The Sunday Times Sport - UK (2021-11-14)

2GS The Sunday Times November 14, 2021 13

It doesn’t matter who is in the dugout at Villa

or Newcastle, only owners’ riches will help

them crack the elite – not the manager

Rod Liddle

Managers must live in dread of the

November international break. It is

the most popular time of the season

for chairmen to swing the axe and

bring in a new appointee, who has

not only a couple of weeks to bed in

but a free run at the January transfer

window.

And there is nothing the departing

manager can do to save himself.

Norwich City recorded their first

victory of the season, 2-1 away to

Brentford, but it wasn’t enough to

save Daniel Farke’s skin. The club had

hoped to appoint Frank Lampard (I’m

not quite sure why) but he has since

decided he would rather chop off his

own leg than move to Carrow Road. I

wonder what went on in those

discussions between Delia and Frank?

The consensus now seems to be

that Lampard was averse to further

damaging his managerial record by

failing to prevent Norwich from being

relegated this season — yet a cursory

glance at the table (and at Norwich’s

history) would surely have suggested

to Frank that the task was beyond

Herculean without having to get the

train from Liverpool Street. So,

something must have put him off,

after that meeting.

Norwich, at time of writing, are

said to be anxious to secure the

services of Dean Smith, who had

been sacked by Aston Villa after five

consecutive defeats. Indeed Villa

have not won since September and

are on just about the worst run of any

of the league’s 92 teams. Perhaps that

is what attracted Norwich — a certain

consistency: if you’re going to go

down, do it with great resolve and

commitment. Meanwhile,

Middlesbrough sacked the admirable

but somewhat floundering Neil

Warnock after a perfectly creditable

draw away to West Bromwich Albion

and brought in Chris Wilder, on

whom almost every Championship

club’s fans have a sort of crush.

Managers can sometimes change a

team’s trajectory, although usually

only very temporarily. Long gone are

the days when a Clough, Shankly or

Revie could perform semi-permanent

miracles on a shoestring: there is too

much money around for the manager

to make very much of a difference.

Real transformations occur when

there is a change of club ownership —

95 per cent of the time for the worse,

but spectacularly well in the case of

that remaining five per cent, as

Manchester City, Chelsea, Leicester

City, Brentford and (whisper it)

Manchester United might well attest.

Given the new, dirty wealth now at

their disposal there is expectation on

Tyneside that Newcastle United,

under Eddie Howe, may gatecrash

the Premier League elite. On paper

they should do so, although they

have to avoid relegation first, which

with their present squad is by no

means a given.

But what of Villa? A club with a

venerable history — they were the

fourth English side to win the

European Cup and have won the

league on seven occasions — and

formidable support in the country’s

second city. If any side were to

muscle in on the “big six”, it would

surely be Villa. There is plenty of

wealth at their disposal, courtesy of

“Africa’s second-richest man”, the

Egyptian owner Nassef Sawiris, but

he has not yet splashed really big

bucks. Their form, of late, has been

parlous: relegation form, without

question. They have an inept defence

and a midfield that has been shorn of

much of its inventiveness.

And now they have Steven

Gerrard, or “Stevie G” as we keep

being told, an emetic soubriquet if

ever there was one. Gerrard must

surely have been told there is a lot of

money to spend, because the squad

at the moment is going in only one

direction and with admirable haste.

We are assured, too, that for Gerrard

the gig at Villa Park is simply a

convenient stepping stone before his

eventual enthronement at Anfield.

There is nothing in football quite so

dangerous as counting your

chickens. What if Gerrard makes a

balls-up at Villa? Will he still be

considered a shoo-in once Jürgen

Klopp has taken his unearthly smile

back to the Fatherland?

Gerrard has performed admirably

at Rangers, but you would have to be

a bit of a duffer not to finish at least

second up there. The Villa fans are by

no means convinced, with many

thinking he is grossly overrated and

admired more for his former

footballing skills than his managerial

nous. I have some sympathy with

that position. But the truth is, if Villa

— or Newcastle — are to break into the

Premier League elite it will be money

from their owners that does the job.

The manager is merely a gilding of

Lampard was not wowed by Delia the expensive lily.

English

football

leaves little

room for its

combatants

to become

obsessive

geeks

back over the border. It may be that

he succeeds well enough with Aston

Villa to fill a gap should Klopp

gracefully choose to step aside.

Gerrard’s has been the more

thoughtful journey towards the end

goal and perhaps deserves to have a

more satisfactory outcome than that

of his former England team-mate.

But there is a reason the successful

managers in the Premier League are

rarely the ones who starred when

playing in it. English football, even at

its most rarefied level, has a blood-

and-thunder relentlessness that

leaves little room for its combatants

to become the obsessive geeks that

tend to do so well coaching here.

The rise of the clipboard manager

— Klopp, Thomas Tuchel, José

Mourinho — whose playing careers

were cut short or deeply average,

has been significant, but there is

still room for great players to be

remarkable managers. It is just that

the Premier League is not the ideal

breeding ground for perfectionism

when allied to a fairytale trajectory.

Antonio Conte, now to be seen

hiding the HP Sauce and mayonnaise

down the back of a filing cabinet at

the Tottenham Hotspur training

ground, was an outstanding

midfielder for Juventus and first

arrived in the Premier League after

completing his own version of the

Gerrard journey, having been an

assistant coach and then manager at

four smaller clubs before taking

charge back at Juventus.

Crucially, the new Spurs head

coach avoids the sense that he has

one destiny. Each project is the best

one for as long as he wants to be

involved in it. It was not helpful for

Lampard to have such a clear fate

because there was no way he could

have declined Chelsea’s invitation.

Patrick Vieira, by contrast, is

impressing without too much fanfare

at Crystal Palace, partly because

while there is an emotional pull for

him to one day manage Arsenal, his

former club, the speculation has not

reached fever pitch. The wily Mikel

Arteta created a pseudo-kismet when

he took over at Arsenal, because

Everton could equally have been his

destiny. Gerrard cannot escape his,

but he must try to dilute it.

Wales get

in party

spirit for

centurion

Bale

Gareth Bale got his wish for an

emphatic win on the occasion of his

100th cap. He was very much the

focus in the build-up but in truth he

was a peripheral figure and was

withdrawn at the interval.

Wales were fluid and pacey

and enjoyed their biggest win in

three years. Aaron Ramsey

opened the scoring inside

two minutes and added

another from the penalty

spot after the break

before being taken off.

There were also

goals from Neco

Williams, Ben

Davies, with his first

for his country, and Connor

Roberts.

Wales are assured of

being in the play-offs in March but if

they beat Belgium on Tuesday, it

would give them a fighting chance of

a home tie in the semi-finals.

Bale will be 33 when the

tournament is played in Qatar.

Qualifying for the World Cup finals,

Bale believes, would help to achieve a

wider aim and legacy of the country

producing a richer and deeper pool

of top players.

This was an evening for

celebrating Bale and everything he

has done for Wales, 15 years on from

his debut, when he became their

youngest player. He smiled as he led

the team out of the tunnel and turned

and waved several times to his family,

who were watching from a corporate

box, while the crowd went through

several renditions of “Viva Gareth

Bale”. Strangely there was no

commemoration, presentation or

mention of his achievement by the

announcer at kick-off, but Bale will

receive a cap and medal from Uefa

for becoming the country’s second

male centurion, after Chris Gunter.

Bale must surely now take over

from John Charles as Wales’s greatest.

Certainly Cliff Jones thinks so. The

Tottenham Hotspur winger played

alongside Charles when he

spearheaded Wales to their only

World Cup finals in 1958, eventually

falling to the only goal from Pele in

the quarter-finals. Brazil went on to

lift the trophy.

“I saw first-hand John Charles’s

contribution to Welsh football,

however I’m proud to say that Gareth

is out on his own in what he has

achieved and his commitment to play

for Wales,” Jones tweeted prior to

kick-off. “Congratulations to Gareth

on reaching 100 caps.”

Wales started at a feverish tempo

against the Belarus side who had lost

their previous seven matches and

were open with five at the back.

Though Bale was quiet and felt the

effects of a knock to his hip, Joe Allen

and Ramsey were at the heart of

bright moments that put them 2-0 up

inside 20 minutes.

The first arrived when Davies

struck a low volley that was spilled by

Syarhey Chernik in goal and Ramsey

Wales captain Ramsey
scored either side
of half-time

Gary Jacob

WALES

Ramsey 2, 50 (pen), N Williams 20, 5

B Davies 77, C Roberts 89

BELARUS

Kontsevoy 87 1

was the fastest to follow up. Chernik

did no better with the second goal,

started by a sharp pass by Allen. Bale

fed Williams who cut inside the

penalty area and never caught his

shot which squeezed past the

goalkeeper’s hand at the near post.

Ramsey stroked home from the

penalty spot after Ruslan Yudenkov

handled. Davies scored his first Wales

goal on his 68th cap, the ball coming

off his shoulder at a corner and

bouncing inside the far post. Artem

Kontsevoy pulled one back with a

spectacular strike to deny Wales a

clean sheet but Roberts restored

Wales’s four-goal lead as he got a

slight touch on Harry Wilson’s free

kick at the near post.

Wales (3-4-3): D Ward 7 (sub: W Hennessey,

90mins) – E Ampadu 6, J Rodon 7, B Davies 7 - C

Roberts 7, H Wilson 7, J Allen 7, N Williams 7 - G

Bale 7 (B Johnson, 46mins 6), A Ramsey 8 (J

Morrell, 71), D James 7 (T Roberts, 76). Booked

Ampadu

Belarus (5-4-1): S Chernik 5 – N Zolotov 5 (R

Yuzepchuk, 71), M Shvetsov 6, N Naumov 6, R

Yudenkov 5 (A Kontsevoy, 82), K Pechenin 5 – V

Klimovich 5 (M Ebong, 71), A Selyava 6, E

Yablonski 6, P Sedko 5 (Antilevski, 60) - V

Lisakovich 5 (Bakhar, 81). Booked Zolotov

Referee M Mariani (Italy)