DWIGHT YORKE & The Issue of Black Managers in Football

I wrote this article on the subject of Black Managers in football   about 18 months ago. I was filled with righteous fervor when I wrote it and to a large extent, I still feel the same way.

However, something happened on Tuesday October 18, 2016 that has led to a re – examination of my stance. My patience was sorely tested when Dwight Yorke was interviewed on The Alan Brazil Show on Talksports Radio about comments he made the day before on the issue of Black Managers not getting a chance in football.

As you might have noticed from my old column, I think there is something of a problem with the representation of ethnic minorities in football management but nobody has yet advocated for affirmative action / positive discrimination in the appointment of football managers until Yorke piped up with his comments on radio.

It was a car crash of an interview. If that was his interview for a volunteer role in a football club talk less of a managerial role, he flunked it badly. He couldn’t explain himself, couldn’t justify why he should be starting his managerial career at a top club and claimed Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink got lucky in his managerial career.

To top it all off, he only applied for the Aston Villa job via a text message. I wonder if he included an emoji in his application. We can be grateful he is not on Twitter as his application could have been restricted to 140 characters. If you want to listen to the interview, please listen here

I was disgusted while the interview was on in real time and I think Talksports have been kind enough to edit out the unpleasant part of the interview as Dwight came across as someone who had a massive entitlement chip on his shoulder.

Yorke’s claims are as follows:

 
He has played at the top
 
He has won trophies
 
He has played with many great players who go on to get opportunities to manage
 
He has not been given the same opportunities as some of these players he played with
 
He has talked with other black players and they feel the same way – many feel they have been discriminated against even for Media punditry roles
 
He wants to start at the top
 
He won’t drop to lower divisions to get a job
 
He thinks the time when managers’ start at lower divisions is gone
 
He thinks managers only get one opportunity now and might or might not make it if they fail with that one opportunity
 
He thinks people like him have far more experience and exposure to start at the top
He references Steve Bruce, Roy Keane and Gareth Southgate getting opportunities while others of different color don’t get the same opportunity

It is very clear that Dwight Yorke obviously doesn’t appreciate the fact that the skills set he possessed as a player has absolutely no bearing on his ability as a manager. He should realize that even if you have the skills set to be a football manager, your personality and other attributes might make you more suitable for the number 2 role.

He doesn’t understand that just because you have now been presented with paper certificates doesn’t mean you walk into a job. Passing written exams and practical tests in flying colors doesn’t automatically translate into on – the - job competency.

His comments about the time frame of a manager’s career wound me up so much. Here he was on National Live Radio saying that ‘I know my tenure is likely to be short so I will rather start at the top and if I fail miserably, at least I know that I have managed at the top’. If I was a club owner, this is exactly the type of manager I will not be employing. A prospective manager who has come prepared to fail. You can’t make stuff like this up.

If I may offer advice to Dwight. He needs to be aware that the nature of club owners are changing. Club owners like Milan Mandaric are increasingly becoming rare in the world of football. Clubs are moving towards the corporation model and some have very bright people holding the reins. Tony Xia of Aston Villa appears to have a doctorate degree and has attended many top schools in the world.

So Yorkie, if you want someone like him to employ you, make the effort, hire professionals and get them to put together a proper polished pack introducing Dwight Yorke the manager and person to the club and what you are bringing to the proverbial table.

A club proprietor is not your mate and you are not asking to join a kick about at the Hackney Mashes, you are contacting a prospective employer who might likely give you a leg up to the 2^nd or 3^rd phase of your career.

I hope other ethnic minority managers will learn from Dwight Yorke’s recent misadventure. Build your networks, cultivate football club owners and those within their circle of influence. Let us see how much of a football brain you have either on TV / Radio football shows or football columns online or in newspapers. Do not be afraid to take the plunge at lower league club sides like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Do not be constrained by reduced opportunities in the UK, go and make your luck in Europe and other parts of the world.

And if you ever feel you need to voice your frustration on radio like Dwight did, please don’t come across like a TWAT with a sense of entitlement.

Football = Religion

I come from a religious background. My family and friends are all religious. Whether we remain practicing religious people is a different matter though.

Growing up, I was fascinated with the similarities between religion and night clubbing especially as a popular musician back then used to sing gospel type songs as part of his live performances every last Friday of the month. It salved my conscience for not going to church on the Sunday.

Increasingly as football has dominated my adult life, I have started to notice the similarities between football and religion.

Obviously the stadium is like a Church. Both attract large hopeful crowds hoping, praying even for a positive outcome at the end of the football service (match).

As an Arsenal fan, I notice the obvious prayers from a Mesut Ozil, the sign of the cross from an Alexis Sanchez and the other superstitious signs from a host of other Arsenal players. Incidentally, players of the opposing team are rendering the same prayers, making the same sign of the cross and doing their own pre game superstitious rituals.

The same happens with fans. But I wonder. Who will God listen to? 

It’s a bit like church. Two people at the end of an adversarial contract both attend the same church and pray for contrasting outcome and both hope their prayers will be answered by the same God. Tough. Very tough.

The role of Arsene Wenger or any football manager is clearly like that of the High Priest or in Pentecostal Churches, the Pastor. His word is law. Many look up to him. Even people perceive him as a miracle worker. 

Like many churches with long standing Pastors, many of the followers grow weary when their long promised miracles (trophy wins) don’t materialize. They decide to go other churches (Man City or Barcelona), they become cold and unmotivated (the “I wont buy Arsenal merchandise until Wenger leaves”) or become apostates (Wenger Out Brigade).

The timing of football matches is also a big similarity for me. Church is usually weekend service and midweek service. Same with football especially if your club is in Europe. I guess this is something Liverpool fans are presently unable to relate with.  Sadly for that once great club.

In today’s world, it is common to criticize religious people for believing in a God who does not exist.  But I wonder about football fans that believe in their team in a game where the deliberate act of a bent official or the mistake of a well-meaning referee can change the outcome of the match.

I wonder which is worse, believing in something that does not exist or allowing your mood, weekend, life, relationships to be affected by something that is totally out of your control and in increasingly frequent circumstances, fixed by football administrators, footballers on the take and criminal betting gangs.

To be fair, this allowing your whole life to be affected thing is what religious believers do too.

The dislike for opposing fans and opposing club sides is something common in religions as well. While not making light of the fate that befall apostates as mandated by some radical preachers, you can imagine the ribbing & vile abuse people who change clubs get on social media. – Plastic fans, flip floppers and worse. Somewhat denied a voice or an opinion.

By extension, adherents of one religion are confident that those who don’t worship with them are likely to end in one form of purgatory or the other. Same with football fans, the hellfire of football relegation is definitely reserved for their traditional football opponents.

Modern day football is also increasingly like modern day religion. Modern day football fans want it here and now. Their team must get that 3 points today, their team must top that champions league group (obviously not relevant to Manchester United fans at the moment), their team must win that big shiny trophy today. Same with modern day religionists, their God must answer by fire today. He must answer right here and right know. Their miracle must come today.

If the miracle delays, no attendance in church just like the football fan, no trophies, support withdrawn, no more visits to the stadium.

To be fair, I am struggling to see any similarities between the Wenger Out Brigade and any set of religious people I know. Often when worshippers start to slag off the High Priest as the WOB do, they are either taken to Tower Bridge in medieval times where their judgment is short and sharp or ostracized to somewhere as dreary as Burnley. Or the less dim witted amongst them are quick enough to read the signs, move away and form their own commune.

I guess the WOBs are fortunate we live in modern times or the High Priest would have locked the gate of the Emirates against them and banish them to everlasting social media appearance where their flip flopping opinions is converted to some reality show as a lesson to us faithful. I guess we will just wait and see for that time to come.

I believe football fans especially fans of less popular clubs and religious people deserve medals. I just wonder what kind of sainthood we should confer on people w ho are both football fans & religious. I think God will be kind to them especially if they support Tottenham Hot Spuds. They have strived for over 20 years to keep up with the Joneses and at each attempt, the rug has been pulled out from under their feet. Their experience is clearly proof that God exists and that he has a blinding sense of humor.  

Football: The Rise Of The Celebrity Fan

I toyed with nicely asking if one of my favourite Arsenal bloggers will write this article as I didn’t think I have the authentic history of living my whole life in the UK to do this article the justice I thought it deserves.

I also wrote the headline last week but abandoned it, as I wasn’t sure I was able to come up with something to interest many. Anyway on this day of joy for Arsenal fans following that remarkable thrashing of Chelsea yesterday, I have decided to make a decent fist of the subject today.

I believe all historical sources are in agreement that football started out as a working class sports. Played and watched mostly by working class people and has now become a middle class pursuit both as the cost of participating in football has increased and the lot of the populace has improved.  Although a case can be made that the middle classes are now the new improved working class.  :)

As a working class sport, I doubt football attracted a lot of celebrity attention in its early days. The popular people within football were most likely the players themselves and their managers and the odd oddball fan. I want to hazard a guess that no fan had a following and considering the fact that we were probably less complicated as humans back then, nobody wanted a following.

So how should we define celebrity culture? In preparing for this article, I have skim read a few articles from different sources. I find this one particularly helpful on defining Celebrity Culture  the article singles out the start of celebrity culture to the mid 1920s. I would imagine that up to a certain point in our collective lives; TV & Movie stars were the only genuine celebrities as that article outlined. We probably then added politicians, super talented football stars like Pele, George Best, Maradona etc. and maybe super talented Journalists. Until more recently that is, when anybody can be a celebrity including those whose only talent is getting their bits out.

So when did the culture of Celebrity fans enter football?  I think the 1^st modern day British Prime Minister to identify himself with a football club is John Major who had a soft spot for Chelsea FC. I find it interesting that his tenure as Prime Minister coincided with the start of the modern day Premier League. In my opinion, the significant riches that the Premier League has attracted to football have also resulted in the rise of the celebrity football fan. This is not to say that MPs and Councillors long before John Major entered politics didn’t identify themselves with football clubs in their constituencies and wards.

I have done a Google search of celebrities who have identified themselves with Arsenal FC as this is my primary focus as an Arsenal fan and I came across this 

The list of prominent (celebrity) Arsenal supporters in that link is quite impressive and has calmed me down a bit as I now realise that although Piers Morgan might be the most vocal popular (something of a) celebrity Arsenal fan, he is by no means in my 25 man squad if you were to choose one from a list of Arsenal celebrity fans. You might wish to come up with your own squad.  :)

Is Celebrity culture bad? Are celebrity fans a bad thing? Not at all. We live in a world where celebrity culture can be a good thing. Lots of positive humanitarian projects have been delivered and are ongoing because of the support rendered by celebrities.

The rise of social media has also helped. I recollect the young Afghanistan boy who caught Lionel Messi’s attention recently. It might have taken months for Messi to see the initial picture and maybe we would never have heard about Messi’s humane gesture for many years thereafter. But in the space of a week, the picture of the boy emerged, caught Messi’s eyes, he responded and said young boy was very pleased.

I think celebrity fans are largely good for football. Their presence gives many fans the opportunity to interact with people whose lifestyle and maybe career we can only dream about. And in some cases they bring a smile to our face or give us the occasional bragging right for a photo opportunity or even a few quid on eBay for the odd memorabilia.

However like the proverbial saying, “too much of everything is bad”. When football then becomes all about celebrity fans, I think it leaves a distaste in the mouth. Many fans want to be celebrities amongst their fellow fans on the basis of their sometimes incoherent and often inconsistent opinion. Some want to become shadow directors of the club, dictating managerial decisions and shaping club strategy.

This shouldn’t be the case. Firstly, I think there will be chaos in the world if the sun ever decided to take over the job of the moon and vice versa. So I commend that fans be first of all fans. Let us go in a game determined to cheer the selected 11 to the rafters irrespective of our personal opinion. No matter how knowledgeable we are as fans, it is impossible to have the information that the club management possesses.

Lets cheer for 90 minutes even when it is a horror show. We are not the lead actors in this 90 - minute movie, we are extras. We must start to believe that the support we give can increase the level of adrenaline in the veins of our players and this can translate into improved performance on the pitch.

Four – Midable At The City Ground

 What a great run out for our boys at Nottingham Forest to crown 3 away games across 3 competitions without a loss.

The manager’s selection was something of a pleasant surprise to me. I was expecting David Ospina in goal as I had totally forgotten Emiliano Martinez. As it turned out he was relatively untroubled in goal and had Matt Macey as a back up. I remember Matt was on the bench during our 3 all draw with Liverpool at Anfield in January. The presence of these 4 goalkeepers in the Arsenal team further underlines the depth of the squad.

I was delighted to see Ainsley Maitland - Niles at right back. Many have worried about a deputy for Hector Bellerin what with the indifferent form and maybe indifferent attitude of Mathieu Debuchy. A player who has been unfortunate to lose his place in the line up to a vile & dirty player in Marko Arnautovic.

Jeff Reine - Adelaide, Chuba Akpom & Rob Holding are very popular young players amongst the fan base and they all had starts and a very good game. I was delighted to see Captain Kieran Gibbs lead the team out. Kieran deserves a lot of praise for his positive attitude at lack of starts, as the manager has rightly preferred Nacho Monreal in both League competitions. Commendably, every time he has been called upon, Kieran has never disappointed. His goal against the Spuds to force a draw at The Emirates last season will remain forever in my memory.

I was happy to see Gabriel start following his recovery from a freak injury at the last game of pre season. There were memorable starts for Granit Xhaka & Alex Oxlade Chamberlain. Both of them in the goals. Xhaka’s goal deserves all the superlatives you can find in the dictionary and Oxlade – Chamberlain’s goal was a lovely topping on a delicious ice cream.

The 4 nil result reflected the gulf in class at the end of the day but it was by no means an easy match. Forest had a few very close efforts on goal and should have scored before Xhaka stepped up with his wonderful wand of a left leg. Bendtner had an effort curved wide. I have seen him score that type of effort many times for the Arsenal.

Pajtim Kasami should have scored when Gabriel and Holding fluffed their lines. I fear that mix up happens too often with Arsenal or maybe I am wrong and it is inevitable that such errors / lack of concentration will happen in any game of football. 

Xhaka’s goal settled nerves and deflated both the home crowd and their boys and was just deserts as they had mouthed off about our lack of Champions League glory.  I always worry when Arsenal don’t score in the first 20 minutes of a match. I think we always try to play positive football and drive towards goal with a belief that we can always score. However once we don’t score in the first 20 minutes, it emboldens the opponents and it can sometimes be something of a heads down moment for our boys and then you start to see errors either due to nerves or anxiety that we are yet to score.

The talent of Reine - Adelaide shone throughout the match but he might need to tone down the showboating. Elneny looked a bit different. He appears to be a bit slower and less imposing than the player we saw last season. Xhaka was in full control of the midfield, starting the attacks, spraying passes and engaging in tackles.

Perez was a busy bee throughout the 90 minutes and got two goals. He could and should have had a hat trick but he had a good shot saved by the keeper and was unselfish in trying to tee up Chuba Akpom with what should have been another effort on goal. This is both good and somewhat negative. Good in the sense that at 3 nil, there was no way back for Forest, so he might as well spread the joy by helping his fellow forward score a goal. Slightly negative that he MIGHT not have the killer, selfish & greedy instinct that strikers should have.

We fluffed some of our lines in attack. It would appear some of the forward players still need time to gel, to instinctively understand each other. All of these, I believe will come as the season progresses and players are able to get game time under their belt.

I noticed a few heavy challenges from the Forest players especially Lansbury. He appeared to be trying too hard. It makes you wonder if there is a back-story to his crunching tackles on the night. In my opinion, these sort of tackles are the cause of Arsenal’s injury records and I believe Referees should be severely clamping down on such.  

Towards the end of the match, the Manager brought on Willock, Zelalem and Bielik and it gladdens my heart to see the next generation, the future of the club.  I can’t wait for these young players to break into the first team.

So we got Reading in the next round. Courtesy of the club’s website, I watched the highlights of our last league cup match with them this morning. I am not hoping for anything as ‘exciting’ as that match. I am looking forward to a similar line up at The Emirates and I am confident that whatever line up the manager decides, the boys will give a very good account of themselves, the club and their manager.  It is a mug’s game trying to second-guess a very successful manager.

Before then, we’ve got the Chavs this Saturday. I hope we tonk them.

Come On Arsenal