Black Managers in English Football
September 27, 2013 8:07 AM Subscribe
Why are there so few black managers in English football? Sol Campbell thinks he'll have to leave England and go abroad to find his opportunities.
I suspect, or hope at least, that age cohorts have something to do with it, as while there's about 30 percent non-white players now it wasn't such a high percentage a while back when the generation retiring/just retired who might be considering coaching were playing. But there clearly are a whole range of issues beyond that and thought the second link covered it well.
Someone in the comments to that Guardian piece said they thought Sol was being a bit previous complaining Gary Neville had got an England coaching role when he's yet to get a look-in when Neville has already done his badges and Campbell's still working on his, which was fair I thought. Sol's been right to speak about about racism in the game but since he's just starting out down the management road suspect e.g. Paul Ince or Chris Powell could have offered a bit more insight on the current state of play as regards that specific role.
posted by Abiezer at 9:28 AM on September 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
Someone in the comments to that Guardian piece said they thought Sol was being a bit previous complaining Gary Neville had got an England coaching role when he's yet to get a look-in when Neville has already done his badges and Campbell's still working on his, which was fair I thought. Sol's been right to speak about about racism in the game but since he's just starting out down the management road suspect e.g. Paul Ince or Chris Powell could have offered a bit more insight on the current state of play as regards that specific role.
posted by Abiezer at 9:28 AM on September 27, 2013 [1 favorite]
Come to MLS, Sol!
[Just, um, ask yourself if it was something Ruud Gullit would have done at the Galaxy and do the opposite of that.]
posted by Dr. Zira at 3:25 PM on September 27, 2013
[Just, um, ask yourself if it was something Ruud Gullit would have done at the Galaxy and do the opposite of that.]
posted by Dr. Zira at 3:25 PM on September 27, 2013
Interesting that John Barnes doesn't even merit a mention - I wonder if he's just considered toxic due to the incredibly unfortunate combination of a) being a vocal critic of the racism that excludes black players from management roles, b) actually getting high profile management jobs despite said racism and c) being the most spectacularly fucking inept football manager in the history of football management. The fact that I support Tranmere may be affecting my judgement a bit on that last point, but still...
posted by jack_mo at 11:10 PM on September 27, 2013
posted by jack_mo at 11:10 PM on September 27, 2013
Before Campbell blames his predicted lack of opportunity on racism, he might find time to answer this question : Is he a good coach ? Ex-players seem to think they can walk into a management job despite their only experience being as a player - a very different position.
Man Utd have just fired their "boot room" and replaced them with, amongst others, Phil Neville - a player with a great pedigree but next to no coaching experience. He knows how to be a good player, but can he communicate that to players who lack his ability and experience ? There is a long history of great players who have been useless coaches and managers. They ask their players to do things as they did them, only to discover that those less talented players don't have the ability to follow such instructions. It seems remarkable that such an important business could give a key position to a person who has had no training in that area.
Alec Ferguson played one season as a professional; Mourinho (and Villas-Boas) never played professionally and Arsene Wenger's career was far from stellar. Yet they went on to be the most successful managers of their generation
The racism that Campbell mentions is surely there (there are far too few black coaches when compared with how many black people play and watch the game), but he may face an even bigger bias - being English. English coaches are rare beasts indeed nowadays. Clubs and fans are still taken in by the exotic nature of a manager who can barely string together an english sentence when being interviewed.
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 4:52 AM on September 28, 2013
Man Utd have just fired their "boot room" and replaced them with, amongst others, Phil Neville - a player with a great pedigree but next to no coaching experience. He knows how to be a good player, but can he communicate that to players who lack his ability and experience ? There is a long history of great players who have been useless coaches and managers. They ask their players to do things as they did them, only to discover that those less talented players don't have the ability to follow such instructions. It seems remarkable that such an important business could give a key position to a person who has had no training in that area.
Alec Ferguson played one season as a professional; Mourinho (and Villas-Boas) never played professionally and Arsene Wenger's career was far from stellar. Yet they went on to be the most successful managers of their generation
The racism that Campbell mentions is surely there (there are far too few black coaches when compared with how many black people play and watch the game), but he may face an even bigger bias - being English. English coaches are rare beasts indeed nowadays. Clubs and fans are still taken in by the exotic nature of a manager who can barely string together an english sentence when being interviewed.
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 4:52 AM on September 28, 2013
Why are there so few black managers in English football?
BBC Link: "With only five black managers at English football's 92 professional clubs"*
Percentage of England and Wales that shows up on the census as black: 3.3%
Now this isn't a killing argument; I've no idea what proportion of professional footballers are black (but the nearer 30% above feels closer to right) and that's probably a better baseline. But when discussing racism and bringing up percentages it's worth bearing in mind that Britain looks very different from America.
* Think football claims two but the BBC names five all of whom check out on Wikipedia.
posted by Francis at 6:09 AM on September 28, 2013
BBC Link: "With only five black managers at English football's 92 professional clubs"*
Percentage of England and Wales that shows up on the census as black: 3.3%
Now this isn't a killing argument; I've no idea what proportion of professional footballers are black (but the nearer 30% above feels closer to right) and that's probably a better baseline. But when discussing racism and bringing up percentages it's worth bearing in mind that Britain looks very different from America.
* Think football claims two but the BBC names five all of whom check out on Wikipedia.
posted by Francis at 6:09 AM on September 28, 2013
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Sadly, not sure where he will be able to go, Italy is just as bad, Spain not much better, and Germany had a rare recent case that they aggressively went after.
(though, if a british footballer starts coaching in Germany, he will get a very cold welcome when he comes home).
posted by BlerpityBloop at 9:07 AM on September 27, 2013 [1 favorite]