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Happy New Year Jack..I hope it proves successful for you both on and off the pitch.

Scottish managers have a long and very distinguished record in the British game - it once seemed a cultural trait - and this is still being continued by the likes of Fergie, Owen Coyle and David Moyes amongst others in England. Not dispariging the abilities of player turned coaches Colin Calderwood and Stuart McCall, sometimes I fear the attraction of having a so-called 'famous name' in a clubs' hot seat is putting a block on more experienced 'established managers' getting to build a decent dynasty and as we often see their reigns are often short lived.

Patience is in short supply nowadays when you see the pressure put upon such managers as Hodgson, Houllier and Benitez...lucky for them they always get such a great pay-off - but I guess it isn't the case lower down the food chain?

happy new year jack

colin calderwood and stuart mccall, both have served their time in england and both were successful. Hats off to the two of them for wanting to come north and to have their experience involved in those teams.
here's a question for you jack, the spl leaders appointed a manager with absolutely no coaching experince and he was able to hand pick his assistants, you would have thought this would be a disaster in the making, but celtic 4 points clear and a new year derby win, how does this look for your blog.
i wouldn't say there is a conveyor belt of managerial talent in this country jack, it's just a merry go round, you just have to be in the right place at the right time, i'm sure i'll answer my own point and say neil lennon's appointment was more to do with timing.

super ally will take over from walter smith next season, would you say that is the best appointment for the club or is it just the most economical appointment because it will be done relatively cheaply, could you imagine an outsider coming into manage these clubs now, our two flag ship clubs, an outsider would possible want a whole new approach, maybe even a whole new team on the park, is that not how it works down in england.
being a manager in scotland isn't about how much money your asking for to do the job, it's about how much money you don't want.
our managers in scotland should be looking south, not for the jobs that are on offer but for inspiration, your right to mention owen coyle, a total professional who deserves everything he gets out the game, he is a credit to the game and ian holloway at blackpool, i could listen to that guy all day long, he says it as it is, absolutely brillant man manager, either of those two managers could be manager of the year down in england.
On gus mcpherson, jimmy calderwood and big john hughes, can i ask you what makes their cv's so impressive, the first two resigned and john hughes fell foul of media pressure to oust him ftom hibs.
i wonder if jimmy calderwood or gus mcpherson would use the same logic knowing how skint football is in this country now, seems it back fired on them. saying that i think jimmy's calderwoods apperance on only an exuse is brilliant, he's looking a wee bit slimmer and not as tanned now.

Gary Bollan and Jim Weir haven't done enough to be considered by SPL clubs surely?

Bollan took what was effectively a Div 1 squad to the Div 3 title. He probably would have been sacked if he failed to do that. He could easily find himself out of a job if Livingston don't go up this year either.

Weir has started well at Brechin but inherited a strong team that would have been expected to at least make the playoffs. You then look at his failure at Montrose (when given a much larger budget compared to previous and subsequent managers) and Arbroath, where he was an absolute disaster. I understand that managers can improve with experience but he needs to perform for more than 6 months for it to be considered anything other than a blip.

This isn't excusing the appointment of McCall, who was a failure with Bradford and a bizarre appointment.

I find it strange that Chairmen appear to appoint managers on the basis of their playing career, rather than what they have done as a coach. In the last 20 years, there's been an increasing number of managers who have succeeded despite having an unimpressive playing career and concentrated on coaching at a younger age. It may not be coincidence that probably the best candidate to step up from the lower leagues, John McGlynn fits this profile.

I think this trend of looking south is more to do with the finances of Scottish clubs. Scottish clubs need to wheel and deal in the transfer market and someone who has contacts down there is more likely to be able to sign someone, either permanently or on loan, from down south.

Danny Lennon brought in a lot of players from Cowdenbeath and none have really set the heather on fire, thats not to say they havent held there own.

Contacts is key, my own club Kilmarnock are proof of that. With kenny Shields we got Ben Gordon on loan and Mixu had the contacts to get Eremenko.

I think the pressures and time constraints placed on Managers in the modern game have caused the prototype of a Manager to change from that of years gone by, which has put a stop to the traditional conveyor belt.

Going back to the 70s and 80s, a gaffer would spend time carefully constructing his squad & working with them on a training pitch to improve them individually & collectively. Today's Managers don't have that luxury of time - they are expected to completely overhaul the squad & sign new players by an expectant support, cut the playing budget by an expectant board of directors & play exciting football by an expectant media. That's all too much & can't all be done, hence the number of sackings we see.

A successful top flight manager today is just essentially a Director of Football - i.e. a transfer wizard & an expert motivator.

I was extremely dismayed to read the Motherwell FC statement regarding the criteria of a new boss said that a wealth of contacts & an in-depth knowledge of the English lower leagues was essential - basically publicly acknowledging they are not recognising coaching, tactical ability or man management skills to be of prime importance in the ideal candidate.

Does this not only block the Managerial conveyor belt of talent to the top flight, but also the rise of players from our lower leagues?

#5 Excellent point about Motherwell stating they need a manager to have 'a wealth of contacts & an in-depth knowledge of the English lower leagues'. Maybe they were looking at the Darren Ferguson situation at Preston where his United contacts through his dad bought in some cheap loan signings..although it backfired in the end.

..they do say 'It's who you know' nowadays.

I just think it's very sad that top flight clubs don't have more faith in the Scottish leagues.

Divisions 1, 2 and 3 have some wee gems playing down there, but only really Craig Levein has plundered the lower reaches with any sort of regularity. Same can be said for Managers, as Jack has already pointed out. Allan Moore, Brian Reid & many others are fine examples of good younger gaffers that haven't been given the opportunity at a higher level despite success with their clubs.

Perhaps it says more about the lack of ability or vision in the SPL decision makers than it does about the quality of the lower leagues?

I think some SPL clubs are more scared of hiring ex-SPL managers like Hughes and Calderwood for a number of reasons. The expectations for them are likely to be higher since they have had success everyone knows about. Some fans simply won't take to them even if it's based on a triviality like them saying your team was lucky once! Also, their reputation may lead the clubs to think that they'll be too expensive or demand too much in tight times.

Recent managerial changes seem to suggest there's no real logic to success anyway, it's probably more down to how the players and manager/coaches respond to each other, a chunk of luck and patience from the board. Clubs might as well just draw a name from a hat and give them 6 month contracts to make it easy to change managers ;)

The successful Scots down south were always on that track and could have been predicted early. Moyes did his German coaching badge at 21, Coyle is a unique brand of manager and McLeish served a good apprenticeship and learned the ropes. Davies has also proved his worth.

McGlynn has proved himself under financial restraints and knows Scottish football inside out. I am surprised none of the SPL clubs are taking a chance on him.

Jack,

"Managers in Scotland's lower leagues find it hard to rise up the career ladder"

They are going to find it a lot harder once the SPL get their way - there won't be a ladder for them to climb.

Don't worry, you'll still get your chance - that conveyor belt will be running even faster and faster.

Too fast. If it's not too fast already, that is.

I think clubs who go outwith the usual SPL suspects should be applauded. By looking outwith the Scottish game, they will hopefully bring in someone with fresh ideas and who is not prepared to accept a 3-0 defeat as Celtic Park or Ibrox as a good result.

Motherwell in particular, are willing to take a risk and hopefully the appointment of Stuart McCall works out for them.

Overall, I don't think Scottish talent is overlooked. If they're good enough (like Danny Lennon) they will get their chance. Could Calderwood, Hughes or McPherson honestly say they've done enough in their previous posts to encourage an ambitious club to give them another chance?

I think there needs to be more credit for those clubs who don't take the easy option and simply appoint another manager from the merry-go-round that is the scottish management scene. Hibs did it with Hughes and sacked him, Aberdeen did it with Calderwood and McGhee and sacked them both, St Mirren with McPherson and sacked him as well.

Motherwell on the other hand brought in Butcher who was poached and has been doing well, they brought in McGhee who was lured by Aberdeen and likewise Craig Brown. The only dubious appointment seems to have been Gannon and although they parted company it had nothing to do with results which were actually pretty good.

In short, those clubs taking your advice Jack have had a poorer experience than the likes of Motherwell who seem to me to be a little more innovative in their approach - just a thought.

11. At 10:33am on 05 Jan 2011, footballfutbolfitba wrote:

I think clubs who go outwith the usual SPL suspects should be applauded. By looking outwith the Scottish game, they will hopefully bring in someone with fresh ideas and who is not prepared to accept a 3-0 defeat as Celtic Park or Ibrox as a good result.
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I completely agree if it's for the right reasons (and Butcher, McGhee and Brown certainly were), and if those are the reasons for choosing to bring in a Manager from out with Scotland then hat's off to them. That's very definitely not the reasons their club statement gave.

Clubs should hire the best man for the job, regardless of where they come from, who they used to manage or who they used to support.

Motherwell wanted somebody with an in-depth knowledge of the lower English leagues as that is where they are expecting to trade for players in the foreseeable future - why not go for John Hughes or Jimmy Calderwood? Both have plundered these leagues successfully in the past, but they were apparently ruled out because they hadn't Managed in the English leagues - what's that got to do with the SPL?! Jim Gannon matched this criteria & he was a disaster, as were most of his signings.

All of this ignoring the employments rights aspects of publicly ruling out such candidates with such a sweeping statement. Imagine the furore if they rejected out of hand the application of Hope Powell because she had never played or coached men's football...

Jack, I really hope big Yogi gets the Burnley job, because I think he would excel at a forward thinking club in a more positive & competitive league. From what I hear his coaching methods seem very clever, if not revolutionary, and I think he could do very well in the Championship. Plus, it would be superb TV watching John Motson trying to work out what he's saying!!

It's Gus MacPherson, not McPherson.

Blogcritic - I agree the criteria Motherwell laid out prior to McCall's appointment was a little strange. I'd have thought number one would be a manager that was committed to continue giving our youth players a chance of first team football - most of whom we've spent a fair chunk out of our player budget to tie up on more attractive, long term deals and hopefully the source of some much needed income over the next few years through transfer fees. As for looking for someone who has previously worked in England - I don't really see the point.
Good contacts fo English lower league players? Certainly. That's our market. We can't afford transfer fees and the cream of the out of contract Scottish league talent seems to get scooped up by the bigger sides. The out of contract English market gives us a massive player pool to work in.

However when you said "Jim Gannon matched this criteria & he was a disaster, as were most of his signings.", I couldn't disagree more.
We were comfortably in the top half of the table with probably the youngest first team in the league. Granted he was by all accounts a bit of a nightmare to work with and some stuff got too personal but it was difficult to see that coming when he was appointed. His signings were excellent. Take:
Jennings, Hateley, Ruddy, Jutkiewicz, Humphrey, Coke - all either good or very good players who have made positive contributions to the club. Only Moutaoukil was poor. His signing policy was his best attribute!

Have to agree with LucienSanchez's come back to blogcritic re Gannon. As I stated at blog 12 he ended up being a problem - allegedly at the personal level, but results and signings were as good as Motherwell have had under any Manager recently.

Any leader has to bring skills and capabilities that are complementary to those that already exist at the club and the Board / Chairman should be well placed to decide what that is. Motherwell have applied their criteria and recently it has worked tolerably well. I have some sympathy for Jack's main point that there needs to be more opportunity for the lower league managers to step up but there are a number of capabilities they need to display before that can become a less risky process - not least knowing the target market for new recruits to the cause. The financial consequences for failure in the SPL are so high, it simply seems that most clubs are too risk adverse to take that chance. Where I have not changed my view is that the re-cycling of the Scottish so called 'big beasts' like Hughes, McGhee and Calderwood should be an automatic choice.

I would have thought that McGhee and Calderwood will be looked upon as damaged goods after their experience at Pittodrie. Very unfair on both in many respects as the Dons have become an 'ugly' club to manage.

Gannon made some great signings for M'well and some great comments on the refs during his time up here as well.

As to the issue of this blog: good managerial talent will find its way up the levels in Scotland Jack. We may not produce as many great players as we once did but 'great' managers still seem to make their way from these parts.

Unlike Iain's post above at #10 though I would have thought an SPL 1 and 2 wouldn't do much to hinder the talent flow. In many respects if the parachute payments are not too punitive as we are being lead to believe then SPL 2 may prove a good testing ground.

rob04

i'm no aberdeen fan but to say a club is an "ugly" club to manage is maybe a bit harsh, you could easily say that half of the spl clubs are "UGLY" to manage, just a couple of examples would be rangers fc which according to walter smith can't spend without selling and of course hearts fc, goodness know's how long jim jefferies with be able to negotiate his way round mr romanov.
there are no pretty clubs out there in the spl, apart from inverness ct.

on another point, "theyakman" are you here just to correct spelling.

#19

Fair comment and on reflection I'm not sure there are many SPL clubs who aren't 'ugly' to manage in some respect. I guess what I was criticising at Aberdeen is clubs who spend more on hiring/ firing managers in recent years than on players. Personally I'd have got shot of players like Zander before JC who I think the club treated very badly on the basis of not very much.

Do you really think John Hughes is a good manager?

He is awful.

Done a cracking job at the Hobos lol and CC'S is doing equally as well.

1902