A strange thing, stability. Every club in football seems to strive for it, yet the benefits are unproven.
Arsenal
may sit top of the league after six games with Arsene Wenger in charge
but the club have won nothing since the FA Cup final in 2005. In that
time, Chelsea have had nine managers, including a caretaker and an
interim, and have won two Premier League titles, four FA Cups, the
League Cup, the Champions League and the Europa League.
It
might be argued that they would have won more had they stuck longer
with Jose Mourinho the first time, or Carlo Ancelotti. But nobody knows.
Tough times: David Moyes has made a stuttering start to his career as Manchester United manager
We think this because we believe
stability to be more adult than another ludicrous round of hiring and
firing; and because Manchester United had 26 years of Sir Alex Ferguson
and swept the board.
Yet
Ferguson had exceptional players, too. And top-level recruitment seems
to work just as well as hanging on long enough to get your name on the
main stand.
In the time
that Ferguson was at Manchester United, Real Madrid had 22 managers. In
comparable tournaments — there is no Spanish equivalent of the League
Cup any more, and the Supercopa de Espana is merely the Community
Shield, which is classed as a friendly in England — total stability and
total chaos produced not dissimilar results.
Ferguson: 13 Premier League titles; 22 blokes, comprising 10 distinct nationalities: 11 La Liga titles.Ferguson:
five FA Cups; 22 blokes, including one who got the job twice and lasted
a combined total of six matches: three Copas del Rey.
Ferguson:
two Champions Leagues, one European Cup-Winnners Cup; 22 blokes, the
longest-serving of whom lasted less than four years: three Champions
Leagues.
Ferguson: one UEFA
Super Cup; 22 blokes, including one who lifted the Champions League and
promptly got the sack: one UEFA Super Cup.
Ferguson:
two Intercontinental or Club World Cups; 22 blokes, six of whom had the
job twice: two Intercontinental or Club World Cups.
Ferguson
shades it on domestic titles, 22 blokes have had marginally more
success landing the biggest prize in European football. It’s close,
though, clearly.
Yet
for all the emphasis placed on stability in this country, one would
imagine Real Madrid to have achieved barely anything with 22 managers in
26 years. What appears to have happened is that the club becomes immune
to this bizarre way of doing business.
Dynasty: Sir Alex Ferguson called time on his career as Manchester United manager after 26 years at the helm
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