Ronay concludes that this may be about as good as it gets for Britain’s football managers. He foresees that, with the rise of the new breed of super-rich owner, British fans will become more used to a man buying their club, buying his favourite fantasy footballers and then hiring and firing those who manage them. Just this month the owners of Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers both decided to sack coaches who, on the face of it, seemed to be performing well.
Can this really be the case? That, although he has never seemed so important, the manager doesn’t really matter at all? The answer may depend on the club. For those already established as a dominant force, such as Chelsea or Real Madrid, changing managers every few years doesn’t seem to stop them winning trophies. Success, not stability, is the point. For other clubs, however, those with new money such as Manchester City, stability is required if they are ever going to become more successful. And changing the manager every year or two makes stability harder to achieve.
It took six and a half years for Ferguson to win the first of his 11 league championships at Manchester United and he has admitted he was lucky his club believed in the vision he set out. Wenger continues his mission to shape Arsenal’s long-term success even if at the expense of trophies in the short term. Barclay memorably describes Ferguson and Wenger’s reigns as “dictatorships of conviction”, rather than ego, as in the case of the brilliant, brash Portuguese Jose Mourinho.