statistics for managerial dismissals during the 2010/11 season (compiled by Dr Susan Bridgewater at Warwick Business School) reveal that 53 managers left their jobs during that period. Those managers who were dismissed (a total of 38) had enjoyed an average tenure of just 1.45 years. Although this figure is poor, it does represent a slight increase on the previous season’s all-time low of 1.4 years. The most frequent time for a first-time manager to be dismissed was in the period between six months and one year of their appointment. • 25 of the managers dismissed this season served less than the average tenure, while 19 had been given less than one year in charge • Of those, nine managers had enjoyed less than six months in the job • Nine first-time managers were dismissed in 2010/11 • Research shows that 49 per cent of all first-time football managers are never appointed to a second management job
act. Leaders also know how to develop and maintain relationships and know that success is not dependent on how good they are, but on how good they can make their team. Leaders unlock hearts and minds; those who played for the great Sir Bobby Robson don’t talk about him as being a ‘great technician’ or a ‘great organiser’ they simply say that when you played for Bob you felt you were doing it ‘for him’. Quite simply you did not want to let him down. In summary, expert leadership consists of a deep understanding of the following areas:
1. Creating a culture of excellence 2. Personal strengths and weaknesses 3. Values and beliefs 4. The ability to establish realistic objectives 5. Understanding how to achieve those objectives 6. The ability to communicate effectively To gain that understanding, all managers – and all prospective leaders – need time. And until our football clubs start to give their managers this time, we may never find the next generation of great leaders.
Prozone is the leader in the field of Performance Analysis, offering advanced solutions for team analysis and player scouting. Prozone has built a reputation as the most respected and reliable performance analysis service in world football by consistently providing the most objective performance insights through a combination of expertise, cutting-edge technology and innovative product solutions. Established in 1998, Prozone now supports more than 100 clubs, leagues and federations across the world and analyses more than 6,000 games every season, including every game in the Barclays Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, the npower Football League Championship, MLS and Ekstraklasa, as well as a selection of games from many other leagues throughout the world. Call 0113 244 9296 or email lma@prozonesports.com to see how Prozone can assist you with your specific needs. www.prozonesports.com
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Media
matters Andrew Hornett, ESPN UK
from a standing start – and in the face of stiff competition – the uk division of the us sports broadcasting giant has already become a serious contender
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words Alexandra Willis
In July 2009, following a hastilyarranged auction as Setanta went down in flames, the world-renowned American broadcaster ESPN won the rights to screen 46 Barclays Premier League matches for the 2009/10 football season. But there was one crucial problem – there was no UK channel to show them on. Enter Andrew Hornett, the brains behind Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday, who was charged with creating a channel, more or less from scratch, in time for the season’s kick off in the following month. “Under normal circumstances you’d have 18 months to launch a channel... we had six weeks,” says Hornett. “There was no studio, no presenters, nothing in the schedule, a blank piece of paper. We had to put everything together very, very quickly.” Hornett, who, as senior executive producer, is in charge of everything from presenters to content to identity, set about creating a team to cover football from the Barclays Premier League, the FA Cup, Scottish Premier League, Serie A, the Bundesliga, Major Soccer League and more. “I think we have more football on our channel than any other channel,” he says. “So football is top of the tree, it’s bound to be.” The result is that in just two years since its launch, ESPN UK has received two nominations for the
best sports programme of the year at the Broadcast awards (for its coverage of the FA Cup final and rugby’s Premiership final) and is being talked about as a serious competitor to Sky when the Barclays Premier League negotiates its next three-year deal. “It shows we’ve come a long way in a very short period of time,” Hornett says. “Even though we had
“We try to take football fans to the places where they want to go” support from the rest of the ESPN network, we were effectively a startup. We had to be credible.” The first step to credibility for a broadcast operation, beyond logistics, is in the talent – the presenters, commentators and pundits – which, Hornett explains, is one of his primary priorities on a daily basis. “An enormous amount of emphasis is put on our talent,” he says. “They are part of our brand, they are integral to what we do, so we think very carefully about who is going to commentate, what team we are going
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to put around each game.” Big name presenters such as John Champion and Ray Stubbs are important, naturally, but almost more important, Hornett says, is that those names are appropriate to the audience and that they inspire trust in the content. “When you are choosing people to present or commentate, firstly they need to have a passion for the subject and they should have opinions, but secondly they should be somebody who people at home feel comfortable watching,” he says. “You need a mixture of characters and a mixture of strengths and experience. It’s something I think about all the time.” Equally important is the content, something the ESPN team take extremely seriously, albeit in ways that sometimes make it seem anything but serious. “Serve the fan… that’s our motto,” says Hornett. “We take sport very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously, so we try to capture the emotion of events, take the fan to places where they want to go and ask the questions that the fans want asked.” This fan-orientated approach, which Hornett believes marks ESPN out from its broadcasting rivals, is also what drives the channel’s plans for the future.
“You’re always looking to see if you can make your next programme better than your last one,” he says. “If you can do that, the years look after themselves. We need to be thinking, how can we explain tactics better, explain positional sense better… how can we bring fans closer to the things they want to see.” Among those things are the protagonists themselves, the players, and so access to the teams is a particular priority for ESPN. “We do our FA Cup presentation from pitch side, and we have the managers sit at our table, post-match, to speak about the game,” Hornett points out. “That’s a terrific insight, for fans to be able to see a winning manager talk about what’s happened in the game and explain it.” ESPN also aims to break new ground with its development and use of technology, the watchword in sports broadcasting. But Hornett is keen to impress that technology must serve the coverage rather than drive it. “I’m quite childish in the way that I love new technology,” he says. “But you have to be very careful what you’re using it for, so we’re specifically
about Andrew Hornett
Andrew Hornett, 43, has been senior executive producer with ESPN UK since its launch in 2009. Before taking up his current role, Hornett worked for Sky Sports (where he created the hugely successful Soccer Saturday), Setanta and in the independent production sector.
ESPN Arena
Unveiled in October 2011, the ‘ESPN Arena’ is a table-top pitch with computer-generated players. The first of its kind in the world, it combines a 65-inch touch-screen table with graphics technology that feeds in digitally rendered players, allowing the presenters to drag markers across the screen and show the players taking up their formation, running about and marking each other in ‘augmented reality’ set pieces. The presenters can also make the players spring off the table and stand life-size in the studio, while the table can generate 3D models of a club’s stadium. In the future, ESPN plans to feed in further data, showing the two teams’ possession and pitch position statistics.
looking to use it to tell the story, or to better explain the game. It’s trying to go deeper than people have done before.” ESPN’s latest innovation is the ESPN Arena, a giant ‘touch screen’ table that allows presenters to show player movement in a virtual setting. “A lot of the drive comes from the former players and former managers who come on the show, so we’re continually developing technology in order to suit them,” Hornett explains. “We can fly around to another angle, for example, analyse it from a different perspective and give a different view of what happened.” 3D is on the agenda, but it may take some time, while goal-line technology is something that Hornett
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admits interests him as a fan. “There’s resistance and those who favour it, but the technology is there,” he says. Football, of course, is not the only sport that ESPN has to offer. The channel has also become the UK’s biggest broadcaster of domestic rugby and there is a continuing desire to step up the channel’s ambitions further, but Hornett is not getting carried away just yet. “If you love sport, which we do, you’re going to be interested in everything that becomes available. But the decision to what you buy or don’t buy has to be made with a sensible hat on. So I would say that we’re interested in almost every sport, but it has to make financial sense for us to go after it.”
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— investment advice —
financial insights FROM
Philip Smith, head of wealth advisory for Barclays Wealth offers some thoughts on tax planning for the period running up to the April 5th tax year end... the financial world’s very own ‘transfer deadline day’
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The run up to the end of every tax
year sees tax accountants and financial planners feverishly try to persuade their clients to ‘spring clean’ their finances. We tend to think of this as a financial ‘transfer window’; once the tax year is over you want to make sure that everything is in order, because opportunities might be lost if action isn’t taken in time. Certainly the top income tax rate of 50 per cent should be enough on its own to make most high earners consider their personal circumstances and any unused opportunities they have to make the most of the opportunities that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs offer. Added to that, interest on most savings accounts is at almost an alltime low which means taking a tax efficient approach to finance is all the more important. If returns are low, do you really want to give away 50 per cent of those returns to the tax man if you can avoid doing so? There are several ways to set this spring clean in motion. The following are just a few of the options available. The most obvious is to take advantage of the ‘free money’ which the Government offers through pension contributions. The very word ‘pension’ can make grown men and women bury their heads in their hands, but when the Government is prepared to offer up to 50 per cent tax
relief on the money put into a pension (up to £50,000 of contributions a year, subject to the contributor having sufficient earnings, i.e. taxable earnings above the amount that he or she wishes to contribute), it’s got to be worth a second look. This is particularly the case when the rules on how money can be taken out of the pension at retirement
“Take advantage of the ‘free money’ offered by pensions” have relaxed so much in recent years. People are still obliged to wait until they are 55 to access their pension money, but the days of compulsory annuities are long gone and with ‘flexible drawdown’ pension holders can now access all of the funds within their pension at one time, as long as they can demonstrate that they have sufficient secure income in place. The rules about how much can be contributed (and when) have also changed, which is useful for those whose income may be prone to fluctuate. The annual contribution
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limit is £50,000, but contributors can now carry forward allowances for past years, which makes for a much more flexible process. For every pound contributed, the Government will top it up in the pension by the amount of the basic rate of tax and will also give the remaining tax (up to a total of 50 per cent) back through the contributor’s tax return. These more flexible rules do mean that some care must be taken – once money is contributed it cannot be taken back – but a good financial advisor can offer advice on the various considerations. Relatively recent rule changes have also opened up the opportunity to allow pension holders to pass their fund to beneficiaries free of inheritance tax; so even if you don’t think you are going to need all your pension pot to support your lifestyle in later years, your investment won’t disappear when you die. Apart from pension contributions, another tax-efficient option to consider is the Individual Savings Account (ISA). ISAs have been with us for a while, and while the annual allowances can look a little small (they’re currently set at £10,680) they can also be set up in a spouse’s name and, if contributed to annually, can soon mount up to a considerable sum. The growth in the value of investments within an ISA is free from tax, as long as funds stay in the account. Unlike pensions, money can be withdrawn from an ISA at any time (but the money cannot then be returned, so ISAs tend to be used for longer-term savings). So far, this is good solid stuff. For the more adventurous, however, there are further opportunities in the form of tax breaks designed to encourage investors to back smaller companies. The risk is obviously that these businesses will fail to flourish, but the tax breaks offered significantly reduce the risks and there are some investment options that are carefully designed
— investment advice —
to keep risk low (although it will still be much higher than in more traditional investments). You should certainly ask your advisor about the predictable government-supported returns provided by Feed-in Tariffs; these were introduced in 2010 to encourage greater investment in renewable energy, but this investment opportunity will close in April 2012. Other tax efficient investment opportunities are provided by Venture Capital Trusts, which provide income tax relief of 30 per cent; the maximum investment allowed is £200,000 per tax year and the investment must be held for five years to retain the tax relief benefits. As with ISAs, dividends earned and gains made through the rise of the value of the shares are tax free. The minimum investment levels vary, but are usually set at around £10,000. Enterprise Investment Schemes also offer 30 per cent income tax relief on a maximum annual investment of up to £1,000,000 in any single tax year. Allowances can be carried over from one year to another, which is a useful flexibility for those with fluctuating income. The minimum investment levels vary, but are usually around £25,000. These schemes also have other advantages. For example, they can be used to defer capital gains made in the last three years and reclaim capital gains tax already paid. In addition, some or all of an investment into an EIS should fall outside the investor’s estate for inheritance tax purposes (i.e. beneficiaries won’t have to pay 40 per cent tax on the investment, as long as it has been held for at least two years at the time of death). To take full advantage of any or all of these schemes, it is usually advisable to engage the services of a tax accountant. On the (not very cheerful) subject of inheritance tax, an alarming number of people still make no basic provision for this in their tax planning. If no suitable provisions are made, a person’s estate is taxed at 40 per cent on anything above £325,000
(although this allowance doubles for married couples or civil partners). While those instruments covered so far are designed to reduce a tax liability, there are other routes which are designed to defer the payment of tax, rather than stop it altogether. Offshore Investment Bonds (OIBs) are one such option. Investment in an OIB can grow tax free (or, at least, virtually so). Rather than take a taxable income from such an investment, it is permissible to make annual withdrawals of capital of up to five per cent per annum for up to 20 years until your original capital invested is exhausted (five per cent x 20 = 100 per cent). During this time, the capital that is not paid out grows free of income and capital gains tax. Using this method
it is possible to defer payment of tax for up to 20 years, by which time the investor may no longer be a high-rate tax payer. As always, good advice is important. Anyone can sort their own ISA out, but investing in any of the schemes outlined above and making the right choices around pensions and offshore bonds needs professional guidance.
Barclays Wealth is the wealth management division of Barclays. With offices in more than 20 countries, Barclays Wealth focuses on private and intermediary clients worldwide, providing international and private banking, investment management, fiduciary services and brokerage. For more information and help on how to implement the strategies outlined on these pages in your portfolios, please contact: Matthew Wotton, head of sports, media and entertainment for Barclays Wealth, 020 3555 2941 or matthew.wotton@barclayswealth.com.
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The Coach's view Martyn Pert believes that English coaches are as good as any. So why, he asks, do latin players dominate the game?
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On January 9th 2012 FIFA will
announce the winner of its Ballon d’Or award. Many, including myself, cannot see any further than the phenomenal Lionel Messi receiving the award for the third year running. The Ballon d’Or in its current form is an amalgamation of two awards which were merged last year; FIFA’s World Player of the Year and the French FA’s Ballon d’Or. The list of winners of the two awards for the last 15 years makes interesting reading. Since 1996, only two ‘non-Latin’ players have won either award; Michael Owen and Pavel Nedved. In the past 15 years, the top three positions in the Ballon d’Or have featured 32 players from Latin countries, compared with 13 from the rest of the world. FIFA’s World Player of the Year featured 38 top three candidates from Latin countries (and just seven from the rest of the world). Thanks to Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, Brazil has had the most
winners, with Argentina following close (thanks in no small part to Messi). Of the 25 candidates for this year’s award, only five players hail from non-Latin countries. Ever since I began working in professional football I have heard endless debate (both within
“The Latin countries’ creative talent is not related to money” footballing circles and in the media) about the lack of comparable technical qualities of English players with other footballing nations. In the last eight years I have spent more than 12 months living in and
about martyn pert
Martyn Pert is the assistant manager to Peter Taylor for the Bahrain national team. Despite being just 33, Pert has worked in professional football for more than a decade; he gained his UEFA A licence at the age of 23 and his Pro licence when he was just 32. Pert has worked for a variety of English clubs, starting in the academy system with Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion and Cambridge United before joining Watford (under Aidy Boothroyd) as head of conditioning in 2005. Pert then moved to Fulham as fitness and conditioning coach for a season before returning to Watford to work as a coach under Malky Mackay in the 2009/10 season. Before joining up with Peter Taylor in Bahrain in September of this year, Pert’s last job in the UK was at Coventry City, where he was reunited with Boothroyd, this time as assistant manager.
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visiting Latin countries. I have learned to speak Portuguese and Spanish, observed coaching at all levels, watched countless games and met with coaches, agents and ex-players. It is my belief that the Latin countries’ superior development of creative talent is not related to money, facilities or motivation; we have all of these things in abundance in the UK. I have witnessed some amazing facilities and recruitment programs across the world; none more so than in the Gulf where I’m currently coaching. Yet most cannot compare in the production of talent to a small facility in Buenos Aires, Barrio El Parque, where young players train in a gym no bigger than half a basketball court with a hard, worn playing surface. This small, undistinguished gym has produced more caps for Argentina than all of the London clubs put together have provided for England over the past 15 years. I have worked for and with a number of great coaches and managers. I think the UK produces exceptional coaches and I have not seen any coaching in South America that even compares, in terms of organisation or forward thinking. The Spanish have rightfully distinguished themselves with their current dream team, but in six visits to teams from La Liga, I have not witnessed anything vaguely different or profoundly exceptional in terms of coaching. It is my belief that the coaching quality in Latin countries is not responsible for the development of their creative talent and I argue that, given the same raw materials, UK coaches would produce equally compelling teams. I believe that we are focusing on the wrong things when we examine our talent development processes. Our debates usually centre on contact time, the size of pitches, the curriculum, the number of games and whether the emphasis is on development or winning. Those factors are rarely – if ever – considered in South American countries, where players compete on full-size pitches from the age of 10 and are taught to
win at all costs. There is little – if any – formal coaching before the age of 14 and the school system provides almost no physical education. There is little workload management and children often play many matches per week. It’s a similar story with regards to physical development, as strength training and other physical qualities are developed very poorly. The argument that the children have nothing to do but play football is also flawed, as many of the young players have to work. Furthermore their trips to and from school and training are usually long and on public transport. I believe that Latin countries develop creative players because of other factors, including culture and philosophy. For us to compete in the field of talent development we must begin to ask more fundamental questions, where the answers are harder to define and the solutions are difficult to implement. England has always produced exceptional talent. Furthermore, the development of our academies has led to an increase in technical skills and to our international youth teams being increasingly successful. But for all of that progress, how many world class, individual, English attacking players do we have playing in the Barclays Premier League? It seems to me that if we don’t start to ask and answer the tougher questions, that it will be a long time before we start to challenge the Latin countries’ dominance of the Ballon d’Or.
Food for thought Martyn Pert believes that everyone involved in English football coaching needs to consider some of the fundamentals of youth development. He believes that...
Winning is important Learning how to win is a fundamental characteristic required of any professional footballer.
We’re better than we think we are England produces good players. They may not have all the technical abilities of their foreign counterparts, but they have attributes such as determination and the will to win that many foreign coaches envy. We should consider our strengths rather than our inadequacies.
It’s not about the curriculum A school-based curriculum will help to develop fullyrounded individuals, but it will not produce technically skilled and creative players.
You can’t coach creativity Improving facilities, infrastructure, the coaching curriculum and contact time will do a lot, but it will never alter the level of player creativity.
It’s about football, not physique Long-term athletic development is important, but it should not be the basis of a young player’s regular training regime. A person should first become an outstanding footballer before spending many hours per week building their physique in the gym.
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Health &
Wellbeing With Dr Dorian Dugmore keep your mind healthy and your heart will follow
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It has never been more
important for managers to look after their hearts than in today’s high-pressure world. Although this is largely a physical process, a major part of it is handling the emotions that could lead to a series of hazardous physiological and biochemical reactions. The ‘lash of ambition’ and desire to perform to the maximum has its upside, but it also has potential dangers. Here’s how pressure and emotion have their physical effects. As soon as things get tense, the sympathetic branch of the body’s autonomic nervous system (ANS) kicks in, stimulated by the super renal glands. The result is that adrenaline and cortisol (the stress hormone) are released into the blood, increasing the heart rate, raising blood pressure and prompting other cardiac responses. Other emotional responses, including anxiety, anger and hostility, intensify this reaction. Other physical responses to emotional pressure can include an increase in cholesterol and a release of fatty acids and sugars into the blood (for energy). Faster blood clotting also occurs as the body prepares for either physical confrontation or escape (the ‘fight or flight’ reaction). Stomach acids increase, but there is a decrease in protein synthesis, intestinal movement (digestion) and also a reduced immune response. One other physical effect which should also be noted happens entirely within the brain. When a
human being faces fear (and this can include the fear of failure) his or her brain can produce something called an ‘Amygdala hijack’ where one centre of the brain, the Amygdala, reacts by ‘hijacking’ the thought process before the Thalamus and Cortex (the higher centres) can decipher things more rationally. The result can be an oversensitive reaction by the heart, which can produce significant (and potentially hazardous) changes in its rhythm and rate. So what can be done to minimise the impact of work-related pressure on the heart? The first thing – working on the assumption that prevention is better than cure – is to make sure that you are regularly tested, both clinically and physiologically. Heart problems can be spotted and even reversed (or at least stopped in their tracks) through early diagnosis. Next, of course, is exercise. When moderate exercise is taken regularly, it generates an increased release of endorphins which promotes the ‘good chemistry’ that expands arteries and puts a person on a relaxed high. Hard ‘high end’ anaerobic exercise does the opposite (especially to those who are not used to it) and can produce dangerous cardiac arrhythmias, especially during recovery. Moderate exercise also uses some of the sugars, cholesterol and other substances that are released during times of stress, helping to avoid a build-up of these. In addition to exercise, it can also help to practice daily relaxation techniques that focus on heart-centred feelings (appreciation, not frustration)
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and deep, regulated breathing. Even doing this for 10 minutes per day can help reduce the sympathetic drive that fires adrenaline and cortisol into your system (but it only works if you do it regularly). Similarly, it can help to take a few minutes every day to identify the things that cause the stress in your life and find ways to neutralise, reduce or eliminate them. Where possible, it also helps to surround yourself with people you enjoy working with, as the chemistry of appreciation is both endorphinbased and cardio-protective (the chemistry of antagonism, on the other hand, often fuels adrenaline and cortisol production). Dietary supplements can also help, but you should only use those of a high quality. The Parent Essential Oils mentioned in last issue’s ‘Expert Comment’ are cardio and cancer-protective, while L Arginine is thought to have properties that help relax and reduce the stiffness of arteries. Very few managers will allow stress to drive them away from their work, so realising the factors, emotions and causes of potential health hazards and heading them off at the pass is crucial. So often we hear of people who have been aware of health issues but have put them on the ‘back burner’ because of the pressures of work. This is never wise. In the case of football mangers, of the first 54 tested on the LMA’s ‘Fit To Manage’ programme, a full 24 (44 per cent) recorded risk factors relating to potential heart problems. Be aware of the dangers of workrelated stress and take all steps necessary to counteract it. Dr Dorian Dugmore is founder of the LMA’s Fit To Manage programme, run in association with Wellness International at the adidas Wellness Centre in Stockport, funded by the Barclays Premier League
“Long-term stress is as bad for your heart as smoking and high cholesterol.” Corine Aboa-Eboule MD, 2007
CLOSE CONNECTIONS Neurotransmitters, the ‘chemical messengers’ in the brain that travel across tiny gaps in its nerve cells (synapses) can be hampered by too much stress, temporarily weakening them and affecting memory and clarity of thought.
expert comment
“The extreme pressure and uncertainty inherent in football management makes the manager’s job one of high cardiovascular risk. Regular physical activity and a healthy diet are sure to improve not only their cardiovascular health, but also their performance in such a pressurised environment. There is still a long way to go in encouraging many football managers to improve their ‘not so healthy’ lifestyles.” Dr Luis Serratosa, Real Madrid FC
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“It is well established that stress interferes with mental processes such as memory, concentration, judgement and decision-making.” The Society for Neuroscience, 2008
The BACK OFFICE
Analysis
thinking about winning three competitions in a single season? you have a 1.8 per cent chance
remember manchester united’s historic treble in 1999? daniel finkelstein does... and he’s got the numbers to prove that it was even more impressive than you may already think
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When Manchester United
won the Barclays Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League back in 1999, I was very excited. And happy. Which is strange, because I’m not a United fan. Far from it. It’s just that I thought the ‘treble’ was something I might never see. Think of it this way. A strong favourite to win the league might have a 45 per cent chance. This is, if you consider the number of sides in with a chance, a reasonably high figure. The reason is simple… it’s the number of games. In each match there is an element of luck (refereeing decisions, for example, are often cited). And a side might be pressing
about Daniel Finkelstein
Daniel Finkelstein is executive editor of The Times and author of its weekly Fink Tank column on football statistics
but either just fail or just succeed to score in injury time. Obviously, the more games there are, the more this element of luck will even itself out. If the season went on for five years, the upside would be that you could have almost complete confidence that the best side would win. Fans might not like that, though, so 38 games is a reasonable compromise, giving a fanfriendly season length with a tolerable probability that the best side will win. But anyway… we’ve been looking at the stats for a decade and the chance of a favourite winning in any given season is rarely higher than 45 per cent. Then take the FA Cup. As that’s a knockout, the chances of the best side winning are reduced. There’s such a large probability of losing one game in a series, or of being drawn against tough competition, that it’s unusual for a favourite to have more than a 20 per cent chance of lifting that trophy. To illustrate the importance of fortune in a knockout, consider the chances of a single giant-killing act in the third round. Although any one of those may look unlikely in itself, when you take the chances together it is very high. In fact, the chance of at least one side defeating a team in a higher division in the FA Cup third round is almost always around 98 per cent. And what about the Champions League? It has a large league element and the knockout games are played across two legs, guarding against elimination from one shock defeat. For both of these reasons, the chances of the favourite winning should be reasonably high. Save for this... at the
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top end, the gap between the clubs isn’t great. Very occasionally Barcelona have enjoyed a 25 per cent chance of winning the trophy as the season begins, but no British club has gone above 20 per cent (at the very most). And more recently it has been less than that. Because of their poor defence Real Madrid have not been serious Champions League contenders for years. But now they are, which cuts the chances of an English winner to something more like 15 per cent. I should, incidentally, remind pundits not to overcomplicate things. There seems to be some idea that it makes a big difference in the Champions League whether you play home or away first in the knockout round. Our data work shows that this makes no difference whatsoever. So let’s take them all together. The chances of winning the treble are (at best) 20 per cent of 20 per cent of 45 per cent. That is 1.8 per cent. So we should expect it to happen less than once every 50 years. Naturally, we don’t know the distribution; it could happen three times in my lifetime and not at all in the life of my grandchild. Indeed, clustering is quite likely because you might get a very good team or two that is on a roll. But you get the idea… it’s rare. And this assumes that each event is independent. If winning the FA Cup cut your chances of a league title, then you might only see a treble every 60 years. Once in a lifetime. So it’s worth celebrating when it happens, I reckon. Whether you support the team in question or not.
THE CASTROL LMA MANAGERS’ PERFORMANCE TABLE Pos
Div
1
P
2
Manager
Club
P
WP
DP
GS
CS
WM
CP
PTS
TT
Roberto Mancini
Manchester City
11
76
6
26
1
17
31
157
143
2
Paul Sturrock
Southend United
11
68
10
19
2
12
43
154
140
3
2
Steve Evans
Crawley Town
9
66
11
19
1
11
15
123
137
4
C
Sam Allardyce
West Ham United
9
78
5
17
5
13
0
118
131
5
2
Paolo Di Canio
Swindon Town
11
56
16
13
6
9
41
141
128
6
1
Chris Powell
Charlton Athletic
10
66
5
19
4
15
13
122
122
7
2
Graham Turner
Shrewsbury Town
9
54
11
17
4
11
12
109
121
8
2
Mark Yates
Cheltenham Town
10
66
0
11
3
8
33
121
121
9
P
Arsène Wenger OBE
Arsenal
11
76
10
19
3
11
12
131
119
10
C
Malky Mackay
Cardiff City
11
54
17
20
3
9
27
130
118
11
2
Paul Peschisolido
Burton Albion
8
66
0
16
2
8
1
93
116
12
P
Harry Redknapp
Tottenham Hotspur
9
67
6
17
2
10
0
102
113
13
1
Gary Megson
Sheffield Wednesday
9
54
11
14
3
7
12
101
112
14
P
Kenny Dalglish
Liverpool
8
24
20
7
2
3
31
87
109
15
C
Derek McInnes
Bristol City
7
44
12
11
2
6
0
75
107
16
1
Karl Robinson
Milton Keynes Dons
9
44
10
18
2
9
13
96
107
17
2
Martin Ling
Torquay United
9
42
6
15
4
11
17
95
106
18
C
Nigel Adkins
Southampton
10
62
12
17
3
11
0
105
105
19
C
Simon Grayson
Leeds United
10
60
10
16
3
10
0
99
99
20
1
Danny Wilson
Sheffield United
11
44
16
16
2
5
25
108
98
The Castrol LMA Managers’ Performance Table (powered by Prozone) allows managers to test themselves against one another. Points are awarded for wins and draws, with results away from home scoring higher. Points for clean sheets and goals scored accumulate throughout the season, while a team’s winning margin also counts towards the total. POINTS SYSTEM Home win 10 points Goal scored 1 point
Away win 12 points Clean sheet 1 point
Okay, so the name at the top of the table isn’t too much of a surprise... but elsewhere, things are slightly less predictable. Look at the second column (the one headed ‘Div’) and count the number of ‘2’s. That’s right, seven of the top 20 managers ply their trade in the npower League Two. That’s very impressive, but of course only three of them can earn promotion at the end of the season. Keep an eye on that division as the season progresses... that’s shaping up to be one serious competition.
Home draw 5 points Away draw 6 points Winning margin per goal 1 point
There is also a factor included in respect of knock-out matches (cup points, or ‘CP’), based on the league status of the relevant club. Points are divided by the number of games played. This number is then multiplied by ten – to exclude decimals – producing the final score.
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WP Win points DP Draw points GS Goals scored CS Clean sheets WM Winning margin per goal CP Cup points
Season 2011/12, Quarter Two (up to December 2nd 2011)
THE BACK OFFICE
MINDGAMES the pressure faced by football managers is an amplified version of the stresses which face managers from all walks of life on a day-to-day basis. michael caulfield of the sporting edge looks at the effects of pressure and offers a strategy for coping
living in the pressure cooker
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There’s nothing quite like
professional football. It’s raw, ruthless, judgemental, highly pressurised, emotional, irrational, sometimes completely illogical and – more often than not – heartbreaking. But despite all this, it’s horribly addictive... however much it hurts, we all keep coming back for more. And that’s just us fans. Whatever pressure we feel, it pales into insignificance compared with what the manager is going through. Imagine you had to carry out your daily duties in front of 30,000 people – and not just any people... people who believe they know how to do your job better than you and are quick to call for your dismissal at the first sign that things are going wrong. At Sporting Edge we support people in a variety of sporting disciplines. My own background was originally in horse racing (and that’s a world which breeds some tough characters) but I have never come across anyone with the mental toughness to compare with football managers. Those people who have adapted and survived over the years in what is a notoriously cut-throat business are masters at managing and dealing with pressure. But while football managers may be working at a different level to the rest of us, all forms of management in all areas of life carry their own pressures. In fact, the parallels between elite sport and business have never been
so clear. With the increased pressure of expectation, targets and statistical analysis of performance, board room executives now experience similar pressures to their sporting counterparts. The question is, how best can these pressures be dealt with? If you accept and acknowledge that you are working in a pressurised situation – and most managers do – then you must take steps to address this. You undoubtedly provide a support network of some form or
“Senior management in all areas of life, sport and business will be pressurised” other to every other individual working in your organisation, but do you have a support network of your own? Everyone in sport who is expected to perform at a high level is offered the maximum level of support and there’s no reason why this should not be the same for managers. Over the past six months at Sporting Edge, we have had met and worked with some of the most successful coaches and athletes in
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British sport. They provided unique insights into dealing with winning and losing, overcoming adversity, emotional control, mental toughness, confidence, creating the right environment and how they learn from failure and setbacks. From our discussions with this elite group, we have compiled a list of four common coping skills which they use to deal with pressure:
1
Focus on what you can control. Everyone at the highest level gets nervous and feels the pressure and expectation of performing. However hard it maybe, the only way is to focus totally on the process of preparation and elements that are within your control. Not everything can be defined by its outcome – even though this is often how things are perceived. An event’s outcome is often the one thing that the manager cannot control, so it’s important that thoughts and efforts should be concentrated elsewhere.
2
Confidence and belief are king... even when things are going against you. In moments of pressure, people tend to focus on what’s going wrong; they question everything and begin to doubt themselves. In these situations, it’s vital to reconnect with past successes. Managers need to remember what they are good at and repeat those things which made them successful in the first place.
3
Don’t fly solo. Even the highest achievers need a strong support network, as success is rarely achieved single-handedly. That support can sometimes come from outside the inner sanctum of management.
4
Anticipation and preparation are key. Forecasting pressure moments and creating calm responses well ahead of time allows for better decision-making in the heat of the moment. Taking the time to plan provides a competitive edge when it is most needed. Senior management in all areas of life, sport and business will, at times, be pressurised and stressful. Those managers who acknowledge these pressures and put in place strategies and a support network to manage them are the ones who will not only retain their skills and sanity, but will also, ultimately, succeed. It is vital that you find support – not necessarily from an expert in your field, but certainly from a person (or group of people) who offers neutrality, independence, brutal honesty and a different perspective. When dealing with managers we often say “you can’t see your own creases... so find someone you trust who can.”
About michael caulfield
Michael Caulfield MSc is a senior consultant with Sporting Edge (www.thesportingedge.co.uk). Founded by the former England cricketer Jeremy Snape, Sporting Edge specialises in supporting leaders and their teams in professional sport and highpressure business. Michael was chief executive of the Professional Jockeys Association before qualifying as an accredited sports psychologist. He has worked in elite sport for more than 25 years with organisations including The LMA and the Barclays Premier League as well as in international and domestic cricket. Michael is an experienced public speaker and a regular contributor to BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC News and Sky Sports. As a Reading season ticket holder, Michael knows all about the highs and lows of football.
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LMA PEOPLE
— Probiz managers' cup —
MIDLANDS MONARCHY Eight LMA members face off in annual royal charity tournament
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The third annual PROBIZ Managers' Cup, which
took place on November 16th at West Bromwich Albion saw a group of eight LMA members compete against one another in a six-a-side tournament organised as part of the Prince's Trust Football Initiative programme. The eight managers, each of whom took charge of a squad of 16-25 year olds, were Aidy Boothroyd, Alan Curbishley, Brian Laws, Peter Reid, Paul Simpson, Gordon Strachan, Walter Smith and Dave Jones. The players, who are based in the Midlands, are currently completing Prince's Trust programmes, gaining key workplace skills including confidence, motivation, communication and teamwork. The tournament gave them a boost in all of those areas as well as an insight into how top footballers are coached and managed. The tournament was won by the team managed by Dave Jones (pictured with his victorious team, above right). Jones poured praise on his young charges, saying: "I think they were absolutely superb. They fully deserved their victory and they should be very proud of themselves. The biggest thing is that they all said together that they achieved this by working as a team."
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— Probiz managers' cup —
Feisal Nahaboo, founder of the event's title sponsor PROBIZ (pictured, left with West Bromwich Albion manager Roy Hodgson) said: "On behalf of 400 accountancy practices geographically spread across the UK, PROBIZ is proud to support the Managers' Cup. To see such enjoyment between the players and the managers was fantastic. The managers were an immense credit to our footballing culture, mixing human needs and a footballing passion with one day of impact football. The managers were a real inspiration to all those young people who took part in the event and I was proud to be associated with such human kindness." www.probiz-excellence.com
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This is not an offer directed to residents of any state in which registration is required, but in which registration and/or licensing requirements have not yet been met. California residents please refer to the Hamilton Grand website (HamiltonGrand.co.uk/legal) for further disclaimer.
This advertising material is being used for the purpose of soliciting sales of vacation membership timeshare interests.
LMA PEOPLE
— Hall of Fame Dinner —
LMA chief executive Richard Bevan introduces the evening
twenty years and counting Gala event celebrates two decades of the Barclays Premier League and honours double winner Ancelotti The lma celebrated 20 years of the Barclays
LMA chairman Howard Wilkinson (right) in conversation with guests
Premier League at its annual Hall of Fame dinner, proudly sponsored by Barclays, which took place at Wembley Stadium on November 9th. In one of the evening’s highlights, guest of honour Carlo Ancelotti (who was inducted into the LMA’s Hall of Fame) shared his memories of becoming the first Chelsea manager to win the domestic double and the first Italian manager to win the Barclays Premier League. Ancelotti (pictured above, in conversation with Mick McCarthy) said: “It is truly a great honour to join the list of managerial greats in the LMA Hall of Fame. I enjoyed a fantastic two seasons with Chelsea and I am very proud that my achievements, both in England and Italy, have been recognised in such a special way.” LMA chief executive Richard Bevan said: “This has been a unique evening, bringing together football managers who have made such a significant contribution to the Barclays Premier League in the past 20 years.” ➽
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— Hall of Fame Dinner —
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Clockwise from top left: two former Tottenham Hotspur managers, Ossie Ardiles and Terry Venables, are interviewed by the event’s host, Matt Lorenzo; the evening in full swing; Gianluca Vialli and Mark Hughes describe life at Chelsea in the first decade of the Barclays Premier League; snooker legend Willie Thorne conducts the charity auction; former managers George Burley and Ray Wilkins listen intently; Dave Bassett and David O’Leary discuss the changing challenges of leadership.
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The best kept secret.
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Be Different
Be Inspired
Believe
LMA PEOPLE
Hall of Fame Herbert Chapman
in association with
The Manager looks back at the career of a man who arguably made more of an impact on the professional game than any other manager
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Professional football has been
around for more than 125 years, so it should come as no surprise that there have been many innovations and improvements brought in since the modern game first caught the public’s imagination. What may come as something of a surprise, though, is that a huge number of those innovations were bought about (or, at least, initially suggested) by one man... the former Huddersfield and Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman. Some of Chapman’s innovations were tactical (he popularised the ‘W M’ formation which went on to dominate the English game for decades, for example) but many went deeper into the heart of the game, influencing far more than simply how the players interacted with the ball on the pitch. Chapman was the first man to introduce or suggest many of the things which we now take for granted, including numbered shirts, white footballs, weather-proof pitches, the penalty box semi-circle and even floodlights (although his attempts to introduce these to the professional game were blocked by the FA). But perhaps the most important and far-reaching change which Chapman brought about was that it was he who established the manager as the dominant presence within any football club. Before Chapman, the manager at every club was just another member of what was in effect a management committee. This
committee, which usually consisted of the club secretary and directors as well as the manager, oversaw everything from player recruitment and pay to team selection. Chapman broke that mould by insisting that he was put in sole charge of all matters relating to the team, thus creating a legacy which has lasted to this day. A much-travelled inside-forward in his playing career (which included
“He inspired awe and respect rather than fear” arsenal striker, Cliff Bastin
a 65-game spell with Arsenal’s North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur) Chapman didn’t really make his mark in the game until he was appointed manager of Huddersfield Town in September 1921. Despite working under severe economic restraints, Chapman managed Huddersfield to FA Cup glory in 1922 and then to the club’s first League Championship title in the 1923-24 season (edging out Cardiff City on goal average). Huddersfield took the title again in the following season (conceding a mere 26 goals), but the ambitious Chapman had already left, heading south to take the reins at Arsenal. Despite the fact that he had a much greater budget to work with
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at Arsenal than he had ever had at Huddersfield, it took Chapman a little time to achieve success with his new club. When success eventually came, however, it came to stay. Chapman’s Arsenal won their first silverware (The FA Cup) in 1930 and went on to take the top prize, the League Championship, in the following season (finishing with a then-record of 66 points). The team went on to dominate their era, winning the title for three years in a row. Chapman, however, was not able to enjoy all of this success; having contracted pneumonia during a hectic spell of travelling to and from football matches (including an Arsenal third team match against Guildford City), he died in early 1934. Chapman succeeded because he was the first great ‘all-rounder’ manager. As well as being an astute tactician, he was also a shrewd businessman, a builder of great teams and a supreme motivator; it was said he could make ordinary players into internationals and good players into great ones. Just as he made his mark on the game in general, he also left some physical reminders behind him at Highbury in the form of the white sleeves on the team’s red shirts (which he believed helped the players to pick one another out) and the team’s name on the local London Underground station (previously known as Gillespie Road). Chapman’s achievements at Arsenal were commemorated by a
bronze bust in Highbury’s famous marble hall (see ‘There’s Only Three Herbert Chapmans’, below right) but even without this physical tribute, his legacy would still run deep throughout almost every aspect of the modern game. www.leaguemanagers.com/ managers/profile-506.html
Herbert Chapman Fact File Born: Sheffield, January 19th 1878 Playing career: Inside forward for numerous clubs, including Sheffield United, Notts County, Northampton Town and Tottenham Hotspur Managerial career: Northampton Town (player manager, 1907-1912); Leeds City (19121919); Huddersfield Town (19211925); Arsenal (1925-1934) Honours and achievements: First Division (1924, 1925, 1931, 1933); FA Cup (1922, 1930)
there’s only Three Herbert Chapmans
The bronze bust of Herbert Chapman which still stands in the legendary Marble Halls of Highbury (even though those Halls are now part of a housing development called Highbury Fields) has almost as interesting a history as the character it depicts. The bust was commissioned and paid for by 12 of Chapman’s friends (including his Arsenal colleague, the club physiotherapist Tom Whittaker) who became known as the ‘HC Club’. This group would continue to meet on the anniversary of Chapman’s death (January 4th) and lay a wreath on his grave in Hendon churchyard until the death of its last members. Although the bust was created as a ‘oneoff’ by the sculptor Jacob Epstein, there are now three in existence. One of the two replicas was created to take its place in The Emirates Stadium when Arsenal moved there in 2006, while the other was presented to Huddersfield Town to celebrate that team’s centenary in 2008 (and, of course, the two teams’ connection to the legendary manager).
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LMA PEOPLE
— Premier League —
Moss Whistles Up Website Jon Moss, one of the 18 Select Group Officials of the Barclays Premier League explains the educational advantages offered by the organisation’s new kid-friendly online resource “The attributes that you need
to be a teacher are very similar to those you need to be a referee; you have a group of people that you are in charge of and it’s important they play by a set of rules.” So says Jon Moss, who’s perfectly placed to comment on both teaching and refereeing, being one of the Barclays Premier League’s Select Group officials and the head teacher of Beech Hill Primary School in Halifax. Moss was speaking at the launch of the Barclays Premier League’s new ‘Get On With The Game Kids’ educational website, which took place at his school in November. The site uses lessons learned on the pitch to address children’s behavioural issues, educating and engaging them on a range of social and emotional issues, both in football and everyday life.
Jon Moss in action on the football pitch
Developed in conjunction with the education and participation charity Citizenship Foundation (www. citizenshipfoundation.org.uk), the site explores and teaches key aspects of the Social and Emotional Aspect of Learning (SEAL). These include the importance of rules, working as a team, dealing with bullying, expressing opinions, understanding emotion and recognising personal strengths and weaknesses. “There is much we can take from the football pitch and show how it works in the classroom,” said Moss. “Decision making and conflict resolution are at the heart of SEAL and that underpins everything in primary school education, such as good citizenship, inclusiveness and being good role models. It is also a very valuable behavioural management tool for teachers and nearly all school assemblies will be SEAL related.” Moss himself features on the site, as do the other 17 Select Group officials. Each referee appears either on video, speaking directly to the site’s visitors, or as an animated cartoon. As the season progresses, interviews with managers and players will be added to the site to give children an added incentive to continue to visit. The site, which is split into five main sections (see ‘Five Ways To Get On’ opposite), aims to convey the same Get On With The Game message that’s delivered every weekend at Barclays Premier League grounds: by getting on with each other and getting on with the referee, players are free to get on with enjoying the game. the manager WINTER 2011
The website also explores the need for people in authority such as referees and teachers to apply rules, examines why fair play is important and also why the structure of a family is similar to that of a football team, with every member playing their part to make the whole outfit work better. Moss is convinced that the site will reap benefits for both children and teachers. “There are many advantages to me as a teacher using football to engage with children,” he said. “It is a world they are aware of, understand and want to emulate.” http://kids.getonwiththegame.com/
Five Ways To Get On Get On With The Game Kids is divided into five separate sections, each one designed to deliver a different result. These are: - Get On Identifies key SEAL themes - Who Needs Refs? Shows why it’s important to have people (such as teachers and referees) who can help you improve and why families are similar to football teams - Kick Off A section containing a range of educational and fun games - On The Ball Artwork and screensavers to download and statistics and news to digest - Teacher’s Corner All the relevant SEAL resources for the classroom
LMA PEOPLE
— opinion —
the voice of experience
argentina legend discusses the pros and cons of the international career path
With the January transfer window sure to bring a new influx of foreign talent to the English game, World Cup winner and well-travelled manager Ossie Ardiles reveals what it was like to be at the forefront of English football's foreign invasion
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Just before the beginning of this
season I read that there were 650 overseas players registered to play in the Barclays Premier League, from a total of 68 countries. This made me smile a little, as I remembered how Ricky Villa and I were treated as some sort of rare and exotic species when we first signed for Tottenham Hotspur after our country's success in the 1978 World Cup. Although we were generally made very welcome through the whole country, there is one reception that I will never forget. In one of my early games with Tottenham, we travelled up to Liverpool for a League Cup game where Tommy Smith put me out of the game with a terrible tackle. The next day in the newspaper he was quoted as saying: “Welcome to English football”. Football was very different back then. But it wasn't just football that was different; Ricky and I found it difficult to take to the weather and our adopted country's food and we could never get used to the fact that there was nothing to do on Sunday because everything was closed. Luckily, we quickly built up a large circle of Argentinian friends who we used to see on Sundays for barbecues... which solved two of those problems at a stroke. Now we're in the 21st Century, things have moved on and almost all of the problems we faced do not trouble the modern player (with the exception of the weather, of course) but I suspect that a large number of
those 650 young men found moving to the UK quite a shock to their system. The biggest hurdle they usually face is, of course, the language barrier. This wasn't too much of a problem for me back in 1978; I had studied English in Argentina for about eight years, so I had a pretty good base to work from (although many of my former teammates still tell me that they can't
“Working across a variety of countries brings both challenges and rewards”
understand me today). Ricky, however, did not speak a word of English when we arrived and, as a result, it took him longer to settle in properly; in fact, I would say that he didn't really feel at home until after he scored that beautiful goal in the 1981 FA Cup final. Ricky is a very sociable person and needs to talk – much more than I do – so he felt very isolated and frustrated and I think it was difficult for him, even though I was able to act as a translator for him at first. But even though I could speak English (and made a point of reading an English newspaper every day) I still found that there were huge cultural differences which made fitting in quite a challenge. For example, it's very difficult to translate humour from one language to another; Fawlty Towers is now one of my all-time favourite TV programmes, but when I first arrived in Ricky Villa (left) and Ossie Ardiles pose outside White Hart Lane in July 1978
the manager Winter 2011
— opinion —
England I couldn't really understand it... which made things a little difficult when it was so popular. Now, more than 30 years later, I have not only played across the world, I have also managed in a number of countries... England, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Croatia. I have found that working across a number of different countries with a huge variety of languages, cultures and religions is challenging, but it can also be very enriching... as long as you are prepared to accept the differences and adapt to them. It helps if you know what the cultural differences are before you start. Latin people can overreact to criticism, while the Japanese are very structured and organised – this may not sound like too much of a problem (and usually it isn't) but it does mean that it can sometimes be difficult to do simple things such as change the time of a training session. Perhaps the biggest culture shock I encountered was when I worked in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia; not only was it so hot that we couldn't start training until 8.00pm, but we had to take regular prayer breaks during training because religion is such a major part of their society. Ultimately, you realise that management is not really a question of nationality, colour or race... every player is an individual and even if you share a language, you still have to find a unique way to communicate with each of them. If you accept that there will be differences and concentrate instead on the common link that binds you all together – football – you can overcome all of the other barriers and start to move towards a common goal. Which brings me back to those 650 young men playing football in what, for them, is a foreign country. Regardless of how much they may earn, overseas players need an awful lot of help when they arrive. The time they spend on the training ground and on the pitch – if they're lucky enough to
make the first team, of course – is fine; during that time they can do what they do best. It's the other things that aren't always so easy... even something as simple as going to the cinema takes on a whole new dimension when everything around you is foreign. Hopefully, the players that arrive in England for the first time in January will go on to enjoy their time in England as much as I have... but try to remember when you next see them play that some of them are a long, long way from home.
www.leaguemanagers.com/managers/profile-1303.html
the manager Winter 2011
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LMA PEOPLE
— Profile —
McGHEE goes international Manager’s playing spell in Germany pays off at international coaching conference
People often talk about the ‘international
language of football’, but sometimes you need a little more than that to allow effective communication. One such occasion was the recent Internationaler TrainerKongress (International Coaches’ Congress), hosted by the German Football Coaches’ Association (the BDFL). Although the 1,100 delegates included visitors from as far afield as Iceland and Scandinavia, the event was conducted in German, with no translation. This, however, wasn’t a serious problem for the LMA’s (and, indeed, the UK’s) sole representative, as Mark McGhee is close to being fluent in German, having learned the language during the two years he spent as a player with Hamburg in the mid 1980s. “My German’s okay,” says the former Wolves and Leicester manager. “It’s a long time since I lived there, but I’ve been back and forth often enough over the years to keep my hand in.” The event’s theme, inspired by the recent successes enjoyed by Spain and Barcelona, was ‘quick change’. All of the sessions and demonstrations were designed to encourage the quick, short-passing game employed by those two sides. McGhee felt that this showed a vulnerability in the German psyche which he wasn’t expecting: “I got the impression that there was a lot of self-doubt running through German football. It was obvious that this had been created by Spain and Barcelona. The impression I got was that the Germans felt they were falling behind Spain, which is a bit hard to understand when you think that Germany qualified for next year’s European Championship without dropping a point.” The sole voice speaking against this tide of pessimism was Matthias Sammer – the former international sweeper and
current technical director of the German Football Association (DFB). “Sammer pointed out that there are a lot of good things going on in German football,” says McGhee. “He argued quite sensibly that it would be crazy for German football to try to imitate the Spanish; that they should instead learn what they can from them and assimilate it into what they’re already doing.” In addition to being able to gauge the current feeling within Germany at first hand, McGhee enjoyed the conference for other reasons: “I caught up with people I haven’t seen for a while, such as [BDFL general secretary] Karlheinz Raviol who ensured that I was never left out of anything. I also met up with the man I replaced at Hamburg, Horst Hrubesch, which was great as I’d never really spent any time with him before.” And it wasn’t just about networking either, as McGhee explains: “On the coaching side I saw a few things that I hadn’t come across before, which made me a bit frustrated that I’m not in management at the moment. To be honest, I wanted to get straight out on the training pitch and put some of what I’d learned into practice.”
the manager WINTER 2011
www.leaguemanagers. com/managers/ profile-310.html
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LMA PEOPLE
— Profile —
Lorenzo Does Download Popular broadcaster joins The Manager team as host of regular podcast
“New media... old media... it’s all the same to me.
It doesn’t really matter how it’s broadcast or how people access it, it’s still got to do the same things; inform and entertain them.” Thus speaks Matt Lorenzo, a man who should know a thing or two about the media in all of its many forms; having been more or less born into it (his father, Peter, presented football programmes for ITV) and having plied his trade across a variety of print and broadcast formats throughout his working life. The reason Lorenzo is pondering the subject of new media is because he is now presenting the LMA’s regular podcast which, like this magazine, goes out under the title of The Manager. With three episodes already ‘in the can’ and available for download, Lorenzo is perfectly placed to give us an informed view on this state-of-theart form of broadcasting. “A good podcast is no different to a good radio show,” he says, “and I always think the best attraction of any programme is that it takes you ‘inside’. In the case of The Manager podcast you can have two or three football managers that you respect having a chat and, if it’s doing its job properly, the podcast allows you to feel as though you’re a fourth person in the conversation.” Although he’s done plenty of television work in his time – and continues to make and present programmes for Sky TV – Lorenzo believes that (in whichever form its delivered) ‘voice broadcasting’ has a couple of advantages over television: “First of all, I believe that it has a much greater ‘warmth’.” he says “You feel a part of a radio show or podcast in a way that you don’t with TV. Another advantage is that you can listen while doing something else, which brings it more into your life. On a slightly more technical note, it also gives us producers much more freedom, as we can set up an interview pretty much anywhere with even the most basic equipment, which gives us a much wider sphere of operations.” There is, however, one element of this new media landscape which makes Lorenzo a little nervous. “The wonderful thing about television is that no-one gets to say what they think of you – or, at least, you can’t hear them when they do,” he says, “but the people who listen
to the podcast get to make comments. That said, the feedback we have received so far on The Manager has been nothing but positive.” Although The Manager is the first podcast which Lorenzo has presented, it’s by no means his first brush with ‘new media’. “No, I have constant brushes with it,” he says, “all thanks to my 15 year-old son James who has his own podcast, blog and website (www.first-thought. net), most of which I’m financing. It’s great that he wants to do the same as his old man... actually, I think he wants to do it better and he’s well on the way.”
The Manager podcast is available through iTunes or from http://www.jibbajabbapods.co.uk/xml/themanager.xml
the manager WINTER 2011
StoppagE
Time
74
First names on the Olympics team sheets, October 20th 2011
Team GB’s first participation in an Olympics football tournament since the 1972 games took a significant step closer with the announcement of the coaches for both the men’s and ladies teams, Hope Powell and Stuart Pearce. The two teams will play their group games in late July and early August in London’s Wembley Stadium, the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and Old Trafford, Manchester. For those looking for omens, Great Britain won the first ever Olympics football tournament in 1908 – a year when the event was also staged in London.
the manager WINTER 2011
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