Freebie Friday: Who would be a football manager?

Welcome to the Friday Freebie and if you’re new to www.footballwriting.co.uk this is the access for all piece that comes at you every week. Today (10^th March) the site is one year old on the Substack platform and it’s been a brilliant 12 months for me, look out for a special offer over the next few days as a celebration.

This piece came from some news on Friday morning, hearing that one of my good footballing friends Ben Strevens is finally back in a managerial hotseat at Dagenham & Redbridge in the National League.

Strevs hasn’t been fully out of the game since he left Eastleigh back in January 2022, more recently he’s been at the academy for Luton Town looking after the younger age groups and enjoying being part of a football club once again, but I have to ask the question, who would be a football manager?

Growing up as kid, football managers were institutions within their football clubs. They rarely left until they had either had enough themselves, headed for retirement or had a better offer elsewhere. Today I believe the average span for the same job is around two years at best, no time at all to build anything substantial.

Granted the game has moved on a heck of a lot in my 47 years on this earth and keeps evolving year upon year but not always for the good in my opinion. My little slogan which, please feel free to share, is ‘football is built for the success of yesterday and not the foundations of tomorrow.’

It’s born around the creation of the Premier League and the expanded European midweek football which seems to be growing every year into something new that success is craved every five minutes and if it isn’t working then it needs to be fixed, a manager sacking the easiest route to go down.

I’m not for one minute suggesting it’s confined to the top division of the English game but patience and building are two words you don’t associate any more with football club chairpersons nor the supporter in the stand. I don’t wish to tar everyone with the same brush but we’re talking around 10% left in the game that are prepared to give things time.

We have become an inpatient society, almost everything is at our fingertips 24/7 that we don’t need to wait for much anymore, why should football be any different?

The likes of Strevs, Darren Currie, Neil Smith, Dave Anderson even, all want to be involved in the game. It’s been a lifetime for them and one they all want to continue, they’re not alone, there are plenty of people like them out there wanting another shot despite the fact they know they don’t have long to get things right in a lot of cases, owners and fans demand so much more these days.

The strange thing is then those same people wonder why their club lurches from one crisis to another constantly. There can only ever be one winner of a league competition out of 20+ clubs, only one side can win a cup competition, the difference now in some cases are money can ‘buy’ you that success and not every club has access to that.

Like everyone else they have bills to pay too and in the last three years that first trio have had spells out of the game, Dave actually coming back into it from retirement and now once again managing at Chertsey Town.

Those three I’m sure would agree actually spending time away from the dugout and with family and friends over those periods has almost reinvented them as people, a time of memories and enjoyment they would otherwise have missed in the cut and thrust world of football management.

A world where a tough skin is needed, shoulders to cry on, friends to call on for advice when the chips are down, and sometimes even all of that isn’t enough, but they love it and I know none of them would swop it for the world, the same for us fans who head out each weekend and midweek at times, but in your head, would you want to be a football manager?