If football history has taught us just one thing it’s that constantly changing your manager is the only sure fire way of achieving success. That, of course, is sarcasm. Consistency seems to be the key ingredient from many sides on the verge of success.
The last couple of weeks have seen Fulham go on a recruitment drive while also sinking to the bottom of the league. Begging the question, what has possibly given the Fulham decision makers the impression that this is the way to go?
Fulham hold the unenviable honour of being the only Premier League club to get rid of two managers this season. They started the season with former Spurs and Ajax manager Martin Jol. An incredibly experienced manager with a proven Premier League pedigree. But one thing that was always working against Jol is the fact that he was an appointment of the old regime.
It seems obvious to a certain extent that when a new man takes over a club he will want to bring his own man in, he will want to run the club in his own way. When a new chairman or owner comes in he isn’t necessarily looking to back a manager, he is just looking for an excuse to sack him so that he can bring in his own choice. So when Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan took over Fulham, it could be argued that Martin Jol’s days were already numbered.
The below par form of Fulham at the start of this season was the reason that Khan had been looking for and Jol was dismissed. It’s easy to feel bad for Martin Jol as this was the same type of trigger-happy regime that also saw him sacked after a hugely successful spell at Spurs, only to see his replacement dismissed after less than a year.
René Meulensteen was the man chosen to succeed Jol. His fellow Dutchman had been a hugely respected coach under Sir Alex at Manchester United, and now seemed a logical time for his first role as the main man at a Premier League club.
Experienced assistant manager Ray Wilkins was brought in to assist him. Alan Curbishley soon followed as Technical Director. But of course results didn’t improve and Fulham found themselves demoted from relegation battlers to odds on favourites for the drop after falling to the bottom of the league.
So, with few options left but holding an overwhelming need to be seen to be doing something, Fulham ousted Meulensteen in favour of German manager Felix Magath, meaning that Meulensteen was in charge for less than three months.
A huge investment was made in Meulensteen, he was given his choice of coaching staff and was afforded the opportunity to spend £12million on Greek striker Konstantinos Mitroglou. Although now this does nothing more than make the decision to sack Meulensteen even more laughable.
It’s been said far too many times before for me to not risk being the proverbial broken record, but these kind of changes take time. Especially when it comes to turning around a struggling team. The chances are that they are struggling for a reason and wholesale changes need to be made. Unwanted players need to be discarded, adequate reinforcements need to be found and the team need to be allowed to gel.
René Meulensteen had one transfer window to make his own Fulham side, a January transfer window where business is notoriously difficult anyway. However it didn’t really matter what he did during the transfer window, Meulensteen only had two weeks with his new side before he was sacked. He never even got to see his new £12million man on the pitch.
It seems that chairmen need to be seen to be doing ‘something’. Fulham were bottom of the league so they simply hit the panic button as hard as they could. Even if results can be used to weakly justify the sacking of Meulensteen and his assistant Ray Wilkins, it’s hard to fathom the dismissal of technical director Alan Curbishley. Who had only been in his role since Christmas Eve and had no hope of having an impact in such a short space of time.
It’s a long process, a process that saw Barcelona overcome Manchester City away from home in the Champions League this week. City took to the field at the Etihad on Tuesday night with a team hastily assembled with big money signings from around the world. The Barcelona team wasn’t put together like that. Barca have a philosophy, a way they play and a system that they want their players to fit into. The first team play one way, their under-21’s play the same way and even their under 7’s have the same philosophy.
That’s why so many youth players come through the ranks at Camp Nou. Because they are groomed to play for the first team from an extremely early age. Some players are bought in from external sources, but they are players that can slot straight into that philosophy. Very few teams are lucky enough to never have to change a manager and Barca are no exception, but the philosophy stays the same and that’s where the consistency comes from.
It’s the same at Swansea. They were a League 1 side who decided that they wanted to play a certain way. And since then, each managerial appointment has been hired with the idea that they keep that philosophy. And now that ‘League 1 side’ are in the Premier League and the Europa League.
So Fulham’s shot at consistency has gone up in smoke, at least for now. They are a good club, if they do get relegated then they have enough about them to mount a challenge in the Championship next season. Unless of course Shahid Kahn and the Fulham board hit that panic button once again in the summer. Then, how they get on will be anyone’s guess.