Inside the world of football leadership! This week, FOOTBALL NOW examines the separate roles of managers and head coaches.
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00:00 It's football's toughest job, but in many cases being a manager is a very different
00:06 role today than it was 20 years ago. So what exactly has changed and could we be seeing
00:11 less of them in the future?
00:18 Hello there and welcome to Football Now from London. Who'd be a manager is a saying often
00:23 used in football, but that phrase might be a thing of the past. Now and more so than
00:28 ever, we're seeing head coaches take charge of first team squads. This week we're going
00:33 to be taking a look at why this is happening and the varying trends across Europe. But
00:37 first, what are some of the differences between head coach and a manager?
00:41 Yeah, for me the main difference between the head coach and the manager is that the head
00:46 coach, the main focus is always in the team, in the game, in developing the tactical and
00:51 technical aspects of the game, developing the training sessions, developing the opponents.
00:56 He's more focused on the game and how to win the next game, the head coach. And for me
01:02 the manager is more focused in the team, developing the team, developing also the aspect of the
01:09 training but also everything around it, the facilities, the scouting process, the negotiation
01:15 with the players, have a broader role than the head coach.
01:20 So despite the fact that head coaches and managers are the ones standing on the touchline
01:23 during a match, the day-to-day roles are somewhat different. And this can vary across Europe
01:27 too. For example, in Spain, the Real Madrid chairman Florentino Perez first took over
01:32 the club back in the year 2000 and has remained in charge of the club's transfer policy ever
01:37 since, taking that burden away from the manager. Yet British football's most successful ever
01:41 manager Sir Alex Ferguson looked after the transfers and the player welfare as well as
01:46 on-the-pitch tactics. When once asked about the key to his success, his answer was control.
01:52 So I think it's evolution. All the coaches start more with the training like a head coach
01:57 and in the end of the season, of the career, they become more manager. Like for instance
02:03 Jose Mourinho in the beginning, he was responsible to do the warm-up, to do the main pass. But
02:09 then he started to evolve and with the age he started delegating more training aspects
02:16 because the most important is to have a group, to put the players in our idea, in our goal.
02:23 So the manager starts to think training is very important but the aspects around the
02:29 football like the staff that we have in the team, the scouts in the process, everything
02:35 is also very important. The organisation of all the club is most important. It's why a
02:40 lot of coaches like to have the control of the transfer, the control of the negotiations
02:47 because they get to realise that the training is limited in evolution but if we control
02:54 everything it's more easy to have success long-term in the club.
02:59 More control means more responsibility and with the financial burdens associated with
03:02 the modern game more prominent than ever, there's even more pressure to succeed. Let's
03:07 take a look at one example. Red Bull Leipzig have grown into a heavyweight of the German
03:11 game since they were taken over by the Sportsdrink in 2010. The cash injection allowed their
03:16 most famous manager, Ralf Ragnit, the chance to switch roles to become sporting director,
03:20 hiring Ralf Hasenhutl to succeed him in the process. The appointment was deemed a stroke
03:25 of genius in Germany and whilst those two have since moved on, the club has not looked
03:29 back since.
03:31 What I think Ralf Ragnit does is very, very, it's normally looked with high value and high
03:39 worth. He became popular from his days in managing SSV Aachen, which is the lower league
03:46 side. He was on a football show and basically had a tactics board and he explained what
03:52 he wanted to do and this gave him the nickname 'Professor'. Things have happened at the
03:57 club which have had a very big domino effect on football tactics. The way football is played
04:04 down to this day, the amount of coaches that have gone through the Red Bull school of thought
04:13 and play within the same parameters and the same philosophy. So the common occurrence
04:20 of high active pressing, the very quick transitions from going from defence to attack, attack
04:27 to defence, it's very entertaining.
04:31 So it's fair to say that one key person working at the top works in some cases and in others
04:35 showing the workload is the preference. But perhaps the most important question to ask
04:39 at this point is what does the future look like for those hoping to lead their club to
04:44 glory?
04:45 I think it has to be a collaboration. I think you have to involve the players in the process
04:49 because they are their own brands, they have their own ideas on the game now because it's
04:55 so accessible. Heads of departments all have opinions. Sports science now, we have a sports
04:59 science department, nutritionists, analytical departments. I think football has changed
05:04 because of the head of recruitment now and the director of footballs and the head coaches
05:09 that clubs are bringing in because money in the lower levels especially and even at the
05:15 top level you will have a club idea. So the idea is to sign maybe younger players who
05:21 they can then develop and then they can sell on. So they get a head coach who can work
05:25 with the director of football and maybe head of recruitment and they will specifically
05:30 look out for someone who is really comfortable working with people like that now. So I think
05:34 the more times you can get players to understand that then the better results will come.
05:39 Well that brings us to the end of this week's show from me in London and the team in Doha.
05:43 Do let us know if you prefer your club to be ran by a head coach or manager using the
05:47 hashtag #footballnowleading and we'll see you at the same time next week. Bye for now.
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