Villas-Boas and Wenger: Merry-go-round Bound?

Published: 18^th Feb 12 8:03 pm

by Alan Dymock
Alan Dymock

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Villas-Boas and Wenger: Merry-go-round Bound?

both- REUTERS

They sometimes describe it as the Management Merry-go-round.

One manager loses their job and there is a list of high profile candidates at hand. The same characters are always talked about. One steps in to the breach, the replaced manager joins the ride, bobbing and circling with the rest of the eager coaches.

The more high profile the club: the shorter and more exclusive the list of prospective replacements. Those specific Merry-go-rounds are roped off. VIP fair rides owned by billionaires and run by some, frankly, scary men.

In the World’s most high profile soccer competition, the English Premier League, some jobs come with greater pressures than others. That’s the money and the rich owners and the fans and the heritage that create that pressure. At the traditional top four –Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool –the jobs have always been the most exclusive and the most dangerous. Now you could probably add the jobs at Man City and Tottenham to the list of elite management positions.

What is the job security like at those teams, though?

Well, if you are Sir Alex Ferguson you have a job for life. Only a stick of dynamite or huge shares in a chewing gum conglomerate could persuade Fergie to even consider leaving his post. But of course no one wants him to anyway.

Apart from him I can honestly say no one else looks safe. Arsene Wenger would normally have been considered untouchable, but his team are crashing at the moment, a shadow of the Arsenal sides that challenged for league titles, and the Frenchman could not look more miserable.

We had come to expect more fight and verve from him, but as Arsenal slumped to their second defeat in four days, this time dropping out of the FA cup due to a 2-0 loss to Sunderland, the manager reeled off a list of excuses before taking his leave from a press conference.

They are now set for year seven without any silverware. The schedule and away games on the bounce may be Wenger’s outwards excuses but the underlying problem may well be that he has let a team get away from him. He is a man who had history of building teams up and molding them in his image. Now he has Robin Van Persie, Jack Wilshere and a couple of promising midfielders and very little else. One struggles to see what this man, fabled for planning meticulously and approaching soccer empirically, can now do. Is it time he and Arsenal parted ways?

With the pressure cooker of top end EPL soccer never cooling can anyone else share Wenger’s pain?

Andres Villas-Boas (a man whose name is impossible to say out loud without affecting Sean Connery’s accent) is another manager who is feeling the pinch. The difference here is of course that Villas-Boas is in his first season and is struggling.

The manager, considered incredibly young for such a high-profile position, does not enjoy the full support of the playing staff at Chelsea. Or at least that is what he is hinting at. He appears to be moving from one gaffe to the next.

When his team were struggling to secure back to back results close to Christmas there were rumors that he asked the players to run over and celebrate with him on the touchline, as a sign of unity for those outside of the club to see. He has also tried to pick fights with officials and draw attention to himself rather than the team, much like another famous ex-manager of Chelsea does. Many feel that Villas-Boas is just a cheap Mourinho, and the problem is that the Chelsea boss keeps pushing harder, inevitably drawing more comparisons.

As Arsenal were losing to Sunderland, Chelsea were drawing with Championship side Birmingham. They were losing 1-0 at one point and an element of the crowd were clearly heard to be chanting Mourinho’s name. A story was leaked that Drogba gave his half-time talk for him…

Both of these men are caught in the shadows of other managers: Villas-Boas is caught in Mourinho’s shadow; Wenger is caught in the shadow of himself, when he was a bold and commanding leader.

Something may give soon. At Chelsea it is no secret that the owner is willing to release the head coach from a hefty contract if he thinks they are doing poorly. Villas-Boas is not impressing. At Arsenal there needs to be drastic change and Wenger is almost a limp shrug away from showing he no longer has the stomach for the fight.

On top of this Harry Redknapp is constantly linked with the vacant England coaching job. This would mean he would most likely have to leave Tottenham.

By season 2012/13 could half of the protracted top 6 be led by new managers? Actually… hold on… is Mancini as safe as Sir Alex and King Kenny? Ach, who even knows anymore. Modern soccer is anything but a predictable business.

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