by JC_81 » Sat Jun 24, 2006 3:05 pm
It is becoming increasingly common for clubs to hire recently retired players as managers, or ex-high profile players with little or no management experience - such as Hughes, Dowie, Coleman etc in the Premiership, and also foreign national teams such as Germany (Voeller, Klinsmann) and Holland (Rijkaard, Van Basten). It is becoming harder and harder for managers who work their way up the lower leagues to get jobs at top clubs despite them having more management experience than those that end up getting the jobs.
A comment I remember Benitez making about Gerrard in the heat of the furore over his proposed transfer last summer was that he hoped Stevie would stay on at the club for many years perhaps even succeeding him as manager. This got me thinking, could people see Gerrard being a successful manager at LFC? Doesn't always work that a great player becomes a great manager - Souness for example. Or is there anyone else at the club that could fill the role.
People will talk about Carra and Gerrard obviously as they have the passioin etc and are local lads. I think it is impossible to predict, but from the way players play, surely it would be the most tactically aware players on the pitch that would have the best knowledge when it came to management? To me, Alonso is our most tactically aware player, he reads the game well and is vocal on the pitch too, a good leader despite not being captain himself. But at 23/24 management is a million miles away for him. Then there's Hyypia, also very tactically aware, but maybe not a born leader as his spell as captain demonstrated.
Any thoughts on which of our players might be a future LFC manager, or manager elsewhere for that matter, and why?