The Trouble with Directors of Football

Whatever else Jose Mourinho and Roman Abramovich disagreed about (Shevchenko vs Drogba, entertainment vs trophies, vodka vs port) they definitely disagreed about former Director of Football (and now Chelsea manager) Avram Grant. Mourinho clearly felt Grant’s appointment was unnecessary, and – for once – it’s difficult to disagree. The history of Directors of Football in the English game is not good.

Officially, the Director of Football (DoF) is supposed to relieve the manager of burdens like budgets so he can concentrate on coaching the first team. In reality, the DoF tends to relieve the manager of control over important things like budgets and transfers and undermine him while he’s trying to coach the first team. Once a DoF is appointed above a manager’s head, it’s only a matter of time before one of them leaves. Grant was only appointed in July this year, but has been looking over Mourinho’s shoulder ever since, both literally and metaphorically, and now one of them has gone.

I’d argue that it’s possible for the role to work in English football, but only if the DoF’s perceived level of authority is reduced. With appointments like Grant’s at Chelsea it’s implicit that the new man has been brought in to oversee the manager, which inevitably puts the manager under pressure.

The structure has worked elsewhere, but they haven’t got the hang of it in England, possibly because of the tradition of all powerful club managers running the club top to bottom (and successfully so in the case of Manchester United and Arsenal.) That hasn’t stopped them trying though.

Frank Arnesen spent 10 years in the role at PSV Eindhoven and did well in the transfer market, signing players like Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy. Spurs thought they’d give him a go in 2004. With Arnesen as DoF and Jacques Santini as manager a bright new Euro style future beckoned. Briefly. Santini quit after just a few months, and then Arnesen was suspended a year later after talking to Chelsea about jumping ship.

Kenny Dalglish took the role at Blackburn Rovers in 1995, but only lasted a year. He then repeated the trick up in Scotland with Celtic and lasted a similar amount of time.

Two of the most high profile DoF controversies involved Harry Redknapp. He quit his job at Portsmouth in 2004 after the appointment of Velimir Zajec. But just as he was getting settled at Southampton, the club bizarrely unveiled England’s Rugby World Cup winning manager Sir Clive Woodward as DoF, arguably the least qualified man ever to hold the title. It wasn’t long before Redknapp was on his way again. But there’s a happy ending as Redknapp eventually returned to Portsmouth after the departure of Zajec.

Some Related Stories:

Category: English Premier League, World Football