It’s hard to know exactly when Premier League clubs stopping hiring managers and started appointing head coaches, but it’s very much the done thing these days.
Of the 20 Premier League clubs, only five have ‘managers’: Crystal Palace, Everton, Leeds United, Manchester City and Chelsea.
Manchester City are one of the interesting ones in that Pep Guardiola was appointed as a head coach and Enzo Maresca has taken over as manager – even more interesting given Maresca’s constant butting of heads with the Chelsea higher-ups, claiming he didn’t feel supported when employed as a head coach.
The most interesting is perhaps Chelsea.
As Arne Slot floundered at Liverpool and Xabi Alonso found himself unemployed, everyone put two and two together and expected the former Reds midfielder to return to Anfield, reuniting with the likes of Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong, who he coached with Bayer Leverkusen.
Liverpool kept Slot in situ while Chelsea swooped in for the Spaniard, leaving the club with Andoni Iraola.
It appeared strange at the time, but there were suggestions that Alonso wanted more power than Liverpool – presumably Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes – were willing to cede.
Edwards, widely regarded as the sharpest footballing mind in England’s boardrooms once upon a time, briefly left Liverpool owing to his relationship with Jurgen Klopp, who wanted too much of a say in transfer dealings.
Managers are typically – surprisingly – poor judges of footballing ability. In the modern days of data and analytics often debunking what we think of as a good player, managers found themselves sidelined in that department. Liverpool trusted their scouting and data to bring Chelsea reject Mohamed Salah to the club while Klopp pined for Julian Brandt.
As the years went on, clubs caught up and realised they needed shrewder heads running their football operations while letting the tactically inclined handle things on the pitch and little else.
The days of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger are long gone, whereby one figure essentially ran all football operations at a club. Steve McClaren, when appointed as a coach by Ferguson at Manchester United, asked his new boss what his orders were. “Coach!” was Ferguson’s reply. The Scot would hire the likes of Rene Meulensteen and Carlos Quieroz – to great success – to oversee matters on the training pitch, with Ferguson busying himself with other matters.
Nowadays, head coaches are expected to be on the training pitch. They don’t need to worry themselves about recruitment and contracts; there are sporting directors who can take care of that.
Not that that suits everyone, of course. Maresca wasn’t the only head coach to fall out with his bosses; Ruben Amorim left Manchester United in a huff, declaring he came to the club to be the manager, despite being appointed as the head coach and struggling in that role.
It’s no coincidence that Manchester City have appointed Maresca as a manager, with the Italian perhaps unwilling to take over as a head coach. The same goes for Chelsea, who appointed Antonio Conte, Maurizio Sarri, Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino, Maresca and Liam Rosenior as head coaches before the arrival of Xabi Alonso.
In the Clearlake era, Chelsea have spent outrageous sums of money, largely with the intention of tying young players down to long contracts to potentially flip for a profit (or at least an accounting profit). The issues with that strategy were laid bare last season.
Marc Cucurella took aim at the club’s recruitment policy after the 8-2 aggregate defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, saying he felt discouraged at the club's lack of winners. Cucurella was one of the club’s most experienced players at the age of 27, and even he’s left.
Perhaps Chelsea, now five years without a major trophy, have realised that they need more balance in their squad and are happy to let Alonso to shape it as he sees fit.
Eyebrows were raised when the club were interested in signing Grant Xhaka only to see the club’s bid knocked back. More eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Chelsea were interested in Danny Welbeck and then Jordan Henderson.
It’s a total 180 from their transfer policy, but one that is needed.
Chelsea are sorely missing experience in their squad. Remarkably, the oldest outfield player last season who's still at the club is Trevoh Chalobah, who was 26 throughout last term and had just 68 Premier League starts to his name heading into the campaign.
While Clearlake might not feel comfortable signing players who have no resale value, they could be signings that help them compete for trophies once again.
And should Alonso bring silverware back to West London, other clubs might rethink their own structure.
