Ruling class: How important is the manager?

Jose Mourinho and Roy Hodgson’s recent achievements have raised an old question: How important are managers to the success of their teams? Everton boss David Moyes, writing in the The Times, looks at the managers who will be in South Africa and considers whether previous success could be a precursor to the outcome of this summer’s showpiece.

It’s fascinating, at this World Cup, to see how many nations have hired coaches with impressive CVs to try and make a difference to their teams. England see Fabio Capello as their Mourinho. Italy have brought back Marcello Lippi. Switzerland have recruited Ottmar Hitzfeld. The Spanish have Vicente del Bosque. The Special One will not be managing at the finals but special coaches will be. Capello, Lippi, Hitzfeld and Del Bosque have all won club football’s biggest prize, the European Cup, while Lippi and Carlos Alberto Parreira, who leads South Africa, are World Cup winners and Otto Rehhagel won Euro 2004 with Greece.

Ivory Coast have hired Sven- Göran Eriksson for the tournament, while Nigeria have brought in the experienced Lars Lagerback and Cameroon are managed by French league winner Paul Le Guen. It’s the most decorated array of coaches to compete at any tournament and I think there’s a trend towards top managers wanting to do what Sir Alex Ferguson did in 1986 and experience the challenge of taking a team to the World Cup finals.

Throughout the game, the stock of The Manager seems to be rising. Real Madrid will pay Inter £10m-plus to release Mourinho and in the Premier League we’ve seen Steve Bruce move clubs twice for £3m. The trend is towards managers commanding transfer fees almost equal to players.

World Cup finals present particular challenges. The first is timescale. At clubs you might have years to lay down your framework, philosophy, playing methods, work culture. At the World Cup you have a couple of games. Everything has to be right. The bosses going to the finals know that by the end perhaps half won’t have survived. That's pressure.

Every team, no matter how unfancied, have a country and a population behind them, demanding they do well. There’s not just media pressure but “nation pressure” to deal with at a World Cup. The players feel nervous as well. The manager has to show he is bulletproof, that he’s handling the situation. A dressing room knows quickly if a manager is not coping.

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