Former USMNT coach Bob Bradley was appointed manager of Swansea City this week, the Welsh side eliminating Francesco Guidolin like 20,000 emails being wiped from the Clinton Family Server. Having saved them from relegation only a matter of months ago, it feels like a rough deal for Guidolin. The British press, however, have reserved their sympathies for another supposedly wronged man: Ryan Giggs.
Why, you might ask, is a multi-millionaire former footballer with a penchant for other people’s wives receiving the sympathies of Fleet Street?
In part it’s because the press had touted Giggs as the Swansea manager-in-waiting for several weeks, and the out-of-left-field appointment of Bradley made them look exactly like the ill-informed, bile-spewing shysters we know them to be.
However, the “Giggs overlooked” by-lines also reveal one of the most deep-seated and wrong-headed misconceptions held within British footballing punditry: that to be a great manager you had to be a great player, ideally having plied your trade within the confines of the Premier League.
As former Chelsea and England striker Chris Sutton told the BBC following Bradley’s appointment: “Is Bob Bradley better qualified than Steve Bruce and Ryan Giggs to get this job? I don't think so."
Michael Bradley talks about his father Bob's appointment at #SwanseaCity. #usmnt pic.twitter.com/6Nk6vBdfXI
— Jeff Carlisle (@JeffreyCarlisle) October 4, 2016
What do Giggs and Bruce have that better qualifies them for the Swansea job than a man with 500 games of managerial experience spanning three continents with a win percentage over 50%? “Giggs knows the Premier League”, according to Sutton. Per another former Premier League player, Robbie Savage, “If you need to interview Ryan Giggs for a job at this stage, you should know what Ryan Giggs is about as a player.”
To put it more succinctly than Savage can manage, Giggs was a great Premier League player. Ergo, Giggs will be a great Premier League manager.
Are Savage and Sutton right in their assertions? Of course they aren’t. And here are some stats to prove it:
- Only once has the Premier League been won by a manager who formerly played in England’s top tier (Kenny Dalglish with Blackburn Rovers).
- The highest points tally in Premier League history (95) was achieved by a manager in his first Premier League season who not only never played in England, he barely played anywhere at all (Jose Mourinho).
- The Premier League’s all-time record goalscorer, Alan Shearer, has a managerial win percentage of 12.5%.
- Of the four current Premier League managers who have guided a side to the Champions League final, only one had a meaningful playing career (Pep Guardiola).
- The record for the most consecutive losses in a Premier League season (20) was set by a manager who made 140 appearances for Manchester City as a player (Mick McCarthy).
- The record for the longest unbeaten run in the Premier League (49 games) was set by a man whose playing career amounts to a handful of games for an amateur French side called Mulhouse (Arsene Wenger).
Being a professional footballer unquestionably affords you the time and wherewithal to earn UEFA’s elite coaching badges. It undoubtedly also equips you with knowledge of the unique hardships of earning $350,00 a week, and the necessary skills required to be the bant-meister general in the dressing room. But there is nothing inherent in a great player that will necessarily make them a great manager.
It’s common sense that seems to be surprisingly uncommon for too many who proclaim themselves experts on the beautiful game.
