Neil Dawson
UTC Legend
A lot of this depends how you define ‘top’ players I guess. For every Charlton there’s a Guardiola or Zidane as genius off the pitch as on it. Deschamps, Beckenbauer and the less quoted Zagallo won the World Cup as players and managers. Dalglish won the double as a player and manager. Southgate was arguably not a top player but has done the major tournaments and look how he learned from them and referenced them constantly when getting the best performance out of a more average group of players than their predecessors.
You are right, being good at something doesn’t mean you can teach it. That has to be the start point. I think the next point is understanding the environment you are in and the players you are mixing with. This is easier when you have done it. Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore are the cliched examples of failed brilliant players but both went to struggling lower league teams (Preston and Southend) and environments and players they struggled to relate to.
Perhaps Guardiola and Zidane would have amounted to nothing had their careers started at Roots Hall (although the gates would have gone up
) Mourinho is the cliched example of an untalented player who conquered the worlds most powerful dressing rooms but he had years of soaking in the environment of Barcelona and was an intelligent man.So first point is to be able to coach, second is to understand the environment and the third for me is the ‘inspirational’ factor. Players often sign for managers and until you build a reputation (like Eddie has) the name counts. There will be a lot of players who fancy signing for a Lampard and Gerrard because they will think he must be able to make me a better individual. That may be misconceived but so many say it, it is clearly a defining factor.
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