Status and/or a messianic personality can get you success as a manager in the short term. The Brits have an obsession with the idea of the “raaaaarrrrrr” alpha male midfield general becoming a great manager. There are five classic ones in the modern era - Graeme Souness, Bryan Robson, Roy Keane, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.
None of these five were great managers, or anywhere near it - they all turned out to be bad managers - but all had varying levels of short term success based on who they were before they became hopelessly exposed and became beaten dockets.
In a way, they’re actually a demonstration of how status matters.
Graeme Souness: Intellectually the smartest of the five. Came to Rangers when Rangers were at a very low ebb, and completely energised the support and players. He was able to sign English players because of his status, because the Scottish League offered European football, and because Rangers had money. Rangers’ rivals didn’t have the money they did. Rangers surged ahead and became the dominant team in Scotland under him.
Then he went to Liverpool, got rid of a load of players, signed inferior replacements, his personality was overbearing, he couldn’t cut it tactically, and he sank. He was more or less a beaten docket as a manager after this bar a moderately successful spell at Blackburn.
Bryan Robson: Energised the Middlesbrough players and supporters because he was Manchester United and England’s captain for a decade and Mr. Raaaaar. Middlesbrough had money and were building a new stadium. Won the second division in his first season as a player manager. Went moderately in his first season in the Premier League. In his second season in the Premier League it became apparent that despite spending a lot of money, he didn’t know what he was doing tactically and his personality was Father Stone like. Got relegated. Trundled along with Middlesbrough for a few more years but was only going to be a journeyman manager after this.
Roy Keane: Completely energised the Sunderland players and support after five straight defeats to start the 2006/07 season. His entry was box office. Swept everything before him in his first season on the back of his messianic personality. Had a mediocre first season in the Premier League and the longer things went on the less he could rely on his messianic personality and the more that more personality became a hindrance. It became steadily apparent that he had nothing in his managerial locker other than “raaaaaaarrrrrrrr”. Stopped returning the chairman’s calls. Resigned without telling anybody. Was a beaten docket as a manager after this.
Steven Gerrard: Energised the Rangers support and players. What a coup for Rangers to get such a big name. From the start, despite his negative body language and interviews, Rangers improved, because they had Steven Gerrard and they were in a shite league. Confidence surged despite the negging. Celtic imploded, Rangers knew this was their chance and they took it. Then Gerrard left. After a few months of doing passably at Aston Villa, Gerrard’s negative personality and lack of tactical knowledge showed very quickly and they sank like a stone. It was no surprise when he was sacked and that was him done as a manager at any serious level.
Frank Lampard: Frank could speak well and voted Tory, so therefore the English football intelligentsia decided to delude themselves that he was going to be a top, top manager. Had a passable time at Derby based on being Frank Lampard. Then got the Chelsea job based on being Frank Lampard. Had a passable first season as Chelsea manager because he was Frank Lampard and he energised the players and supporters. Then he had no supporters in the stadium, he only had himself, and Frank didn’t understand football tactics, so Chelsea sank like a stone, sacked him, and then won the Champions League with a better coach. Frank went to Everton where he energised the players and support because he wasn’t Steven Gerrard, somehow kept them up based entirely on the ideology of ”raaaaaaaarrrrrrr”, then sank like a stone the next season. Now treated as a joke.
To add to these: Kevin Keegan, Martin O’Neill, Neil Lennon. All three had messianic personality types and achieved real success. Then, to varying levels, things went tits up for them.
Keegan was done as Newcastle manager once Newcastle collapsed on that run in in 95/96 and he had the meltdown on telly. He couldn’t cut it as England manager. He repeated his Newcastle trick at Manchester City for one season but then petered out Bryan Robson style as his personality con trick became less and less convincing.
O’Neill had the messianic air of greatness about him as a manager, but he was inherently conservative in his tactics and his signing policy. That became painfully apparent once Henrik Larsson departed Celtic. The messianic air went. He was never the same afterwards. Had a moderately successful spell at Aston Villa, saved Sunderland from relegation before getting sacked, did OK with Ireland before his inherent conservatism led to it all going wrong.
Lennon was the messiah when he first took over Celtic. He was Mr. Celtic. In his first season, he mixed Midas (the 3-0 win over Rangers) with Jonah (the calamitous loss to Inverness Caledonian Thistle which cost Celtic the league). Rangers then imploded, and Lennon’s personality enabled Celtic to have a good European campaign, including beating Barcelona. Soon the personality act wore off, and he was off, and he couldn’t be the messiah anywhere else, so he was done for as a manager, and when he came back to Celtic he was no longer the messiah, he was a washed up has been.