The news that Harry Kewell has been relieved of his duties over in Japan is somehow both shocking and not surprising at the same time. This management lark isn’t as easy as it seems, and we only have to look across the city to see numerous bosses who have come here and floundered, the current incumbent doing so with the biggest wage bill in the land.
Kewell has nothing to be ashamed of.
He took the chance. A lot of assistants and people in the coaching game never do. They don’t have enough self-belief … or perhaps they just have enough self-awareness to know they aren’t cut out for that high wire act. See, coaches can coast. Some of them stay at clubs for years through all sorts of revolution and change. They survive managers being sacked as though they personally had nothing at all to do with the crises that came and went.
And for a lot of them, that is a comfortable place to be. Out of the firing line, not loaded down with the pressure or the responsibilities which accrue to the man in the hot-seat. Oh they will never get the big rewards or their place in the sun … but not everyone has that kind of ego and not everyone can handle the spotlight anyway. It suits them.
A handful, though, want to try on the general’s uniform and are willing to take all the risks that go with it. They long for the blood and the toil of battle and they won’t be dissuaded from giving it a go, and I admire and respect that. Almost all of them fall at the first hurdle, unsure of their bearings, finding out that what looks easy from behind the manager in the dugout is nowhere near as easy as it looks, and that the big chair is not a comfortable seat.
And you know what? It makes me glad for the man we have on the Iron Throne is battle-hardened and tactical astute.
It makes me glad that we went out and hired not only a man with experience but one with a proven track record of success.
These things don’t happen by accident. Those who decry Rodgers record need to spend time in a dark room.
That man won an FA Cup with Leicester and took them to a European semi final.
He almost won the title with Liverpool … he was agonisingly close to it.
More than that, look how he thrives under pressure.
When things were at their worst last season that man refused to panic. His record against the Ibrox club is so good that it’s almost supernatural. In the heat of those matches he comes alive, he is at his best, and that confidence and calm has to affect the players too.
Rodgers is one of the most capable men in the business. I understood the anger from some when he returned but look at it this way; football is a mercenary business and he is one of the best mercenaries in it, and the more you look at the success he’s been able to bring here the clearer it becomes that we’re fortunate to have him.
Besides, a mercenary? Is that really what we’ve got here? As one of my podcasting partners said yesterday, there is no other club who could have got Rodgers out of his one year sabbatical, and I believe he’s correct. He had offers, and anyone who says he didn’t is talking nonsense.
Clubs in England would always want a boss like Rodgers and he could have gone to Saudi for a fortune and he’d have been idolised there. But he always told us that he believed he had unfinished business at Celtic, and here he is, finishing what he started after all.
His own former assistant, Chris Davies, has recently moved into management at Birmingham City, and I think we all expected that at some point as he has flirted with the idea of becoming a boss before, and now having worked alongside two outstanding managers – he was assistant to Ange at Spurs last season – he’s as ready as he’ll ever be.
That’s as good an education as you could get. Davies is a smart and capable lad and I would have been delighted if Rodgers had convinced him to come here and work at Celtic again, but that wasn’t to be. I always think of assistants who go into management as if they were men walking in the footprints left by guys barrelling their way through snowdrifts. We know the guys up front can handle anything because they’re doing it … whether those following them can do it remains to be seen, but it does take guts to try it.
Because there is certainly no more stressful a job in football and when you see the way Manneken Piss came apart towards the end of the last campaign whilst Rodgers just got better, and stronger, you can see that not even some of those who are doing it and have done it for a long time can take the strain. Rodgers has been at the sharp end for years now, and he has nothing left to prove. As long as he retains that will to win we have nothing to worry about.
And Harry Kewell? The trick here, if he still fancies it, is to get back up again and to throw himself into the next job without delay. Nothing is a better teaching tool than failure, and those who learn from it are destined to achieve big things.
The new podcast is out folks! You can listen to it below!
There’s some really good insight on the podcast. I liked the input from your guests, they both had sensible things to say.
I liked the message of not panicking yet but not exactly happy either. I think that is the right approach. Because the one thing that does concern me is that if Brendan doesn’t get the men he wants in the door, there’s a good chance he’s out the door and he won’t be coming back for a 3rd stint.
I will never forgive Lawwell and the board if that does happen. I understand the logic if it aint broken then don’t fix it. But define broken. I would say our European record of late is broken. And you aint gonnae fix it with a make weight manager.
Brendan has done this before. Please treasure him whilst he is here. And FFS Celtic board. Start the succession planning now. For Brendan AND Calmac (another good point raised in the podcast).
The comments you made at the start of your arti le made me think firstly of John Kennedy who has managed to stay at Park head when he should have been punted a long time ago.
I am not saying you are wrong but what is your reasoning behind saying that? By what measure are you judging John Kennedy?
Rodgers had disaster spells reading and Watford but forged ahead anyway and got back in quick, believed in his ideas and found the perfect club and chairman at Swansea and never looked back. I think if given the right backing he’s here for the long haul, but progress in Europe is the key. If there has been no progress at the end of the 3 years he’s gone back to mercenary, if we actually compete he’ll retire here. That’s the decision the board has in front of them… as for your point on no.2s, paul clement was one of the best assistants going, couldn’t cut it, steve Clarke was renowned and hit or miss as a boss, not to mention the mooch who took credit for every trophy any club won while he was tea lady.. jose mourinho went from translator at barca to boss at madrid. Coaching isn’t everything, a boss is a different breed