Essay
Essay Football Management (FPP608)
- Module
- Football Management (FPP608)
- Institution
- Southampton Solent University (SSU)
An Essay on the leadership style of quality of Sir Alex Ferguson.
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FootballManagement
(FPP608)
Essay
, Introduction
The role of a Football Manager incorporates both leadership and management
responsibilities. Usually a coach has a planned, coordinated, and integrated program of
athlete preparation as their main role however the modern football manager must
“acknowledge the importance of his role from a business or financial perspective” (Crust
and Lawrence 2006). (Weinberg and Gould 2003) suggest that Leadership is recognised as
vision and direction, whereas the management is the organisational tasks: Organising,
Planning, Staffing, Directing, and Controlling. Leadership being defined as “the
behavioural process of influencing individuals and groups towards set goals” (Barrow
1977). Furthermore, (Loehr, Loehr and Schwartz 2005) suggested that effective leadership
is the “positive impact that individuals can have on group dynamics relative to a team
objective”. This would suggest that the leadership responsibilities of a manager are
focused on a common goal i.e., winning the league and then having positive impacts on
the individuals in the team to push them towards the goal. Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat
known as the father of modern political philosophy, and Sun Tzu, a Chinese general and
military strategist write and philosopher, both were realist and believed that you must
conform to the way of the world or you will lose. They believed in these seven
components to effective leadership: Importance of good leadership, prudence, knowing
your soldiers, flexibility, deception, force as a lesser strategy, patience (Nylan 2019; Parks
2011). This research suggests that a Football manager needs to have organizational and
leadership qualities based upon working towards a common goal for the team.
Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the most decorated football managers of all time winning a
total of 50 trophies in his 39 years in management. Born in Govan, Glasgow he is a self-
described socialist and was named in a list for labour’s biggest private donors (BBC 1998).
The Ferguson clan motto is “Dulcius ex asperis” meaning “Sweeter after difficulties”
(Ferguson Alex 2013). This family motto along with the working-class background growing
up formed his belief of never giving up and knowing he could overcome any difficulties.
Similarly, to this, Sir Alex Ferguson’s favourite song is Frank Sinatra ‘My Way’ and when
you listen to the lyrics you can see why. “I planned each chartered course, each careful
step along the by-way, and more much more than this, I did it my way” (SongLyrics 2008)
sums up Ferguson’s story incredibly well, so much so that this song played out in front of
70,000 for Ferguson’s retirement speech at Old Trafford (Kenmare 2020). Sir Alex played
football professionally, most notably a spell at Rangers, totalling 317 appearances scoring
171 goals in the process. He was the eight ever person involved with football to be
knighted by the queen in 1999 (BBC 1999). In his early days as a manager, Ferguson owned
and ran two pubs in Glasgow this was until he took the Aberdeen job and had to sell up.
He won 3 league titles and a European cup with the Scottish side before taking the
Manchester United job in 1974. There he would win 39 trophies including 13 league titles
and 2 champions leagues. However, from an early age he loved making decisions and
would-be barking instructions at his school mates to play in certain positions and
formations (Ferguson Alex 2013). Ferguson attended coaching schools back in 1967 and
took his first coaching badge in 1968. Every year he would attend refresher courses for
two weeks every summer in preparation for the new season. Sir Alex cannot speak highly
enough of Jock Stein, having even called him a “one-man university” and “one of the
greatest managers of all time” (Ferguson Alex 1999). He would often turn to Jock for
advice throughout his career, and it was Jock who helped Sir Alex make the decision to
leave his first managerial role at East Stirlingshire to move to St Mirren. Having spent a
year as Jock’s assistant to the Scotland national team, he recalled these as the golden
days when they would sit debating, arguing, and enjoying the stories of each other till the
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