Sidney
September 7, 2019, 1:19pm
1164
Cicero_Dandi:
Absolutely, by the end of his career he had been shown up to be a cardboard hardman, being openly mocked by Jason McAteer when doing one of his trademark “let me at him” behind a group of players. Shearer laughing his hole at him when he lost the plot. The facade was evident and the aura was gone.
He then went off to Scotland for a half a season where a shoe cobbler made bits of him in a domestic cup tie.
Late Keane would sort of remind you of Boris Johnson.
I refer again to a post I made some months ago comparing the traditional English love for a former all action midfield general being a manager (who fails) to the Tory party’s long running and daft obsession with wanting a reincarnation of Churchill as leader.
In British football, supporters are obsessed with the idea that a great former player will make a great manager when they retire. That they can drive a team to success as a manager by sheer force of personality and will.
The classic examples of this are former players who were tough tackling “no nonsense”, all action, “alpha male” midfielders, eg. Graeme Souness, Bryan Robson, Roy Keane and Steven Gerrard.
The concept that managers should have to think simply doesn’t come into the equation. T…
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