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Premier League Pressure
Football managers. Love them or hate them, they're among the most skilled team leaders in the world.
Here sports writer Jack Carroll takes a look at the three different styles of arguable the best of the best in the beautiful game and we assess how their approaches could help your team hit the promotion zone
Jose Mourinho, Chelsea
Jose Mourinho has a voracious appetite for the game, self-belief and, most of all, belief in the players who he demands share his vision and work ethic. His sermons call for hard graft and for every player to sacrifice himself for the good of the team.
"I am a great defender of team spirit and teamwork", says Mourinho. "The first thing I always promise my players is that I will look at them with the same eyes. I do not want special relations with one of them. Players do not win trophies, squads win trophies. I cannot say I love this player or that player; I love players that love to win. They not only win in 90 minutes, but every day, every training session, in every moment of their lives. But most important is to have players who think as I do."I like everybody to have a strong motivation. When you have a big box of oranges and one of them is bad then one month later ten oranges have to be sent to the garbage."
360 says...
Mourinho is clearly a manager who uses Emotional Intelligence to great effect. Powerful communication comes naturally to him and he uses it to inspire confidence, loyalty and buy-in and to drive the team collectively. To replicate these skills in your own team, we'd recommend course The Emotionally Intelligent Manager.
Brian Clough, Nottingham Forest
Brian Clough's managerial record was quite remarkable, certainly in terms of short-term success. He won the league championship with Derby County and Nottingham Forest, clubs that had never won the championship before in their history, twice winning the European Cup with the latter. To give some perspective to this feat, Clough took over Forest in January 1975 when they were struggling in Division Two. By 1980, he had won his second European Cup. Where are Forest now? That's right, still striving to get back to the top league.
How did he achieve this success? Original strategy, tactical innovation? No, solid players, a settled system and an ability to inspire. Take these for a selection of quotes from some of his former players. John Robertson: "When I played for Brian Clough, I just used to want to get a 'well done' from him. When I was playing, if ever I did anything right, he always used to get his little hand up and when that happened, I used to feel ten feet tall." Or John O'Hare: "He could grab our attention in a couple of seconds. He had this presence." Or Frank Clark: "When he walks through the door, the atmosphere is electric."
Clough's ability to motivate was partly the result of the inexplicable, of what O'Hare describes as ”„presence'. However, Clough was also an extremely perceptive manager and he knew instinctively which players needed what kind of treatment. As another former player Larry Lloyd explained, "John (Robertson) needed that ”„well done', that pat on the back. I couldn't give two monkeys whether he said ”„well done' to me, and he knew that and used to go the other way and give me a rollicking. Clough knew I used to fall for it, and running through that tunnel, my attitude was ”„I'll show that big so-and-so'."
Nevertheless, Clough knew that he couldn't win things from motivation alone. It was his trusted assistant, Peter Taylor, who identified players who had not realised their potential elsewhere. As Taylor said: "We just gelled, we filled in the gaps... my strength was buying and selecting the right player, then Brian's man management would shape the player.""
Clough's inability to sustain success at Forest can be explained by two factors. Firstly, he missed Taylor's contribution after he left in 1982. Secondly, although he was an inspirational short-term manager, he did not put in the huge amount of work necessary to build the foundations for the type of long-term success achieved by the likes of Bill Shankly and Alex Ferguson.
360 says...
Brian Clough had charisma by the truckload but he was also a great trainer and developer of his players. He used his flexibility and people-reading skills to tailor the right kind of management style to the right player. To bring this kind of tailored support to your team, we'd recommend course M4 Coaching Success (see page 17).
Sir Alex Furguson
Alex Ferguson is probably the greatest motivator in European football. Player motivation is a finely balanced art. Too much of it every day and eventually it can have no effect, or the constant pressure of it can destroy players. Ferguson believes in using it every so often at the optimum moments, when it has its most power. Observe his potent words of motivation during half-time in the European Cup Final 1999 with United 1-0 down: "At the end of this game, the European Cup will be only six feet away from you and you'll not even able to touch it if we lose. And for many of you that will be the closest you will ever get. Don't you dare come back in here without giving your all". Undoubtedly he honed his man-management skills in his pre-football days as a shipyard shop steward. He will always get the best out of his players and demand 100%. His handling of United's young stars has also been first class, protecting the likes of Ryan Giggs from frenzied media attention. In both the Eric Cantona "kung-fu kick" incident and David Beckham's '98 World Cup ordeal, he stuck by his players - and they repaid him with great comebacks.Ferguson will rarely attack his players in public or in the media. If they have under-performed or done something stupid, he will leave his criticism to behind closed doors. He can also be utterly ruthless. Ask Jim Leighton whom he devastated when dropped him from the FA Cup replay in 1990 because Ferguson felt the keeper had a poor performance. Paul Ince got too big for his boots and was offloaded to Italy while Jaap Stam crossed Ferguson with his autobiography and was quickly transferred to Lazio. If it is for the good of the team Ferguson will not hesitate to swing the axe.
Fergie has also perfected the "siege mentality" at both Aberdeen and United. Telling his team the whole world is against them and hates them, he tells them to prove all the United-haters wrong and show they are the best. He is the master of mind games, loving to wind up opposing managers with subtle attacks, mischievous swipes and deception. Kevin Keegan and Kenny Dalglish were left foaming at the mouth but in Arsene Wenger, Fergie appeared to have a man who could handle the mind games. That is, until the climactic weeks of the 2003 season when Wenger finally cracked under the pressure of losing the title. The normally calm Frenchman was stressed and clearly rattled, resorting to a state of denial with bizarre excuses and statements about how Arsenal where really the better team (despite finishing five points adrift). It was all too evident - mischievous Fergie had got to him.
