Two years ago, current Inverness manager, John Hughes, was guest of honour at the CQN Golf Day. For around two hours during the meal he spoke privately to me about John Collins.
Hughes worked alongside Collins at Livingston and regarded our new assistant manager as the most insightful, tactically aware and innovative person he’d met in the game. According to Hughes, Collins could see things hidden to others, including himself. He could spot weaknesses in opposition teams and make telling observations about his own players and formations.
When recruiting anyone to the management team we want to hear endorsements like this. Most of the CQN demographic are old enough to remember times when managers’ and assistants’ most important attribute was their ability to bang his first on a table and yell “Get stuck right intae them” with a legendary level of authority.
This model of the desirable manager is still valued by British clubs, it’s a superstition which has been fed by famous and successful table bangers like Sir Alex Ferguson, but Ferguson’s Fist was not the source of his magic touch. More than anything else, Ferguson’s successful longevity was his insistence on appointing insightful, tactically aware innovators as assistants, who were often more switched-on than he was.
I wanted a student of the game as manager but I also want another strong tactical head as assistant. The last thing a manager actually needs as his assistant is his pal, or someone who is good at shouting, or even someone to be a buffer between him and the players. Whoever puts the cones out at Lennoxtown, like the Scottish physio at Chelsea, can be the players’ pal, cum-go-between, cum-nag.
One of football’s many inefficiencies is the managerial structure. Unlike other industries, the responsibility and wage gaps between the man with the top job and his assistant are huge. There is no reason for this, in fact, it’s mad. You always need a hierarchy but the no. 2 should have duties, responsibilities and pay only a fraction less than his immediate superior. The huge disparities in authority which are common do not give you a functioning team, at best you have a less efficient autocracy.
As we’ve said for years, guru managers don’t exist, but good, properly constituted, management teams do.
Those in the management team, responsible for spending millions of pounds of our money each year, of making tactical decisions against the best teams in Europe, need to be oracles of the game. Anything less and we’re indulging in one of football’s glaring and costly inefficiencies.
John Collins fits the profile. He also doesn’t suffer fools, with strong ideas on training, fitness, laxity, drinking, diet and off-field behaviour. For Celtic, all of this is necessary. Footballers are elite athletes but there is enormous variation in how dedicated they are to their personal development. This doesn’t exist in elite participants in sports like athletics, where you don’t get near the podium without a puritanical level of commitment to your development, and to your coach’s instructions.
You can also forget any concerns about Scott Brown. The Scott Brown of 2014, who as Neil Lennon’s captain was responsible for imposing misdemeanor fines on players, is more like John Collins than he is like the Scott Brown of 2007.
Over the last seven years we have built the sports science, medical, technical analysis and scouting capacity, all of which are particularly impressive, but the management team has always had a homespun feel about it. In 10 years of CQN I’ve never backed a Celtic management appointment, but with the appointment of Ronny Deila and John Collins we have a new type of management team. There are no guarantees of immediate success in any walk of life, and Champions League qualification this season will still be exposed to the vagaries of sport, but I’m delighted we finally have what looks like a properly constituted team in the dug out.
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his book, All the Best.
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WHAT A GOAL
2-0. Casillas. . .oops!
Spain going out
Fecking hell
World champions oot?
Casillas dreadful
Is that Spain out? 2-0 Chile. Cassillas is a pale shadow of himself.
Feeling sorry for Casillas.Nightmare WC
Had to catch that shot, not punch it straight back out. Guy took it really well, though.
Googybhoy
You tell that Che that he’s getting a boot in the Sandy’s for what he put on Faceache :-)
What price Chille now Bada?
I know of a CQNer who’s got Chile to make the final.
Hamiltontim
Someone giving you a hard time bud? snofair
Parkheadcumsalford
Si, Senyor. They’re gone unless they get a draw, and even then unlikely they’ll go through
Looks like Spain will be going home. A shadow of the team from recent years. Why was Casillas selected? Crazy stuff. They will need to do some Houdini stuff to survive. Let’s see-
Chile now 28/1 for the tournament (I took them e/w @ 40/1 before the start) – same as england, with bet365
Value bet now – Uruguay e/w @ 100/1
BJM
VP
Not at all big fella, she wouldn’t dare :-)
Xabi Alonso having a mare. They should get Koke on for him and get Fabregas and Villa on for Silva and Costa.
Changing how they play to accommodate Costa hasn’t worked but overall they look slow and tired.
hamiltontim
20:46 on 18 June, 2014
Googybhoy
You tell that Che that he’s getting a boot in the Sandy’s for what he put on Faceache :-)
Not sure what you mean ?
Tweet me or email me??
HT
Ole Che has been taking a bit of a pounding the last few days on FB … Poor wee soul ;)
Casillas should have been dropped ffs
theglasgowcelticway
My nephew is a builder and a very good one at that.
I notice everytime a player goes up for a ball with the keeper it usually results in a free for the goalie. I know I know exept at a certain Scottish ground. So is there any point in jumping with the keeper??
!!bada bing!!
20:55 on 18 June, 2014
Casillas should have been dropped ffs
De Gea injured but you would have thought Reina would have got the nod after Casillas performance against Holland
Googy
I’m only messin’ I was referring to the post you put on the CQN Facebook page about the wine fridge :-)
TBJ
Nae wunner, he thinks he’s Daniel Craig on the beach :-)
Bada bing
De Gea …injured ??
Sipsini- one has Chile into 14/1,got them 50/1
HT
Got you now.
Another wee job for you .?????
Pfayr- aye but Reina isnt,2 holding MFs Busquets & Alonso ?
What kind of work do you want done?
What on earth is Robbie Savage wearing?
G67-just read back mate,agree
Jude2005
Does he shave his body and put a that oil on?
It’s a wee bit weird that! Evenin an Independent Scotland.
MWD says AYE
HT
More Daffy Duck than Danny Craig ;)
Googy
No need, she doesn’t leave the wine in the fridge long enough!!
Chile con carnage in rio
Costa. . Big chance missed. Great ball, Iniesta.
TBJ
Duck smugglers instead of budgie..? Respect.
Good evening all.
Just a wee thought, when one door closes another door opens. You’ve got a poltergeist.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.