By Bryan Kay
Contributing Writer
Call the men in white coats. Get them on speed dial. English football has officially gone insane. The symptoms have been around for some time.
Schizophrenic-like chairmen taking rash decisions without stopping for a few seconds to think: this has been the norm for at least the last decade.
But on one of the blackest days for English Premier League (EPL) managers in the history of the game, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Tony Adams were relieved of their duties after two terribly brief spells in charge of Chelsea and Portsmouth.
The statistics are ridiculous. According to BBC Sport, Scolarihad won 20 of his 36 games in charge. It appears his propensity to draw too many matches (11) brought down Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s guillotine onto his neck. But this is a man who won the World Cup with Brazil and took Portugal, perennial underachievers, to the semifinals of the same tournament.
Tony Adams may have had a more questionable record, winning just two of his 16 EPL games at the Portsmouth helm, but he’d only been in the job since late October ? less than four mouths.
Both complained of a lack of funds to change their squads, Scolari bemoaning an aging pool of players and Adams citing the loss of some top stars in the aftermath of his taking charge. In truth, there is too much money in the game these days, and it is this and ridiculous foreign owners like Abramovich who are changing the game for the worse. They treat their clubs like toys, when they perhaps don’t really understand the game, failing to realize success comes with continuity.
Football may be a business these days, but it is like no other business on earth. It is prone to the whims of star players, freakish late goals that can swing a match in the direction of a lesser team, refereeing gaffes, the weather, injuries, the fluctuating confidence of players, etc. ? all of which can conspire to befuddle the best of managers. Time is, therefore, the key.
Before Scolari and Adams, the season had already seen a string of coaches go: Kevin Keegan walked out on Newcastle because of an overbearing owner; Juande Ramos was shown the door at Tottenham Hotspur; and Alan Curbishley quit as West Ham manager amid uncertainty over his future.
The EPL has hit a new low of impatience. Managers already live on the edge. Any more of this insanity where managers are forced into a constant battle with their nerves and the place will resemble a lunatic asylum.
bryan_s_kay@hotmail.com
[출처 : 코리아타임스]
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