Back in January we discussed Mauricio Pochettino, who yesterday left Southampton to become manager of Tottenham Hotspur. He is without question the hottest management property in the most bloated league in football.
He was also an unemployed flop a little over a year ago.
In reality, Pochettino is a good manager but he is also the latest in a long line of faux guru-managers, the aura of divinity around him is illusionary. He was sacked by Espanyol in December 2012 with the club bottom of La Liga after 13 games, after propelling them up the league from a similar position two years earlier. Espanyol’s problems were not Pochettino’s problems. The club strategy had been failing for years, Pochettino was not the first manager to suffer as a consequence, in fact, he was the club’s third manager in a season when he took over.
He joined Southampton, who were on a different trajectory. Southampton have been producing some of the best youth talent in the UK for a decade but a series of self-harming boardroom battles saw the club competing in the third tier of English football. In Nigel Adkins the found a man who won two consecutive promotions and had them comfortable in the Premier League.
Then, in January last year, Southampton made one of the ballsy-est decisions in football history. They sacked the successful Adkins and replaced him with the aforementioned unemployed flop.
Chairman Nicola Cortese, who was an outsider to the football industry, figured that Adkins could only take the club so far and that, with the appointment of a man in-tune with the new strategy, Southampton could make a real breakthrough at the top of the Premiership.
Pochettino did what Cortese wanted, not through obligation, but through instinct. Unfortunately for Southampton, Markus Liebharr, who appointed Cortese, died, and his daughter-and-heir, Katharine, figured the family had spent enough of their fortune on an English football club. With strategy tending towards a breakeven point, Cortese resigned. It was inevitable that Pochettino would follow.
What are the lessons for us?
Forget looking for a guru, it’s all about the strategy. Get the strategy right, only employ people who are instinctively aligned to it, and employ an intelligent, tactical student, even if he can’t speak the language.
CQN Event in London
Lisbon Lion John Hughes is joining Brogan Rogan, Auldheid and Angela Haggerty for a CQN Question and Answer evening at the Manor Club, Wimbledon, on 21 June. The event is ticket only, so let me know if you would like to attend, celticquicknews@gmail.com
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his tome, All the Best.
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Auld (Michael) Gray Whistle Test
One for TET and WeeFra
The Adventures of Rin TIM TIM!
This Chalmers Man (Smiths)
Rob, mental picture of us all being herded down a long corridor from a room full of people with their heads in their hands towards our coats and shouting tv programmes over our shoulders.
Hughes Let the Dogs Out (Woof Woof)
Pettacelli
HH
/Bishop B
TJ Hooper
An Tearmann
It’s the usual suspects in the Top 10 but there seems to be some unjustified enthusiasm for the likes of Sven Goran Erikson, Paul Jewell and Dave Jones on the list. Tony Mowbray is also priced on there but I think KevJungle has a better chance.
No one has put a price on Sydney Tim’s wife yet.
Obviously her price is above Rubies.
Ruby always was an expensive one :-)
Hamish (mcalpine) mac Beth
Dial M for Murdoch
Following the heavy handed approach by the plod in recent times..
Question Tim
HH
/Bishop B
Lennon La Vida Loca (the show naw the song)
HH
/Bishop B
GRAND OLD TEAM DESIGNS
Steves a Chalmer!!!
Kevinbhoy.. kind of puts me in mind of One Mulgrew over the cuckoos nest…………
Getting a bit of a yawn this. Off to Mass!!
new article posted.
Bobo Selecta
/HH
Bishop B
It’ll be all Wright on the night
(Alan) Rough Justice.
MWD,
Nope. You’re wrong again.
Read what I wrote.
Thank God you don’t offer a Referendum opinion.
An interesting point there. Ramos did brilliantly with Sevilla but flopped in other jobs while the club continued to enjoy success. It suggested that the club was well-run in terms of it’s scouting network, financial management etc and his job was to coach the team. McLaren and Twente also fit this example. While winning the Dutch league was a great achievement for Schteve, the club did well immediately before and after him while his career has been patchy to say the least.
We have a decent team off the field, a good scouting network and some shrewd (maybe too shrewd for some) economists that has left us in a good position. I personally think it’d be harder to get the next appointment wrong. The ex-Brighton manager interests me but I think he’d be odds on now for the Southampton job.
Let’s stay away from the emotional appointment (Larsson, Keane) and get Steve Clarke in. A good coach who can slip straight in to the successful set-up we have right now…