The Manager: Inside the Minds of Football's Leaders Read Free Page B

people. These owner-chairmen control the flow of funds
around the club, including all that is needed for transfers and salaries. Sir Alex Ferguson represents many who have genuinely mixed feelings: ‘In England, you had a generation of people who
were fans who stood in the stand, and when they became successful their dream was to buy the club. That period looks to have gone and has been replaced by a generation of people coming in with
different motivations. With some of them it is to make money, with some it is for the glory. To have more money in the league is good because you want to be the strongest league in the world. But
it is very important that the structure of the game is not destroyed and that the pressure on salaries does not become ridiculous because the inflation pressure of too much money coming in at one
time can be very destabilising for the players. For example, if a player is paid 1 and then is offered 5 somewhere else, he may want to stay but want 3. So then you go from 1 to 3, and the direct
consequence is that all the other players go up as well – so it puts a huge pressure on the club’s resources.’
    As Sir Alex points out, huge sums of money can be destabilising. Yet, for the managers working with the investment, there is clearly enormous potential to create something special. Carlo
Ancelotti describes enjoying the great freedom provided by the new owners at Paris St Germain: ‘The owner recently bought the club and they are changing everything. They changed 12 players.
They have good ambition. We have to build a team, and the club want to be competitive in Europe. This is a very good challenge. The owner is young, very ambitious, very calm, not afraid or worried
if you don’t win a game; he is looking forwards. They are very focused on their objective – to be competitive in the future. This is difficult to explain to the media, because the media
are thinking if we don’t win there is no future. The first season’s objective was to play in the Champions League. Then, in the summer, to buy some players to increase the quality of
the team, to invest money for the next five years and to build the new training ground. The objective is very, very clear. If we win or don’t win it doesn’t matter. This is rare, and I
hope that they will stay focused in this way.’ At PSG Ancelotti and his club’s owners achieved something important, which culminated in PSG winning the French Ligue 1 title at the end
of Ancelotti’s second season in charge: a truly shared vision, shared responsibility for delivering on that vision, and clarity around what success looks like. For a leader, this is extremely
empowering. Because he has both clarity and trust, he can pursue his philosophy with confidence, and without looking over his shoulder. This gives purpose and stability to the organisation as a
whole.
    Roy Hodgson, while acknowledging the shift in nature of the high-profile, high-net-worth owner/chairmen of today, makes two significant observations. First, it remains a relationship game; and
second, the onus – at least initially – is on the owner to get it right. ‘In the past the chairman of a football club would be a local figure, a local businessman who would have
been brought up with that club and had the club in his blood. But he had the capacity to have a good, bad or indifferent relationship with his appointed manager – just like any owner today.
That hasn’t changed. This is all about personalities, the personality of the owner and of the manager/coach. What has changed is the scale of wealth some owners bring. But if they are going
to have success with their club, they must choose their manager very wisely, work with him and give him the support he needs. They will only get success for themselves through success of the team,
and success for the team is going to come through the man who leads and manages the players. He is the one who will mould the team, i.e. bring the