Five English Premier League coaching disasters

LONDON (AFP) – David Moyes’ 10 month stay at Manchester United is one of many managerial fiascos in the English Premier League. Here are five English football coaching disasters:

Brian Clough – Leeds United

Clough, one of England’s greatest managers, lasted 44 days at Leeds United when they were reigning champions in 1974. The players hated his brash style and remembered his past criticism of them and never cooperated. Clough went on to twice win the European Cup with Nottingham Forest.

Roy Hodgson – Liverpool

The man who now coaches England, started at Liverpool on July 1, 2010, but speculation of a sacking started in October and he left the following January 8. Poor league form and a fan clamour for club legend Kenny Dalglish to step in sealed Hodgson’s fate. Dalglish was in turn sacked in May 2012.

Jacques Santini – Tottenham Hotspur

Santini was one of France’s most respected coaches when he became Tottenham’s manager on June 3, 2004. He transformed Lyon and was coach of the French national team. But he left after 13 games in November. He blamed broken agreements with the club, but also admitted he was wrong to resign from the French post before the 2004 European Championships had finished.

Joe Kinnear – Newcastle United

The rough and tough Kinnear had a stormy four a half months in charge of the Tyneside club. He used 52 expletives at one press conference and annoyed player Charles N’Zogbia by calling him ‘insomnia’. Kinnear was taken ill and eventually had heart by-pass surgery.

Harry Redknapp – Southampton

Redknapp resigned from Portsmouth in November 2004 and a few weeks later joined their arch-rivals Southampton in a failed bid to extend the club’s 27-year stay in the top division. Redknapp could not transform the team, argued with the chairman and quit in December 2005, to return to Portsmouth.

Studious Giggs set for another reinvention

Following a record-breaking playing career, Ryan Giggs is poised to enter uncharted territory after being named as the interim successor to sacked Manchester United manager David Moyes.

As English football’s most decorated player and United’s record appearance-maker, he is guaranteed to receive the full backing of the club’s fans, but management represents a step into the unknown.

Giggs, however, has been preparing himself for a career in the dug-out.

The Welshman has been studying for his UEFA Pro Licence — European football’s highest coaching qualification — and was promoted to United’s coaching staff by Moyes at the start of the season.

Speaking last year, Giggs’s former United team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, now manager at Cardiff City, said that the midfielder already had designs on the Old Trafford hot-seat, then occupied by Alex Ferguson.

“He’s looking at that United job for himself, Giggsy. He’s got top potential,” Solskjaer said.

“Giggsy is going to play another year, but I’d say he’s got his eyes and ears open more to what the manager is doing.”

Former United assistant manager Rene Meulensteen, meanwhile, believes that Giggs possesses all the necessary credentials to make a success of life in the dug-out.

“Without a shadow of doubt, Giggs can be a manager. He’s got enormous knowledge about the game,” the Dutchman told the Daily Telegraph earlier this year.

“He’s a very good thinker. He’ll be a very shrewd decision-maker. He’s tough. Believe me, Giggs is tough. He’ll handle the media and the stress with ease. It’s about getting the right guys about him.”

Giggs has defied convention by continuing to play into his 40s, but having been used sparingly by Ferguson, who retired last year, he saw his playing time diminish significantly under Moyes.

- ‘Just incredible’ -

Having averaged 34 appearances over the previous four campaigns, he has played only 21 times this season and has made only four starts since the turn of the year.

It prompted reports of a fall-out with Moyes, but Giggs insisted that he had “no problem with the manager”.

He demonstrated his enduring importance with a magisterial display as United overturned a 2-0 first-leg deficit by beating Olympiakos 3-0 in the Champions League last 16, prompting disbelieving plaudits from his team-mates.

“What’s left to say about him?” said midfield colleague Michael Carrick.

“He is just incredible. He comes into a game like that and he hasn’t played a lot of football, so to physically be able to do it and get through a game shows how well he looks after himself.”

However, Giggs lasted only 45 minutes of the quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich, and with his contract due to expire at the end of the campaign, talk of retirement had already begun.

The player himself was coy when asked about his future plans last month, saying: “I am just trying to enjoy this season and then at the end I will take stock and see what I want to do.”

Whatever he achieves in the United dug-out, Giggs is already certain to leave a historic legacy at Old Trafford.

His 962 appearances are unlikely ever to be surpassed, and some of his goals — such as the season-defining solo effort against Arsenal in a 1999 FA Cup semi-final replay — have passed into United legend.

A devilish tormentor of opposition right-backs when he blazed onto the scene in the early 1990s, Giggs has refined his game in recent years and now operates more often than not as an elegant midfield playmaker.

He attributes his longevity to the discovery of yoga techniques, while his interest in sports science suggests an eye for detail that will serve him well as he takes his first steps as a manager.

A sobering thought for United’s fans is that Giggs may have already played his last game for the club, but the next chapter in his career appears to be just beginning.