The coaching horses.

Being open to innovations is key for a coach at these clubs, where pressure mounts week in, week out with every game utilizing a practical forefront and the chance to apply all knowledgable experience to demostrate productivity. In saying this, the topic rises upon managers - the term appropriate used for those in charge at the highest coach because they assemble, order, manage, instruct, advise, guide, motivate and direct amongst other actions to their pupils, their players instead developing, correcting, coaching and teaching where it is done in the more formative years at youth level. 

When frequent and incessant questions are asked from fans who the next manager will be, what achievements have been made and what is the style of play, on what ground are these measured from the club board's perspective and the fans themselves where their views vary, success of the individual capacity and potential?

The most immediate answer are results. The best argument by far to justify the success of a manager with or without a strategy in a short or long-term plan. Whether comparing the points ladder and statistic to prove a manager's productivity or handing opportunities first and second-time round, a more human approach? The norm is for a club to settle into a given identity and that takes time. A manager and his coaching staff need that confidence and rapport with a board that may or may not have a football culture yet certainly a business and administrative background.

Debates ponder from resuming reiterated formulae that can always be the same agitated processes or placing confidence into renovation, changing the way a squad works much to the often criticism from pundits. Results and goals up against attractive, free-flowing football. If much rife is caused because of it, what is the barrier, is there fear rather than pressure to do so?

Now, look at the way Pep Guardiola (pictured above) conceding his lifelong dedication to the game by also adding respect to the always demanding Spanish football media as an example when appointed from the youth B side into the first team. Another meticulous statistician and tactician at such a young age and how he took charge winning the treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey (Cup) and most prestigiously, the Champions League along with the European Supercup with exceptional attacking-minded football. Guardiola remains a formidable character, influence and essence not only to the squad with his incredible achievements in such a short amount of time. To the club itself, from his early days at La Masia, the clubhouse where he was formed under the eye of Dutch great Johann Cruyff and Carles Rexach, youth coach at the time, his days as a promising defender to then captain of the squad is a reflection of his professionalism and love of the game, his life and soul to the Blaugrana, the Catalan club that forms an impact and identity to the autonomous region.

With the turning and transformation in the way games are played, the tactics and not the strategies imposed for the various National teams have become both very interesting on show and also very boring or ineffective thus causing confusion to the players adapting from the styles imposed with their respective clubs on the pitch while representing their country in such brief amount of time and most importantly, the fans on the terraces.

The media is vitally important in influencing and pressuring if a situation comes to worse. They will always shape the opinions of all those interested in the game yet there are starking differences. The idea is not to create comparison, the withstanding football cultures and tradition of Brazil, England, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy and Argentina will always succumb to fervent masses and amounts of pressure from knowledgeable media capable of influencing coaches, captains, fans alike. Here in Australia we are yet to see that en masse, where the top-positioned team in the A-League barely attracts four-thousand spectators to its stadium. There have been coaches even a decade ago with formidable experience from abroad whom have left legacies, names like the great Hungarian Magyar, Ferenc Puskas with South Melbourne in the early 1990s, Les Scheinflug with the youth setup for Australia, Rale Rasic with the debutant Australian side in the World Cup of Germany in 1974 and how to forget the Germans, Berndt Stange with Perth Glory and more recently Pierre Littbarski with Sydney FC and their formidable work at Australian club level football.

With appalling remarks made last by the great Diego Maradona directed towards the media in backlash to his previous poor results along with instability in his playing tactics and formation. There was little direction given as manager to his players causing a rift with the Argentine football population and causing doubts until the last round of qualification away to Uruguay in Montevideo to secure a spot in South Africa. It is that amassed culture and football knowledge that spur differences. To live and follow endurely until the last final whistle blown.

"One of the most important things I learnt from Bobby Robson is that when you win, you shouldn't assume you are the team, and when you lose, you shouldn't think you are rubbish." - José Mourinho.

Take for instance a once unknown José Mourinho, a former physical education teacher who took every opportunity in his formative years to take account of his learning and applying whilst assistant coach to some of the game's most formidable managers like the late Bobby Robson at Sporting Lisbon CP and with Catalonia giants FC Barcelona helping out as translator. He took every step at a time when starting out with his local side Vitória de Setúbal's youth side, an initial stage to what has been a career commencing as assistant manager at Estrela da Amadora, now a second division side in his native Portugal. Studious and pragmatic, his coming-and-going from FC Barcelona and FC Porto did unsettle him with ambition in mind, where his love of planning and training essential to his command and understanding of the game not only by coaching but teaching.

Names like Sergio Markarián, the Uruguayan coach who dealt with the enigmatic character of Paraguayan goalkeeper José Luís Chilavert and his National side while at club level managing from Mexico and along Latin America taking titles with the many clubs spanning from Paraguay, Peru and lately this year in Chile not to mention stints with Ionikos and Panathinaikos in Greece to successful seasons. This man commercialised an IT software with his brother, a computer programmer, designed purposely for football managers to record and store vital training data and match statistics. Italian Arrigo Sacchi needs no introduction either, whom never played football professionally and before becoming a coach was a shoe salesman. Today, he sits with ample experience on the bench as Director of Football with Real Madrid organising and planning everything to do with football at the club while he has been substantial when with AC Milan in their indomitable days in the early 1990s, the Italian National Team finishing runners-up in the 1994 World Cup, Parma and Atlético Madrid. 

The question has surely always been raised numerous times in footballing circles, whether players with a glorious past are capable of repeating their feats as coaches or is it necessary to endeavour an education at hand to complement the role of being in charge of a squad and its responsibilities?

There are those coaches whom have fared a long way to get to the managerial position, at the helm of not only fulfilling its role and the added pressure but handling the egos in a dressing room, many being far-stretched and daunting consisting of star-studded "prima donnas". Looking at those successful managers whom have never professionally kicked a football in their lives, the experience clashing the vision of a more 'larger than life' vision nevertheless contrasts to those whom have studied the game and applied their understanding and interpretation with an education at stake that can certainly raise eye-brows.