What Makes A Good Manager?

With our owner allegedly still mulling over a huge (??) list of applicants to manage Hearts, I thought it would be interesting to look at the sort of attributes a modern manager needs – and assess the track record of some SPL managers.

It seems there are 2 extremes of modern manager. One is the ‘big spender’, the man who simply buys in ready-made professionals with a view to getting the best from a multi-national group of millionaires. Jose Mourinho or Rafael Benitez are examples of this. Their skills must include ‘ego management’, since footballers today are influenced regularly by their agents, who are always looking at the next big money deal. Keeping mega-rich players focused on performing to the level their fee and salary demands must be quite a challenge sometimes. If a player disappoints, they just seem to sell him, and buy another.

At the other extreme is the ‘organic’ manager, a man who deals at the lower end of the market, trying to spot players with a potential to rise higher in the game. A good example is a certain Craig Levein. Such a manager knows that he has to devote time to ‘hands-on’ coaching, to try to get players to keep pushing the limit of their ability. His motivating skills may be slightly different to the Mourinho/Benitez style – he tries to make his players hungry, eager to perform well, because ultimately that’s how they will earn better money. His team will probably have few (if any) stars – consequently there are likely to be no egos to threaten team spirit or morale.

Looking at the SPL, I’d say that Walter Smith and Gordon Strachan fall halfway between these two extremes. Both have money to splash each year on a couple of fairly good players, but both also realise the virtue of nurturing home-grown players to benefit both the football and financial side of their club – just look at Alan Hutton or Shaun Maloney for example.

While none of their purchases in recent years have the star quality of Laudrup or Larsson, they seldom sign any ‘failures’. And their record in the European competitions last year and this year suggest they are quite astute in motivating their teams to play above themselves. It is therefore bewildering to find some Old Firm fans criticising their current managers, finding obscure reasons at a micro level to justify their view. Maybe a few weeks spent following the Hearts would cure them.

It is this kind of consistency which I hope Romanov is looking for in the list of Hearts candidates. The Sunday Mail suggests that Craig Levein and Mark McGhee are being seriously considered.

I’m sure Levein would be a good (and popular) appointment, and would bring a measured and steady improvement as he did at Hearts earlier in the decade. However would he readily sever his Dundee Utd link, given the relationship he has with Eddie Thompson? I feel he may well want to honour whatever commitment he has given there.

To me Mark McGhee is a bit of an unknown quantity, despite having rejuvenated Motherwell this season. His record at clubs in England shows that he brought an immediate improvement to all of them, sometimes gaining a promotion, but then found it difficult to sustain.

I definitely feel that an ‘organic’ manager is the best long-term direction for Hearts – someone who concentrates on developing and inspiring young Academy players to play at the limit of their potential. In these uncertain and arguably bleak times for Hearts, getting back on an ‘even keel’ seems much more important than anything else.