Chelsea and Wolves are two clubs who have sacked a manager only to appoint his assistant. Why?
When a club or organisation sacks a coach or agrees to move on, frequently it so often his assistant who takes over.
I can’t be the only who completely disagrees with this approach.
Surely if a club’s owners feel so strongly as to fire the team’s manager, replacing him with the assistant, then the same problems are only going to re-emerge.
If the team needs a new approach, then the man who has served as an assistant is hardly going to step up and provide it.
Steve McClaren was Sven Goran Eriksson’s assistant with England, and made the step up when the Swede left in 2006.
His tenure was a disaster, failing to qualify for Euro 2008, and recalling Emile Heskey along the way.
He attempted to stamp his own authority on the squad, but it never worked, with him accused of being too ‘matey’ with stars, referring to John Terry as ‘JT’, a casual approach which came from his time on the training ground as Sven’s assistant.
This year, we have three assistant managers all handed the big chance of making the step up.
Stuart Pearce with England, Roberto di Matteo with Chelsea, and Terry Connor with Wolves.
It is of course too early to judge all three, although Pearce may have managed his one and only game, judging by his comments that he did not feel he was the man for Euro 2012.
Connor’s promising start faded sharply with a 5-0 defeat to Fulham on Sunday, and the Wolves board will be praying they made the right choice.
Di Matteo has a point to prove at Chelsea after his promising managerial stint was cut short at West Brom.
But what was he doing as assistant manager? If he was not helping Andre Villas-Boas to the degree that AVB had to be sacked, then how can he be expected to turn the team around?
In the past 24 hours we have seen headlines such as ‘Di Matteo hopes to bring passion to Chelsea’ – but why was he not doing that in the first place, and if he could not make the players listen before, why would they now?
Just like sacking Mick McCarthy and replacing him with his assistant doesn’t make sense, nor does sacking a Europa League winner and replacing him with his second in command.
Can it work in either case? Let us know your thoughts
image: © aromano
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