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luckyPeterpiper wrote:Being serious for a moment I once read an article where Alex Ferguson said that the truly great players often make BAD coaches and managers. The reason is that the true greats don't understand why the game is harder for most mere mortals than them. They don't grasp that what they do instinctively is something that ordinary players have to work very hard to acquire.
He used Cantona as an example. He said Cantona's passing was sublime because Cantona had already had a look around BEFORE he got the ball, read where his team mates and the opposition were and where they were going to be and sent the pass into the right man's path or direct to feet. Eric never quite grasped why lesser players got the ball THEN had a look up to see where the best pass was or if there was a shot on. He did it ALL instinctively, with natural talent that can't be coached but like geniuses in every walk of life truly great footballers often simply don't have the right personality or the patience to teach others of lesser ability.
Big Sam is a case in point; he was never a world beater as a player but no one can doubt his credentials as a manager now. Bobby Charlton was a truly great player but a poor manager because he (by his own admission) didn't have the patience to walk players through all the things he'd done automatically.
I couldn't agree more. Some of the most successful managers in the modern game were not great players. Wenger, Mourinho and Sven spring to mind.
Bobby Moore and Bryan Robson were great players but couldn't make the transition into great managers.
