The Political Economy of Football V2

[This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in the Charlton fanzine, Voice of the Valley.    Almost all references to Charlton have been excised]. In his excellent book The Football Manager: a History Neil Carter shows how managers often started out as the club secretary with the board selecting the team.  Gradually they achieved greater responsibilities.  He argues that Herbert Chapman at Arsenal was the most important figure in the development of modern football management.   The other two key pioneers were Frank Buckley at Wolves and Jimmy Seed at Charlton. Carter points out how football and the role of the manager changed after 1992.   Success on the pitch became even more important commercially making football even more of a results business.   Managers assumed a much higher profile in the media. In modern football the manager is generally seen as being responsible for everything that occurs on the pitch.  ...

Managerial turnover is a feature of modern football, given the finances at stake and the expectations of fans. Whether changing manager does more than give an initial boost is a matter for debate. It does work sometimes, but the incoming manager inherits a squad he would not necessarily have chosen. Who are the longest serving managers in the history of the Premier League? Sir Alex and Arsene Wenger are obvious answers, but the others may be more of a surprise: Longest managerial reigns

Arsene Wenger believes that Tottenham Hotspur's stadium rebuild will not adversely affect Spurs in the way that the move to the Emirates affected Arsenal on the pitch because there is now much more television money available, hence the transfer budget does not need to take a hit: Spurs won't suffer The opening date of the new stadium remains uncertain, indeed there continue to be doubts about whether it will open this season. The March 17th match against Crystal Palace has now been postponed after Roy Hodgson's men advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals which will be played that weekend. That means Spurs will not have a home game to offer as a stadium opener until April at the earliest, nine months after they intended to move in.

Most of us would be happy with a £1m salary boost plus a stake in the equity of the company we were joining, but Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis claims he faced 'the hardest decision of his life' when that offer was made to him by Inter Milan. His salary in Italy will be £3.6m. He will be leaving the Emirates on 31st October, notwithstanding a twelve month notice period on his contract. He has been there for nearly ten years. Gazidis has been behind a radical overhaul of the structure of the club in recent years. He sought to shift away from Arsene Wenger's autonomy as manager to a more continental structure. He wanted a framework where the manager confined himself to coaching. He appointed nine new department heads and several long-serving backroom staff were shown the door. Gazidis had a somewhat frosty relationship with Wenger towards the end of the manager's 22-year reign. Indeed, he pretty much eased him out of the club. Gazidis oversaw Arsenal's ...

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire thinks there have been a series of missed commercial opportunities at Arsenal under Arsene Wenger which have adversely affected the club's bottom line: Missed opportunities 'Look at their commercial brand compared to Manchester United and Liverpool,' he told Arab News . 'Arsenal should be the premier club in London but they have let Spurs and Chelsea catch up.' [Personally I am not so sure about the 'should', despite Arsenal's history]. Maguire thinks Wenger, historically resistant to lucrative pre-season tours from which clubs pull in multimillion pound deals and endorsements even if in recent years he had agreed to Far East junkets, had hampered Arsenal’s bottom line. 'It helps when the manager is as big as your best player. What we have seen with (Liverpool manager) Jurgen Klopp and (Manchester City manager) Pep Guardiola is that they can expand the number of sponsors. Klopp is a fantastic ambassador....

Arsene Wenger has announced that he is stepping down at the end of the season as manager of Arsenal after a period of growing fan discontent with performances on the pitch: Wenger out 'This is one of the most difficult days we have ever had in all our years in sport,” said Arsenal’s majority shareholder Stan Kroenke. “One of the main reasons we got involved with Arsenal was because of what Arsène has brought to the club on and off the pitch. His longevity and consistency over such a sustained period at the highest level of the game will never be matched.' There will be plenty of candidates for the vacant post with impressive cvs, but the example of Sir Alex Ferguson's departure at Manchester United shows that replacing a long-serving manager is not easy.

88 per cent of Arsenal fans polled by the Arsenal Supporters' Trust want Arsene Wenger out in the summer with only seven per cent wanting him to stay another year. The findings will be presented to chief executive Ivan Gazidis before the game against Watford on Sunday: Wenger out Wenger will, however, resist any attempts to make a dignified exit this summer and may have to be sacked. He has never broken a contract in his career. Wenger has now lost the support of key directors of the club who think that Wenger should be moved on. However, the key decision maker is majority shareholder 'Silent' Stan Kroenke whose main concern will be the business case relating to his English franchise. Ray Parlour has suggested that nothing will change at the Emirates while the finances are healthy: Money comes first. Much will depend on what his son Josh, also a director, tells him. He has spent a fortnight at the club and has now returned to the States. Gazidis has made some new ...

Sometimes I wonder whether Arsene Wenger or Theresa May will be dislodged first. Both insist that they are strong and stable, but both look increasingly vulnerable. Manchester City are rampant at the moment, but there are still a lot of questions that emerge from last night's defeat. It may be that the first time a decision about his future is out of Arsene Wenger's hands. Arsenal have drawn up a list of names in the event of having to make a managerial change. Josh Kroenke, the son of majority shareholder Stan, has been in London the past week. Admittedly, this was a long planned visit, but he will be able to update his father on the mood at the Emirates. If Wenger does manage the difficult task of qualifying for the Champions League via the Europa League, he may get a reprieve. He is nothing if not obstinate and he won't go quietly.

Ian Wright as a former Arsenal player has said that Arsene Wenger should not stay as manager of the club: Time to go I have had a lot of time for Wenger and I want the top layer of English football to be competitive which means that Arsenal need to pose a consistent threat. This they have failed to do recently. In the Carabao Cup final they didn't seem to be trying at times. Once Wenger was ahead of the curve in terms of innovations in football. The best of them were adopted by others and he is now behind the curve. Choosing the right time to go to preserve your reputation is an art: Sir Alex got it right. Of course, he built a succession of Manchester United teams. Wenger has very few apparent interests outside football and he might not be that comfortable moving to, say, a French club. He has achieved a great deal for Arsenal, not least the move to the Emirates, which did have an impact on the team for a while. Wenger has eighteen months left on his contract. There ar...