Old players becoming new managers
With news circulating that Alan Shearer is topping the Venky charts, I felt it was about right to have a look at some other managers who have returned to their playing clubs as managers.
Why do they do it? They return as heroes of yesterday and almost inevitably get the boot after a run of bad results or a shocking cup exit at the hands of Nowhere Town from the depths of the Dr Blue Power division.
Shearer is no stranger to this as he looks to get what will be only his 2nd managerial role should he be appointed at Blackburn. He took the helm of his beloved Toon when they fell out of the top flight in May 2009. In fairness to him, on that occasion he only had around a month in order to save them from the inevitable – this time around he’ll have close to 40 games and the opposite scenario to work with.
But what will happen if he doesn’t? Will his reputation as a Blackburn legend be damaged? Maybe for a while, but fans soon forget the heartache when the good times roll in.
A number of other club legends have switched the field for the dugout and failed, Paul Ince for starters at said Blackburn Rovers, Graeme Souness spent £50m to battle with relegation at Newcastle (I’m spotting a pattern here…), Glenn Roeder at West Ham and Bryan Robson at multiple ill fated sides.
Not all of them fail though? No not all of them. Kenny Dalglish masterminded the EPL Winning team at the aforementioned Blackburn Rovers in 1995 and who can forget his time at Liverpool in the late 80’s – the less said about his latest stint the better… Paulo Di Canio is making waves in the lower reaches of the football league with Swindon Town and Dougie Freedman is running a steady ship at Selhurst Park with Palace.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær was in the frame for the Aston Villa job thanks to his successes in Norway, Dennis Bergkmap is currently assistant to Frank de Boer at Ajax, Steve Bould is Arsene Wengers new Assistant at Arsenal.
There is a flow of new managers now with Steve Clarke and Brendan Rodgers being the highest profile at the moment. Danish Legend Michael Laudrup is also spicing things up with his new brand of football at Swansea and Chris Hughton has made his way back to the top after a brief hiatus at Birmingham.
Alan Shearer has a lot of role models to look to for inspiration should he be the ‘lucky one’ at Blackburn, he’d also make sure that he takes note of those who have failed before him otherwise he’ll be on the phone to Gary Linekar before he knows it…
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