DB10 On Coaching But No Comfy Sofa For Him

Morning Troops, it is a long week indeed when there are no games to talk about. Still on we go with the meander through footballing life.

Dennis Bergkamp is grabbing the headlines and forging his way into a million dreams with his comments on Arsenal TV that had been widely reported in the media:

I wouldn’t rule out [working at Arsenal in some capacity]

Much is often made of players who have been under the spell of the Dark Side of football and how they are the future of English management, compared to Wenger’s players who have shown little inclination to enter the insecure world of being ‘The Gaffer‘. Sadly for this media, more of Ferguson’s former charges are proving to be Fred Moffat’s than they are Alf Ramsey’s. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the Sith Lord’s abilities in this respect.

Of the same generation, former Arsenal players seem to head more into the coaching side of things or at least steering clear of managing. Certainly as far as the English game is concerned, only Merson, Platt and Adams have taken on the top jobs; the jury’s verdict on the former pair is not favourable and the latter, well, they are still out on Big Tone and how he will be seen. My suspicion is that he will be lucky to be in the Portsmouth job at the end of the season given the inability of any chairman to put up with even the mildest form of pain, in footballing time.

That former Wenger players move more readily into the technical side of the game is perhaps reflective of the managerial styles, or at least public perceptions of Wenger and Ferguson. The latter is very much an ‘old school’ manager whilst Wenger the ‘new breed’ in terms of English football. Personally, I find Ferguson, Allardyce, Redknapp and their ilk to be archaic, like the dinosaurs heading for extinction.Little wonder that the Football Association choose to look abroad for the head coaches for the national team.

Bergkamp observed that native players here are adapting:

I think when I first came it was a case that [there was a lack of technical ability]. Then a lot of foreign players came in and probably improved the game. Now I feel that there are foreign players who are coming in who aren’t improving the game because you’ve got English players who are technically better. It has changed. If you only look at Arsenal for example, you have 16-year-olds with fantastic technique who came through the system so you must be doing something right.

Perhaps English managers need to learn some new tricks as well. That said, the chairmen have not helped the situation, living up to Len Shackleton’s blank page in his autobiography summing up what directors know about football. There is, of course, little incentive for the modern footballer to stay in the game once their career on the pitch is over. Unlike their predecessors, they are financially secure and with chairmen acting dementedly once a struggle beckons, why should they put anything into taking a top job?

More so, the comfort of the pundit’s sofa in the plethora of newsrooms and studios that the media attention on the game demands, means that they get to take cheap shots, say nothing or little of note and disappear off to the golf course and the 19th hole at their leisure. Why bother with stress when you can be destructive and have no responsibilities once the transmission light switches off?

Finally today, Word of Sport continue their special offer on Kenny Sansom’s enjoyable memoir, To Cap It All. By clicking here, you can enjoy owning a signed copy of the book for £8.99, a saving of 50% off the retail price. I forgot to mention that yesterday that you need to send an email to them by clicking here and removing the [at], stating that you are taking advantage of this offer.

’til Tomorrow

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