There’s a reason I encourage people to leave comments on my articles.
Because every once in a while it will give me a nice idea and a jumping-off point for another article. So with that being said, I’d like to take a moment to thank Raj for his remarks on my piece yesterday surrounding Pep Clotet and his promises.
“The owners also have to share the blame. What is Pep’s title? Care taker manager till the end of the world!! For heaven’s sake make head coach.”
And I must say that Raj has got it spot on here. It’s something that I’ve been curious about for a while, but just never found the right way to phrase it.
As Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s character Art Howe put it in Moneyball “a 1-year contract says the same thing to a manager as it does to a player: There’s not a lot of faith there”. And the same can be said for the title of ‘caretaker head coach’, there’s not a lot of faith being put in a head coach with the name ‘caretaker’ in front of it.
Whilst the Blues board said at the time they appointed him that they are “not actively seeking” another manager “at this time”, how much faith are you putting in a man who you can’t even get round to giving him the official title of head coach.
What sort of confidence does that inspire in the players if they can’t fully get on board with the manager because they know that at any time they could be playing for a new boss? The result against Birmingham aside, I’m also not counting the Portsmouth one because it was clear from the outset what the club’s intentions were regarding that competition, Birmingham have made a good start to the season and there is plenty to build on.
As I’ve said before, with some of the signings the club have made, there is a bright future ahead for this club. But everyone has to be on board, and that starts by making sure everyone is on the same page going forward. The sooner the club makes his title official, the sooner the team can kick on.
