Masterclasses in management from two of the game’s greatest pragmatists

Last Thursday, at different ends of Dublin, two of British football’s most successful club football managers gave an insight into their approaches and philosophies on leadership.

Martin O'Neill kicked it off after lunch with an appearance, alongside a certain Roy Keane, at the Irish Management Institute's campus in Sandyford in front of a packed audience.

That night, 1,700 people turned out to hear Alex Ferguson speak at the annual dinner of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce in the National Convention Centre in the city's docklands.

There are many similarities in the way both approach management. Both place a great emphasis on hard work and detailed preparation, pay close attention to how players perform on the training ground as an indication of their well-being, and seek out players with character and strong personalities.

Both are winners with a deeply ingrained competitive spirit and have enjoyed success at club level; O’Neill with Leicester City and Celtic, and Ferguson with Aberdeen and Manchester United. Yet there are subtle differences in their approaches to management.

O’Neill offered this take on succession planning and youth development by football managers.

“Can I be really cynical here and say that, when you get a job in football, I don’t think the first thing you think about is that ‘I must put in a succession plan’ because there’s a fairly decent chance that you’ll not be around to see it [through].

“When I started off [in management] 25 years ago, I used to hear managers say that ‘I’m going to work from top to bottom, I’m going to get the youth side up and running’. I used to think to myself that you’ll last about 15 weeks.

“This idea about getting the youth team up and running . . . seriously, I was at Leicester City for about two years before I realised there was a youth team. You gotta win football matches, you gotta win to be in a position to have a succession.

“When you win games and have success you get control of the football club. Then when you win some competitions . . . you can think about the youth side to put some succession plan in. Alex Ferguson didn’t go to Manchester United thinking about a succession plan, absolutely not.”

Unwittingly, Ferguson was to contradict that statement later that night. On arriving in Manchester on November 6th, 1986, the Scot decided that for Manchester United to be consistently successful, he needed to overhaul its youth system and improve its recruitment.

At the time, local rival Manchester City had the edge on player recruitment. Even Ryan Giggs started with City before swapping clubs in the municipality and becoming United's most decorated player.

“I kept coming back to the same thing: build the club, build the football team,” he said.

“This is something I did well at Aberdeen and St Mirren as a younger manager and it is so important for one simple reason. To recognise young people and give them an opportunity is a big plus because those young people will always remember the manager who gave them his first opportunity and through that you will get a fantastic loyalty from them.”

Interestingly, this was the reason given by Keane as to why he rates Brian Clough, his boss at Nottingham Forest, as the best manager that he ever worked under.

When he landed in Manchester, Ferguson bought a big map of the city and pinned in on the wall of his office and then discovered there were only four talent scouts working for the club in the whole of greater Manchester, an area with a population of over 2½ million.

“At Aberdeen, I’d 17 scouts covering 3½ million people. You can see the difference there, the deficit was huge. I found it quite incredible.”

“My first job was to make sure we made an impact in scouting. We ended up hiring about 25 scouts and that changed everything for us.”

Under Ferguson, United's youth system produced a conveyor belt of talent, including Giggs, the Neville brothers, David Beckham, John O'Shea, Darren Fletcher and Johnny Evans.

Ferguson was lucky. Support from the United hierarchy gave him four years of breathing space before winning his first trophy with the club. “Most managers only concentrate on the first team for the simple reason that it keeps them in a job. It’s a results industry. You lose a few games you are out of a job.

"I was never afraid of the sack and of doing what I believed in because it was my philosophy: build a football club, not a team. I'd great support from Bobby Charlton [former star player and club director] and Martin Edwards [club's top executive]. That gave me the confidence and we kicked on from there."

The other noticeable difference in the styles between the two men was how they dealt with players who didn’t start games. O’Neill used to let his coaches talk to the players who had been left out of his first eleven.

In more recent times, the players would send their agents to him to enquire why they were left out.

“Seriously, you must admit it’s ridiculous. I would always have been at the manager’s door wanting to know why I wasn’t in the team.”

Ferguson’s approach was somewhat different. “The hardest thing is always to pick a team,” he said. I always spoke to every one who wasn’t playing. One by one. And I tried to explain to them why they weren’t playing. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don’t. [You’ve got to] make them feel like they’re contributing. .

“I was able to plan ahead. There was never one player at United in my time that played every game. At the end of the season you could say to them, ‘You’ve got your medal, you’ve contributed.’”

It goes towards explaining how he won 13 league titles during his time at United.