Managerial Changes

[Jezza]

Just over a week since Spurs sacked Poch, their arch rivals Arsenal have sacked Unai Emery.

[K]

See this!

http://magpies.net/nick/bb/viewtopic.php?p=1945068#1945068

[Jezza]

^ Those numbers don't surprise me.

[K]

So the AFL guys have it easy! (The article those numbers come from claims it's because of the soft cap on football-department spending.) Whatever its benefits, the soft cap may be causing huge harm to the game, and its existence is almost unique in the sporting world.

[Jezza]

^ In comparison to other codes, AFL coaches are given more than enough time to stamp their authority on a club.

Many coaches often overstay their welcome in the end.

[K]

There are other big differences too. In the AFL, everyone believes you need to be a former AFL player to coach (changing a bit but still...), and clubs want their coaches to be young. How many of the EPL coaches played in one of the top leagues? They certainly don't have to be young.

[K]

... The men who could replace Unai Emery ...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7738249/Arsenal-manager-candidates-men-replace-Unai-Emery-Emirates.html

"Nuno Espirito Santo
...

Wolves will fight tooth and nail to keep hold of their bearded messiah however, as they look to continue implementing their 'seven year plan' and make themselves contenders for major honours.

Compensation costs to bring Santo to the Emirates would be sizeable, though the bookmakers currently place the Portuguese as the favourite for the position.

Mikel Arteta
...

When last considered for the Arsenal position ... Manchester City had said they would not stand in the way of the Spaniard taking to the dug-out.

This time around, however, City are much less inclined to let Arteta depart. The 37-year-old is a crucial member of the coaching staff at the Etihad, as Guardiola's men defend their Premier League title and aim to finally capture the Champions League.

The bookmakers currently have Arteta as 9/2, second favourite behind Nuno, to succeed Emery at the Emirates.

Massimiliano Allegri
...


The cost-effective process of getting Allegri would be ideal for the Gunners, who would not have to worry about compensation. His lack of Premier League experience however could be a worry, as Arsenal need a man to come in and pick things up instantly.

Allegri is currently priced at 8/1 to make his first foray to the Premier League.

Carlo Ancelotti
...

But it has been reported that any club wishing to prise Ancelotti from Napoli would have to pay a hefty sum to release him from his contract.

Brendan Rodgers
...

The 46-year-old only joined the club in February, and with Leicester doing so well under his leadership it would prove a tricky task to snare him away, and he recently confirmed his commitment to the club after being linked to Tottenham.
...

Mauricio Pochettino
...

Bookmakers currently price Pochettino at 8/1 to take over, which reflects the dynamic that a decision would purely be one taken by the coach himself rather than the club.

It's perhaps safe to say that if Pochettino gave Arsenal the green light, little to no hesitation would be made.
...

Budget, however, remains a huge obstacle, and something Emery has had to juggle for the duration of his time in England.

One of Pochettino's main gripes at Spurs was an enduring feeling that progress was being held back due to limited investment. It would be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire in this regard at Arsenal, with the club desperately in need of a full rebuild of their own."

[Jezza]

[K]

For comparison:

Why do NFL coaches rarely rise from the ranks of players?

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/around-the-league-nfl/2014/08/24/Why-NFL-coaches-rarely-rise-from-ranks-of-players/stories/201408240108

Aug 24, 2014

"In MLB, 83 percent of managers on opening day this year played in the major leagues. In the NHL, 60 percent of the head coaches reached the league and 43 percent in the NBA.

In the NFL, only 19 percent — six of 32 ­— of the head coaches who will lead their teams into the 2014 season played in the league.

Playing experience has never mattered much in the NFL. It has become less important as head coaches become more like CEOs. They must be able to delegate to assistants because the job entails so much more than it once did.

Vince Lombardi, who is widely considered the greatest head coach of all-time, never played in the NFL. Neither did Bill Walsh or Paul Brown.

Still, as late as 1984, half of the league’s head coaches ­— 14 of 28 — had played in the NFL.
...

The most successful head coach in the NFL today is New England’s Bill Belichick, who played at Division III Wesleyan University in Connecticut."

[K]

The Average Age Of NFL Head Coaches In 2018

Sean McVay, Rams – 32
Kyle Shanahan, 49ers – 38
Matt Nagy, Bears – 40
Adam Gase, Dolphins – 40
Mike Vrabel, Titans – 43
Matt Patricia, Lions – 43 (Note: Patricia turns 44 just days after the Lions’ season opener.)
Sean McDermott, Bills – 44
Vance Joseph, Broncos – 45
Mike Tomlin, Steelers – 46
Dan Quinn, Falcons – 47 (Note: Quinn turns 48 just days after the Falcons’ season opener.)
Bill O’Brien, Texans – 48
Anthony Lynn, Chargers – 49
Steve Wilks, Cardinals – 49
Doug Pederson, Eagles – 50
Jay Gruden, Redskins – 51
Jason Garrett, Cowboys – 52
Hue Jackson, Browns – 52
Pat Shurmur, Giants – 53
Doug Marrone, Jaguars – 54
Sean Payton, Saints – 54
Todd Bowles, Jets – 54
Mike McCarthy, Packers – 54
Jon Gruden, Raiders – 55
John Harbaugh, Ravens – 55
Ron Rivera, Panthers – 56
Frank Reich, Colts – 56
Dirk Koetter, Buccaneers – 59
Marvin Lewis, Bengals – 59
Andy Reid, Chiefs – 60
Mike Zimmer, Vikings – 62
Bill Belichick, Patriots – 66
Pete Carroll, Seahawks – 66 (Note: Carroll turns 67 just days after the Seahawks’ season opener.)

https://www.profootballrumors.com/2018/07/average-age-nfl-coaches

[K]

For Fans, by Fans, Against the Club

Arsenal Fan TV is a YouTube sensation. But what makes it a success is not the same thing as what makes Arsenal a success — in fact, it’s often the opposite.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/sports/arsenal-fan-tv.html

"For many of them, this has become part of the ritual of going to the Emirates, the fabric of the matchday experience: a couple of drinks, a bite to eat, watching Arsenal play, and then waiting by the Bergkamp statue to watch the creators of the YouTube channel formerly known as Arsenal Fan TV film their postmatch interviews.

Some come for the spectacle, the circus of it all. Others treat it as a sort of impromptu town hall meeting: They listen to the speakers, debate their points, cheer the claims they like and jeer those they do not. They start chants and shout cutting one-liners. At the end, they may grab a selfie with one of the channel’s regular guests.
...

The story of Arsenal Fan TV — since rebranded as AFTV, reportedly after a polite request from the club not to infringe its copyright — begins, strictly speaking, in 2012. That was when Lyle, then working as a surveyor, first turned up at the Emirates on a matchday with a cameraman and started asking fans for their reaction to what they had just seen. The initial response to the video clips he posted online, he has said previously, was skeptical at best.

That changed, permanently, with Chris Hudson. In 2013, Lyle spoke to Hudson after Arsenal had lost at home to Aston Villa. Hudson’s expletive-laden rant — pointing his finger at the camera, railing against “media luvvies” and demanding the resignation of pretty much anyone he could think of — went viral. AFTV went with it.

Now, the channel is a giant of the genre. It passed a million YouTube subscribers in May. It has its own merchandising line. It has expanded into studio shows and podcasts and inspired imitations and equivalents at pretty much every club in England. Lyle has suggested it is now his full-time job. Last year, he started hosting a program on one of Britain’s national television networks. Many of his regular guests appeared with him.
...

Troopz cites Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, two of the club’s jewels, as confidantes. Earlier this month, Arsenal was reported to have asked Aubameyang to stop inviting Troopz to watch games from the striker’s private box. “I talk with who I want, whenever I want,” Aubameyang wrote on Instagram in response, ending the post with a middle-finger emoji.

Arsenal’s unease hints at an inherent tension between the club and the channel. Like all fan-generated media, AFTV has taken on some of the characteristics not only of the club it follows, but of the era in which it was born. It rose to prominence during a schism, as fans debated the future of the former manager Arsène Wenger, a time of planes hired to fly over stadiums, banners unfurled and even fights breaking out. This season, it has been both purveyor of and witness to the gradual demise of the Emery era.
...

More troublingly, there is a belief within the club that what is good for Arsenal and what is good for AFTV are two very different things. “It is so wrong for someone who claims to be a fan and their success is fed off a failure,” defender Héctor Bellerín said at an event at the Oxford Union last year. “How can that be a fan?”
...

To the channel’s critics, though, including those inside Arsenal, it is the other way around. They contend the atmosphere at the Emirates is volatile and fractious, placing the manager under quick, intense pressure and — in Emery’s case — eventually precipitating his end, in part because of the performative outrage on YouTube. Nobody is quite sure which is the chicken, and which is the egg.
...

The crowd roars with approval. There are sporadic chants of “time to go.” It is part pantomime, part public forum, part psychiatrist’s couch. “The majority of them are quite fair,” said Faizaan Firozdin, watching from the back. “What they say is what most of the fans are thinking.”

The channel’s followers believe that gives it a power and a relevance. Davies is “100 percent” convinced that it was the compelling evidence of AFTV that forced the club’s hand and finally ended Wenger’s 20-year tenure as manager. Firozdin is adamant that “the main guys’ voices are heard” by the players, and by their employers. The subsequent firing of Emery, a few days after AFTV turned en masse against him, will do little to disabuse them of that view.

Quite how far that power goes, though, is a different matter."

[Jezza]

^ AFTV is the gift that keeps giving.

Love that channel

[K]

On a different note, Rory Smith keeps writing beautiful football articles. I've considered starting a thread just on Rory Smith articles.

[Jezza]

^ Start a thread, K.

I welcome it

[K]

Okay. Will do. So far I've just quoted his articles in the threads about the subjects (e.g. AFTV, Mourinho, just then), but his topics range over all of football, not just EPL, and NY Times appears to have given him a lot of words to play with.