Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Mancini are in peak condition for race to the top

13 April 2012

Here's a question. At what age does a football manager hit his peak? There's a general consensus that for players, the age at which strength and vigour gel best with maturity and wisdom are the years between around 26 and 30. There are outliers, sure, but for most players, their boon years are their late twenties.

But what about the men who really count? I mean, how does the situation change for managers — a position which relies far less on physical prowess and far more on judgement, experience, and nous?

I ask this in the context of a Premier League season which kicks off tomorrow with a preponderance of older managers in charge of the teams likely to finish at the top of the table next May.

Let's be generous and identify a Big Six from the teams who will start the season with at least a sportsman's chance of being placed for a title tilt at Christmas. To the champions of the last decade — Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal — we can add Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City.

What would be immediately obvious if you lined up the managers of those six teams would be just how leathery most of them looked. I know football management ages a man: all those December days spent peering into the cold and rain; the inevitable bottle of Bordeaux afterwards. It's bad for the collagen.

But atmospheric conditions aside, this year sees a lot of greybeards in charge of the biggest teams. Sir Alex Ferguson, starting the season at 68 is the eldest. Roy Hodgson and Harry Redknapp are 63. Arsene Wenger will be 61 by the end of the year. Carlo Ancelotti is only 51. Does that surprise you? It surprised me. I would have made him a decade older, perhaps because the all-black outfit he wore to last week's Community Shield, made him look like God's Gonna Cut You Down'-era Johnny Cash. He just looks sort of, well, old.

But of course, it would be slightly incongruous to lump Ancelotti in with Sir Alex, who was working in the tool yards at Govan and playing part-time for Queen's Park when Ancelotti was born, and had retired his playing career before Ancelotti's began.

The Italian is in truth much closer in age to the last of the Big Six managers – Roberto Mancini, manager of Manchester City, who provides a youthful exception to this season's ancient helmsmen. A whippersnapper at 45, he looks, in the company of his peers, like the thrusting young cock of the walk.

So what's going on? For a comparative snapshot, let's think back to when Chelsea won their first Premier League title in 2004/5. Then, of the managers whose teams who finished in the top six, three — Rafa Benitez, Jose Mourinho and David Moyes began the season in their forties, Sam Allardyce at Bolton and Wenger were in their fifties, and Sir Alex was a spritely 62.

So, are good Premier League managers getting older? Are we watching an ageing league? Or is this season just an aberration? I'm inclined to think that perhaps this year's League is going against the grain. If we widen our horizons to look at top-level football in general, we see that most managers in charge at the top clubs in Europe are in their late 40s and 50s.

Pep Guardiola at Barcelona is exceptional at 39, and Didier Deschamps at the French champions, Marseille, is only two years older than him. But at Real Madrid, Mourinho is now 47. Benitez has been entrusted with Mourinho's Inter Milan side aged 50.

At Bayern Munich, Louis van Gaal still just about fits the pattern — he will turn 59 this year. And in the Netherlands, Martin Jol (54)'s Ajax must be favourites to win the league now that Twente's Steve McClaren (49) has gone to manage Wolfsburg.

What about the most eyecatching managers at the World Cup? (I mean for managerial talent, so Diego Maradona is excepted.) I admired Joachim Low (50), Vincente del Bosque (59) and Marcelo Bielsa (55). Bob Bradley, who has impressed as the manager of the USA and is now mentioned in connection with Premier League jobs, is 52.

And a few examples from the pages of English football's history. Sir Bobby Robson was 57 when he took England to their last World Cup semi-final. Alf Ramsey was 46 when England won the thing. But Brian Clough was best as a young manager, hitting his peak at Nottingham Forest when he was in his very early 40s, though he had enjoyed much success at Derby while he was still in his late 30s.

What do all these numbers mean? Not an awful lot, probably, but they give you a flavour of a theory that I am incubating. Which is this: I hypothesise that if the late 20s are a player's peak years, then this sketchy survey indicates most managers hit their straps in their mid-40s, after 10 seasons or so of management, before starting to fade away into Freedom-Pass carrying oblivion shortly after their 60th birthday.

But as always there are outliers. Just as Wayne Rooney dazzled as a 17-year old player, so the likes of Clough, Guardiola, and Mourinho blazed from their late thirties onwards — their natural talent carrying them where others required a decade or so of experience before success came.

And Sir Alex, who keeps such faith with veteran players of exquisite talent is in a sense the managerial equivalent of his aged stalwarts — Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Edwin van der Sar.

This being the case, if I was betting on managerial age alone, I would predict success for Chelsea and the two Manchester sides this year. But then again, maybe Ian Holloway (47) is well placed for a title tilt, too. There's more to life than the candles on the cake, as they say.

TV makes Sepp look silly

Sepp Blatter has finally conceded Fifa can discuss goal‑line technology at their next meeting.

Blatter's opposition to tech is on two grounds. He says FIFA have never been presented with a "simple and accurate" system and also believes that it would disrupt the flow of the game.

But after every dodgy decision — such as on Wednesday, when a linesman wrongly awarded Hungary a goal against England — these arguments look more foolish.

Within five seconds of the goal' being scored, everyone on the media benches had seen a replay confirming it had been incorrectly awarded.
What was the "simple and accurate" system we used? Er, we watched a replay. On the TV.

Time to end Tiger's farce

The Ryder Cup is not until October but seems suddenly very close. Inevitably, it is now the prism through which the US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits this weekend will be viewed.
And once again, whether he likes it or not, Tiger Woods will be the main focus of attention.

The way Woods is playing he will be lucky to make the cut. And in that event, he will surely not be on the US team at Celtic Manor.

Will that be a bad thing? Not for golf. The Tiger charade has dragged on for too long. It's time for a line to be drawn. Another championship overshadowed by the embarrassing memory of Woods's meltdown risks turning the game into a Benny Hill-style circus.

Be 'Australian' England

England's cricket series against Pakistan looks worryingly like it was running out of steam before the Tests reached London. Pakistan have virtually no chance of even levelling the series by winning at The Oval next week, and Lord's at the end of the month.

Many are worrying that England, starved of quality opposition this summer, may arrive undercooked in Australia for the winter's Ashes series. But I have been impressed with England's ruthlessness in hammering the opposition.

The great Australia teams of the last 15 years made that their trademark. If the opposition merited a fight, then fight them. If they were there to be squished like flies, then squish them. Test cricket is no charitable endeavour and England must go for a whitewash.

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