Brendan Rodgers - a Watford view

[Agent Balti]

There's nothing there that would sway you either way, a typical statement of a manager who obviously wants to stay in the job he's in...but at the same time giving it splinters. Nice!

[readingbedding]

Rodgers as a number 2 to a more experienced manager would be best.

[Agent Balti]

Rodgers as a number 2 to a more experienced manager would be best.

But Rodgers won't go from being a numero uno to second best. Why would he?

[floyd__streete]

It seems that Rodgers (or Buck, if we must...)

It's Ted to you, sir.

Rodgers as a number 2 to a more experienced manager would be best.

I'd have thought it highly unlikely he'd want to take such a step down, wouldn't you?

[readingbedding]

Wenger and Rodgers, that would be the best.

[rhroyal]

A BBC blog today has rightfully pointed out that experience has come out on top in the Premiership this season.

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Maybe it's only a coincidence that three of the four men battling to save their sides from the Premier League trapdoor this weekend are all first-time managers.

Yet one of the messages of the season is that experience matters. The leading contenders for manager of the year will mainly be seasoned, battle-hardened campaigners.

Aside from obvious choice Sir Alex Ferguson - whose myriad achievements I don't need to list here - I'm thinking of the likes of Roy Hodgson, David Moyes and Tony Pulis.

Each has exceeded what could reasonably have been expected of them at the start of the season.

Alan Shearer looks forlorn after Newcastle's defeat against PortsmouthTake Fulham's Hodgson, the Phileas Fogg of English bosses. The 61-year-old has worked at 16 clubs in seven different countries during a management career spanning 33 years.

All that experience and know-how has been used to guide the Cottagers to the brink of European qualification, when many had tipped them to be battling relegation.

In contrast, the bosses who have struggled have tended to be inexperienced. Paul Ince, a manager for only two seasons before he landed the Blackburn job, was the first Premier League boss to get the boot.

Rovers then turned to the hugely experienced Sam Allardyce as a replacement and he has steered them to safety. Tony Adams, whose only previous experience as a boss was a short and inglorious spell at Wycombe, was fired by Portsmouth in February.

Veteran Paul Hart took over and eased Pompey to safety. Instead, it is Newcastle manager Alan Shearer, Boro boss Gareth Southgate and Sunderland's Ricky Sbragia who will be battling to save their sides on Sunday.

Gianfranco Zola, who has done a sterling job at West Ham in his first stint in management, is a notable exception. But Andy Roxburgh, Uefa's highly respected technical director, says experience is a big asset.Roy Hodgson should be a contender for manager of the season

"Fabio Capello summed it up best when he said football was the only profession where you could go from the shop floor to chief executive's office in one day," Roxburgh told me.

"Countries like Italy and Spain regard management as a profession, which has not traditionally been the case in the UK.

"You wouldn't throw a talented youngster straight into a huge game and the same principle applies for coaches."

The situation in the Netherlands, where "all top club managers have been assistants", is very different, says Roxburgh. Dennis Bergkamp, arguably the greatest foreign player to grace the Premier League, coaches Ajax's strikers, while Frank de Boer, who won 112 caps for Holland, is in charge of the Amsterdam club's academy.

The former Scotland boss accepts there are sometimes compelling reasons for appointing an untried man - if he has been a legendary player at that club, for example. If that is the case, it is crucial he is as well prepared as possible, which perhaps was not the case with Shearer, who is yet to start his Uefa Pro Licence, a mandatory qualification for full-time Premier League managers.

Ince was given special dispensation to take the job at Blackburn despite not having the licence, while Southgate, who took over at Boro in 2006, is due to finish the course in June.

Shearer, Southgate, Ince and Adams were undoubtedly magnificent international players, but research shows that top players don't enjoy greater success as managers.

Research commissioned by the League Manager's Association found that managers who were former internationals had a win percentage of 35.2%. The figure was 34.5% for those who had played in the Premier League, 34.7% for ex-Football League players and 34.1% for those who had not even play professionally.

Roxburgh adds: "Gianluca Vialli went straight from playing for Chelsea to managing them.

"After he left his next managerial job, at Watford, he returned to Italy to get his coaching qualifications. That is clearly the wrong way round and Gianluca has told me that he wishes he had been trained before getting those jobs in England."

Roxburgh believes the perfect combination for a manager is "talent, experience and preparation".

Getting the right formula is crucial, when you consider how little time managers are given to succeed.

The four managers who have been sacked this season - Ince, Adams, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Juande Ramos - were in their jobs for an average of only 0.59 years, according to Sue Bridgewater, an associate professor at Warwick Business School.Andy Roxburgh talks to Sir Alex Ferguson before last year's Champions League final

The average for sacked managers in the Premier League and Football League combined was 1.47 years, down from 1.56 last season. Many of these men will not get another chance, as 49% of first-time bosses don't get another managerial job.

The LMA is putting on coaching clinics, emphasising the importance of qualifications and using managers like Hodgson to advise the next generation.

Do you think Premier League chairmen should look to experienced campaigners like Hodgson and Pulis when they make their appointments in the future, rather than former star players such as Shearer and Southgate?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/simonaustin/ ... ageme.html
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The same principal applies at all levels. However, continuing Fabio Capello's analogy that you wouldn't let a shop floor worker move up to chief executive in one day, Rodgers hasn't done that. He's had a very short career as a player, he's then had jobs in coaching and been an academy director, as well as learning from one of the best "chief executives" in the business. He's been given his chance at Watford and the early signs are very encouraging. It's a risk to go for him, but it's nothing ridiculous like appointing Shearer or Southgate or Murty. I think Rodgers is a risk worth taking, something doesn't appeal to me about Curbishley.

[readingbedding]

As I said, I would have him as an assistant.

[readingbedding]

Rodgers as a number 2 to a more experienced manager would be best.

But Rodgers won't go from being a numero uno to second best. Why would he?

I didn't say he would, I said it would be better compared to him being the boss.

[Tommy Youlden's Ears]

The four managers who have been sacked this season - Ince, Adams, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Juande Ramos - were in their jobs for an average of only 0.59 years, according to Sue Bridgewater, an associate professor at Warwick Business School.

Surely an associate professor at Warwick Business School has something better to do, in the face of global meltown, than working out the average of four numbers for the purposes of stating the bleedin obvious?

Tsk.

Cut University funding, I say...

[Agent Balti]

Rodgers as a number 2 to a more experienced manager would be best.

But Rodgers won't go from being a numero uno to second best. Why would he?

I didn't say he would, I said it would be better compared to him being the boss.

So it's a pointless point. It's like saying you may as well play a goalie up front because he's taller. Or something.

[readingbedding]

No, I'm saying that I woudn't have him.
That's my point, you just didn't see it.

[Agent Balti]

No, I'm saying that I woudn't have him.
That's my point, you just didn't see it.

It's still wrong!

[Hoop Blah]

That blog is a load of rubbish though.

They quote some examples, such as Scolari and Ramos, who are experienced and still failed and got sacked.

They note the example of Hart as being experienced, he's only ever managed in a couple of failed brief spells before. His experience and success has been mainly as a coach, and a youth one at that for a lot of the time.

They say how it's Shearer battling for survival, but don't mention that it was Allardyce, Keegan and then Kinnear who got Newcastle into the fight their in. There aren't a lot more experienced managers about in the top flight!

[readingbedding]

If the Chairman is talking about bringing in 'the best', even realistically it would not be Brendan Rodgers.

[Hoop Blah]

If the Chairman is talking about bringing in 'the best', even realistically it would not be Brendan Rodgers.

Why not?

When he says the best, he means the best man to sort out the current situation and, presumably, take us forward for the future.

Why wouldn't Rodgers, in the boards opinion at least, be that man?

[Royalee]

If the Chairman is talking about bringing in 'the best', even realistically it would not be Brendan Rodgers.

Realistically we shouldn't have been relegated and realistically we'd have gone up last season. Realistically you talk a load of old rubbish.

[readingbedding]

Whatevs...if the Chairman brings in Brendan Rodgers, he is not talking about 'the best'...
I doubt it will be him.

[ZacNaloen]

ReadingBedding in flawed logic shocker.

[readingbedding]

Hopefully the main man won't curb his enthusiasm.

[RoyalBlue]

Latest from the Watford Observer:

Brendan Rodgers says he remains loyal to Watford and claims those who continue to ask whether he will become the next Reading manager are questioning his integrity.

Rodgers remains favourite to take over at his adopted home-town club following Steve Coppell’s resignation last week, but has not applied for the Royals post and Hornets chief executive Julian Winter has confirmed they have not received any approach from Reading.

It seemed as though Rodgers was set to leave Vicarage Road last week when bookmakers’ odds on him taking over at the Madejski Stadium were slashed from 16/1 to 1/3, but they have since levelled out and he is back at evens with Victor Chandler.

However, the Northern Irishman again stated he is only concentrating on Watford and feels uncomfortable talking about managerial positions at other clubs.

He said: “When I am asked about other clubs, people are questioning my integrity and one thing I have mentioned is I always have integrity.

“I am loyal and find it disloyal when I am asked about other clubs when I am the Watford manager. There is nothing that has changed in that respect.

“I have seen the papers and know I am favourite for the job but that will always happen in football and, in fact, my job was linked with someone else this year.

“I cannot let that speculation hamper my focus or objectives. It doesn’t concern me.

“What concerns me is that I am the manager here and that has been my focus right the way through.

“When I woke up this morning I was planning for Watford.”

Rodgers was always going to be linked with the Reading job as he has lived in the town since he signed for the club as a teenager and worked his way through the coaching ranks before becoming Academy director.

He still has a good relationship with chairman John Madejski and is friends with the man in charge of appointing the next Royals boss – director of football Nick Hammond.

More than 100 people have applied for the job and Reading have already started interviewing possible replacements.

Hammond has said there are currently no clear candidates but expects the list to be shortened quickly, although an announcement is not expected before the end of next week.

Winter says “there has been no contact at all” from Reading and last week chairman Jimmy Russo questioned why Rodgers would want to make the “sideways” move.

It has been an eventful six months for Rodgers since he took over from Aidy Boothroyd, with the two men who brought him to Vicarage Road – chairman Graham Simpson and chief executive Mark Ashton – both leaving within two weeks of his appointment.

Despite numerous changes off the field, the 36-year-old guided the Hornets to a 13th-place finish in the Championship.

But next season is sure to be another tough campaign as the new board continue to restructure the club’s finances due to the loss of the Premier League parachute payments.

Rodgers is keen to be in the top half of the table next season and eventually guide the club into the Premier League but knows it is going to be a tough ask in the coming years.

He said: “Of course I am very ambitious and I said when I came into the club that my long-term objective is to work at Champions League level so I have made no bones about that.

“But I have really enjoyed my six months at Watford and a lot of hard work has been done to stabalise the club.

“There is a lot of work to do in the future because the next number of years will be very difficult financially.

“The idea is to stabalise the club but in the course of the next three or four years, the brutal honesty is there is not a lot of money to spend on players if we do not get a major investor.

“Jimmy and Vince Russo have been doing a great job, as are other people at the club, but there isn’t a lot of money.

“However it is a fantastic club and I have really enjoyed and continue to enjoy my time at this club.”