Let me set the scene for you. You’re in work, whether that be an office, a shop, a building site, what have you. You’ve had enough of your manager, he or she has pushed you too far one too many times. So, how do you overcome this problem?
It’s quite simple really, that is, if football has taught us anything. Just go over your manager’s head to the company director and have your manager removed. Oh come on, you can’t tell me you’ve never done that. Wait, does this only happen in football?
Yes it’s true, the vast majority of you may not have the power to get your boss sacked, which is understandable really, but try telling that to the Sunderland squad. As this week they have gone straight to the board to hasten the departure of their manager, Paolo Di Canio. Of course this wouldn’t happen in your place of work, because if you could get your manager ousted that easily then your manager’s position would be pretty redundant, untenable even. But that’s where the Premier League finds itself.
A trend that has been at the back of our minds for a few years is now fully engrained in football’s psyche. The players are the ones with all of the power. We’ve seen it at Chelsea over the years. Senior players like John Terry, Ashley Cole and Petr Čech, who have a good relationship with the owner, can quite quickly get rid of a manager that they don’t like. The Chelsea players got rid of Phil Scolari, they got rid of André Villas Boas.
Because if an owner like Roman Abramovich sees conflict between players and a manager there can only be one outcome. A business man like Abramovich knows the cheaper option between replacing the manager and replacing a few key players. The manager goes every time.
The players are such valuable assets now that they can’t be dismissed simply as employees. A club has invested millions in signing, paying and developing a player. To simply ship him out if the manager doesn’t like him and spend a further fortune on his replacement is uneconomical. If you don’t believe that, just look at the tale of Liverpool’s Luis Suárez.
After a number of indiscretions that resulted in lengthy suspensions a normal business would surely get rid of Suárez. Simply put, he would be fired. But then that’s tens of millions straight down the drain as far as Liverpool are concerned. Not only was Suárez not fired, but the power was shown to be very much with the Uruguayan. The talk of the summer was not about whether the Uruguayan would be discarded by Liverpool, but actually about whether he would choose to stay or choose to leave. Player power in its most obvious form.
It was suggested by veteran striker Kevin Phillips this week that today man management is maybe even more important for a manager than tactical acumen. Because keeping the dressing room happy is the single most important thing. If you lose the dressing room there is no getting it back and then you will quickly find yourself in the unemployment line. Paolo Di Canio lost the Sunderland dressing room.
It’s easy to see how. The Italian’s super strict regime may have been enforceable when Di Canio managed in League 1, but Premier League players don’t have to stand for it. So they won’t and they didn’t. No coffee, no ketchup, players not allowed to talk to stadium staff etc. Some would say that this is all pretty petty but Di Canio insisted on it and his players didn’t like it. Hell, he wouldn’t even let his players smile!
Premier League footballers don’t appreciate these rules, like I’m sure none of us would. This is probably where the idea of them being pampered comes from. I don’t think it’s fair to say simply that all top flight players are pampered, I just think it’s up to them whether they are or not.
We can complain about this fact, and many do, but that doesn’t change it. And truth be told it’s unlikely to ever change because the players will always be the prized assets of their club. It’s the managers that can be (and often are) quickly changed.
So, player power is here to stay. Unless the players decide otherwise of course.