There's a saying "results speak for themselves", there's no doubt that there is some truth in this saying but as we know being part of the modern era- the post-truth era we live in, the truth isn't discrete or absolute and not only the results speak. The process also speaks and unsurprisingly the mouth as well. About the stories of the managers who talked too much or were outlasted because, lack of style.
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A big mouth, Illustration
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Bernd Schuster – Real Madrid
The German manager came to Madrid in 2007 after the successful term in Getafe. He got off on the right foot after he led the team to the top of the table in an early part of the season, an important win against the arch-rivals Barcelona in the famous El-Clasico and progressing to the 1/8 finals of the Champions League finishing first in their group (although they did struggle). But above all his initial achievement was the fact he brought the enjoyable and attacking football back to the Bernabeu after the time with Fabio Capello the Italian manager (with all that comes to mind when you think about "Italian Manager"). Real got knocked out by Roma in the 1/8 of the Champions League but Schuster's chair didn't tremble and he led the team to a second championship in a row. However, his achievement was bigger than the previous one as the team won the league three games before the end of the season (while Capello won because he had good results against Barcelona), attacking the football and a record of points (85).
Schuster began his second season the same way he began the first by leading the team to lift the Spanish Super Cup but things tipped over quickly. Real got knocked out from the Copa Del Rey by the weak Real Union, Lost to teams like La Coruna, Valladolid and Getafe but the most problematic feature that Real had under Schuster was that in his second season in the club he used to have frictions with the press – arguments, storming off mid press, controversial sayings. All of those "contributed" to the distrust that Real's officials could have until the last straw and although Real's sporting director Predrag Majtovic insisted it's not the reason for the sacking of Schuster it's pretty obvious to everyone – Schuster got sacked because of the things he said after Real lost 4-3 to Sevilla. He said that his team has no chance winning against Barcelona in the next game week. He was right, Real lost under Juande Ramos 2-0 and saw Barcelona on their way to one of the best seasons a football team had in the history winning six trophies. It's true that Schuster didn't bring huge success to Real and it is possible to find professional reasoning for his sacking but one can't close his eyes to all the things that happened to him.
Schuster returned to the sidelines only in 2010 when he took the job at Turkish Beskitas. He'd given tools to bring few big names such as Hugo Almeida, Simao Sabrosa, Ricardo Quaresma, Manuel Fernandes, Roberto Hilbert, Fatih Tekke and the biggest name – Guti Hernandez the Madridista who he trained at the Bernabeu. In March of the same season, Schuster left the club after a series of bad results and similarly to Real – he had a lot of frictions with the Turkish press and once again he was storming out, had controversial sayings, etc. The Turkish press criticized him for his careless attacking football. Once again it took awhile for Schuster to return to the sidelines. In Summer 2013 he joined Spanish Malaga that finished its previous season being a minute away from the Champions League semi-final under the leadership of Manuel Pellegrini (another manager that finished his time at Real on low accord). His objective was to lead Malaga to top half finish, he got sacked at the end of the season after the team finished 11th. Since his term in Malaga till this day he didn't return to the sidelines.
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| Bernd Schuster, Real Madrid |
Pako Ayestaran – Maccabi Tel Aviv
It's impossible not to include our "local swamp", it's true that the story here is a little bit different as Pako who led Maccabi for the third championship in a row and a historic treble finished his contract with Maccabi and didn't really get the sack. However, it's hard to ignore the fact that in this situation the manager isn't gaining new contract and forced to resign (Pako announced himself he won't continue). During the whole season and after it ended the manager "absorbed" a lot of criticism and not only from the Israel press (the Xenophobic and full of interests) but also from the fans (and even from Maccabi's Football Director – Jordi Cruyff (discreetly) mostly about the style of football the team has played. There's nothing to add to Pako's achievement – historic treble with Maccabi.
Pako returned quickly to Mexico where he came to Maccabi from and took the job at Santos Laguna, he held his post in the team only until November (2015) when the team finished 15th in the Apertura. On 16th of February 2016 Pako took a step back and returned to the role of assistant manager, he returned to this role in the team where he had good term fulfilling this role as he was the right hand of Rafa Benitez at the beginning of the current millennium. This time the manager was the inexperienced and Manchester United fan favourite Garry Neville. Neville got sacked at the end of March, Pako took the post as interim manager and although he started bad, he led the team to three consecutive wins in April against Sevilla, Barcelona and Eibar. Despite the team finishing with three consecutive losses that got the team out of the top ten Pako got the post as the main manager signing contact until June 2018. Pako lost stars but also brought in players such as Luis Nani, Ezequiel Garay, Eliqium Mangala and Martin Montoya but the poor start for the season with four losses in the first four games led to him being sacked on 20th of September.
One week after that he signed a contract with Las Palmas, which is the latest he achieved a historic record! Of course, the record isn't a good one as I'm writing about Pako in this article – He's the first manager who lost 13 league games in a row (including the finish of Valencia's previous season). Actually, his last game as the manager of Las Palmas was a draw. The only game he led the team to have the upper hand was against La Coruna in the Copa Del Rey. In an interview Pako gave last month he talked about the "labelling" that will follow him from now on and the fact that he knows he probably won't get a job in the La Liga anytime soon. Probably not.
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| Pako had better days |
Malky Mackay – Cardiff City
The Scotsman signed for the team from Wales's capital after he led Watford to a comfortable mid-table finish. Mackay started his term at wales in a dreamy fashion as the team didn't lose for the September and November (which gave him the Manager of The Month accolade in November) and he even led the team to its first League Cup final where Cardiff only lost on penalties against Liverpool (exactly yesterday in 2012). Cardiff finished the season with a disappointment as the team got thrashed 5-0 by West Ham in two-legs of the playoffs to the Premier League. The good job that Mackay did led Norwich to be interested in the manager after their man Paul Lambert left for Aston Villa. Mackay said that he's committed to Cardiff and rejected Norwich's approach.
His second season Mackay started in historical fashion as the team won its first ten home matches in the Championship. The team has been promoted to the Premier League after winning the Championship as early as 7th of April and unsurprisingly Mackay has been chosen to be the Manager of The Season (by the managers). During the next season when his team took part in the Premier League Mackay was criticized by the owner of Cardiff, Vincent Tan who didn't like Mackay's big spending on players, the way the team played and the poor results. In December Tan made a bold move that made him one of the most hated owners in the Premier League as he told to Mackay to resign or he'll get sacked. After Cardiff lost to Southampton Mackay got sacked on 27th of December with a sacking that will be remembered as a stain in Cardiff's history.
Mackay was on his way to becoming the manager of Crystal Palace during August 2014 but the move didn't happen as "Cardiff City sent a dossier to the Football Association alleging misconduct by Mackay and sporting director Iain Moody" (From BBC). It was found that during chats of Mackay and Moody the manager sent messages that considered to be racist, sexist and homophobic. Another story was that the starting lineup of Cardiff before the game against Palace was leaked. Moody and Mackay are in good relations and worked together in Cardiff before Moody got sacked by Vincent Tan in October 2014. Back to Mackay who didn't get any sanctions after the Football Association investigation but the story didn't add to his reputation.
In November 2014 Mackay joined Wigan. The owner of Wigan, Dave Whealen included a special clause in Mackay's contract that it could be terminated if he's found guilty by the FA after the problematic messages he sent to Moody. The controversial choice of appointing Mackay led for one of the sponsors "Premier Ring" to leave Wigan. Mackay got sacked in the begging of April after his team collected only 19 out of 72 points. The sacking occurred a short time after the manager got backed by the new chairman of the club Dave Sharpe who joined the club in March and described Mackay as "a big part of what we are doing here". Today, Mackay works for the Scottish FA as a performance director of the young players. He even managed the national team for one game against Holland after Gordon Strachan resigned. The appointment of Mackay as part of the national team system was criticised by a lot of people but the anti-racism organisation "Kick It Out" backed Mackay as he took training by the FA about racism and discrimination. So now the question is, could the sharp-minded manager come back on track? Only time will tell.
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| Malky Mackay as the interim manager of Scotland |
