FoG

With England, there is always alot of discussion about Gareth Southgate. But how much do managers really matter anyway.  According to this article the answer is "not much" and even goes as far as to present a theory that managers are mere scapegoats for the board and owners.  Protects them from any real criticism when they can just sack/blame the manager. I also think that a managers influence is becoming smaller and smaller over the years as modern football clubs have directors of football, data analytics departments and other teams of people that they lean on for support.  Its not all the managers decision as much as the Alex Ferguson days. Furthermore for an International manager, he doesn't have a say in player development (he sees them 3 or 4 times per year only on international break).  He can't transfer players, he has to accept the players that he has.  So in both those aspects he has alot less control, a lot less influence. That is not to say that the ...