Management: a whole new ball game

Manchester city’s roving reporter writes every week for Chron Sport
IT wasn’t the best performance from Manchester City against Norwich, but they secured the three points in the end and that’s what counts.

City didn’t create nearly as many chances as they normally do, but they did enough and showed great character.

Maybe one or two of the players had tomorrow’s trip to Sevilla on their minds. That’s going to be another huge European test, though just about beating the Spanish side at home the other week was the big result.

It would be a huge advantage for manager Manuel Pellegrini if qualification for the last 16 of the Champions League could be gained before the final game of the group stage.

There seems to be a lot of change and speculation about managers at the moment - and it serves to emphasise the job’s difficulty.

There’s a new man at Aston Villa, Remi Garde; Jose Mourinho is under pressure and Liverpool have appointed Jurgen Klopp. It shows you have to be a certain kind of person to be a manager. I wouldn’t relish it.

Managers at the top clubs have teams of staff to help, but they won’t get much chance to switch off.

There are so many things a person needs to be a successful manager, and though gone are the days of people like Sir Alex Ferguson running a club as he did, the man-management side is the key for me.

There are so many things to consider when you take on a player, particularly at the higher level, even a player’s upbringing and culture. A lad won’t perform at his best until he 100 per cent happy - this is where managing them correctly comes in.