{"id":24979,"date":"2024-04-12T15:12:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T15:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/12\/coaches-have-to-be-salesmen-too\/"},"modified":"2024-04-12T15:12:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T15:12:49","slug":"coaches-have-to-be-salesmen-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/12\/coaches-have-to-be-salesmen-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Coaches Have to Be Salesmen, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/12\/multimedia\/12rory-bubbles-jmht\/12rory-bubbles-jmht-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Coaches Have to Be Salesmen, Too\" title=\"Coaches Have to Be Salesmen, Too\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">West Ham, in the end, could not quite withstand the barrage. Bayer Leverkusen\u2019s first goal \u2014 a Jonas Hofmann shot that picked its way through a thronged penalty area \u2014 broke its resistance. The second, a late, artful header from Victor Boniface, shattered its hopes. The club\u2019s Europa League adventure will likely extend no further than the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, there is no great shame in that. Leverkusen is, of course, Europe\u2019s great form team: on an unbeaten run that now stretches to 42 games, and on the verge of claiming its first German championship. Xabi Alonso, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/17\/world\/europe\/xabi-alonso-leverkusen.html\" title=\"\">its estimable young coach<\/a>, remains on course to claim a treble \u2014 league, cup, Europa League \u2014 in his first full season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The bare facts of West Ham\u2019s campaign are not quite as impressive, but they are admirable enough. The club sits seventh in the Premier League, above both Newcastle United and Chelsea and just a point behind Manchester United. A top-six finish remains a realistic ambition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That would mean another run at Europe next year, a fourth in succession. West Ham is starting to feel at home on the continent: It reached the Europa League semifinals in 2022, losing out to Eintracht Frankfurt, and then beat Fiorentina to claim <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z804AXgWeFE\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">the Europa Conference League trophy<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That was West Ham\u2019s first trophy since 1980, and only the fifth major honor in its history. David Moyes, the coach, and his team were met with a heroes\u2019 reception and a bus parade through the streets of east London. The club\u2019s fans have, for much of this season, delighted in making the ever-so-slightly inaccurate claim that they are \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/9frzgQl7BAw?si=wc0MlFae8549hwiJ\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">champions of Europe<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Moyes should, then, be able to sit back and take great pride in what he has achieved. When he suggested, in February, that \u201cit would be hard to say there have been many better times at West Ham,\u201d it was hard to quibble. He has been at the club \u2014 in his second spell \u2014 for five years. By West Ham\u2019s standards, this almost amounts to a golden age.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Which makes it strange, then, that a sizable portion of the club\u2019s fan base would like nothing more than to see Moyes removed from his post. His contract expires this summer. He has said he will make the call on whether to sign a new one at the end of the season. At least half of his public is adamant that should not be an option.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Among the ever-voluble ranks of the Premier League\u2019s commentariat \u2014 the hard-nosed veterans and the grizzled insiders who act as the game\u2019s largely self-appointed thought leaders \u2014 the mere existence of that schism has caused no little consternation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">What else, they ask, could Moyes have done? True, his teams\u2019 style of play is not always the most aesthetically pleasing. West Ham can be a little more cautious than is perhaps ideal, but then look at all it has achieved: Moyes has established West Ham as a regular presence in the top half of the Premier League. He has turned the club into a regular presence in Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Any dissent, in that view, indicates either a lack of realism or a lack of gratitude on the part of a fan base that has never, certainly not recently, had it so good.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That seems to be Moyes\u2019s overall impression, too. On a human level, it is entirely understandable that he has found the criticism hurtful enough that he has attempted to confront it, to quell it, to put his case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMaybe there would be managers who excite them more,\u201d Moyes said of his club\u2019s fans in February. \u201cPossibly. But the one who is sitting here wins more.\u201d (Admittedly, his timing on that occasion was not exactly ideal: The claim was made at a point when West Ham had won precisely none of its previous eight games.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And that, in both Moyes\u2019s mind and those of his allies, should be the end of the matter. It is a foundational belief of English (and quite a lot of global) soccer that all that really counts is winning. Fans might think they want an exciting, adventurous, thrilling style of play, but they will reject it outright if they start losing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the case of the modern Premier League, this is best exemplified by what is best thought of as The Parable of Alan Curbishley.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the turn of the century, Curbishley had led Charlton Athletic not just to the Premier League, but into the top half of the table. After several years of this quiet triumph, though, the team\u2019s fans grew restless, dissatisfied. They wanted to know what was next. The club eventually caved and replaced Curbishley with a more progressive coach. It was duly relegated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This happened almost two decades ago. It is still reliably trotted out now, one of those stories told to children to warn them of the dangers of dreaming. Moyes \u2014 as well as his many and varied allies \u2014 subscribe to this school of thought almost as an article of faith: Be careful what you wish for; better the devil you know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The problem is that, by citing results as the only relevant gauge, they are inadvertently condemning themselves. West Ham has had an admirable season, but it has won only 13 of its 32 Premier League games. Liverpool beat Moyes\u2019s team, 5-1, to end its stay in the Carabao Cup. West Ham was eliminated from the F.A. Cup by Bristol City. Bayer Leverkusen will, most likely, send it out of the Europa League next week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This is the reality for the vast majority of teams, of course, for all of those clubs marooned outside the game\u2019s untouchable elite. Seasons do not end in glory. You lose, or at least fail to win, more games than end in victory. The results might be better than expected, or than they would be otherwise. But for most teams success can only ever be relative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In that context, it is more important than ever \u2014 and it has always been important \u2014 to offer the fans something else. To make them feel, and make them believe, that they are part of something bigger. That could be a particular style of play. It might be the promotion of youth. It might be an underdog story, or a redemption arc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But if you are going to persuade fans to endure the times of want in order to get to the moments of plenty, then there has to be something for them to clutch close to their chests. It all has to be for a reason. And warning them that they might lose a few more games if you were not around, that they should appreciate the little you can provide, does not really cut it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Moyes is, like many in soccer, contemptuous of the fashion for talking about philosophy. He is right to be cynical. Much of it has the air of a sales pitch: empty, misleading and faintly disingenuous.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But to scorn it is to avoid the reality that it has become not only a part of the job but central to it. Managers have always been salesmen, pitching their ideas, their vision, themselves to their players. That has not changed. The only difference now is that has to be communicated to the fans, too.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"css-7ad88g e1mu4ftr0\"\/>\n<h2 class=\"css-9ycfei eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-308d2cc6\">Every Team Is Good<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Bayern Munich, you will have heard, is a bit of a mess at the moment. This weekend, its 12-year reign as German champion will come to an end. In the next couple of months, it will appoint its fourth manager in three years. There are plans in place, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bild.de\/bild-plus\/sport\/fussball\/bayern-muenchen\/wer-wirklich-kommen-soll-bayerns-geheime-einkaufsliste-87496710.bild.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">by all accounts<\/a>, to replace a significant proportion of the current squad during the summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Arsenal, on the other hand, is the game\u2019s coming force: the outstanding team of the Premier League season \u2014 the meanest defense, the most prolific attack \u2014 sitting atop the table with just a handful of games left, its fingertips brushing a first championship since the triumph of the Invincibles two decades ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">How, then, to explain that they shared a (fairly representative) 2-2 draw at the Emirates on Tuesday? How could it be that a side falling apart in the Bundesliga, a league so often derided as a pale, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/football\/comments\/10og7wt\/can_we_stop_saying_farmers_league\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">agricultural<\/a> imitation of its English cousin, now has a chance to eliminate from the Champions League the leader of the mighty Premier League?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Because Arsenal suffered just a little stage fright, perhaps. Because the Bundesliga is not quite as lacking in quality as England, in general, likes to assume. Because Bayern\u2019s fall, while undeniable, is also from a fairly lofty height.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But mainly, the simple explanation is that \u2014 for all soccer\u2019s tendency to hyperbole, its overriding obsession with systems, its fetishization of tactical complexity \u2014 a single game can be (and often is) determined solely by the talent of the individuals on the field.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And, as all four Champions League quarterfinals this week proved rather neatly, at this rarefied level, there is precious little qualitative difference between the players who make up the teams. Judged over a season, the structures in place at Arsenal might offer a better guarantee of success than those at Bayern Munich. On one evening, in one tie, though, they guarantee nothing at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The metaphor was almost a little too obvious. Tradition dictates that, whenever Athletic Bilbao wins a major honor, the club\u2019s squad sails the trophy into the heart of the city on its own barge, La Gabarra.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was required this week, after Athletic won the Copa del Rey last Saturday, but the barge has been docked for so long \u2014 40 years, in fact \u2014 that the club\u2019s staff had to spend a decent portion of Sunday cleaning off the rust.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, the parade that followed was worth the hard work: hundreds of thousands lining the banks of the Nervion river, and many more sailing in their own vessels alongside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The images provided one of those welcome, periodic reminders that soccer tournaments matter as much as we decide they do, as a whole generation of fans has been reared on the idea that domestic cups like the Copa del Rey are a second-order honor, somewhere between a nuisance and an afterthought.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This is, at best, a self-fulfilling prophecy. If clubs cherish these tournaments, then they imbue them with meaning for the fans, and vice versa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Much the same happened at Roma and West Ham, winners of the first two editions of the (initially maligned) Europa Conference League. They bought into the newfangled tournaments; in doing so, they made winning them a cause for celebration. Trophies mean what we want them to mean, and things are a lot more fun if we want them to mean something.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/12\/world\/europe\/west-ham-david-moyes.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>West Ham, in the end, could not quite withstand the barrage. Bayer Leverkusen\u2019s first goal \u2014 a Jonas Hofmann shot that picked its way through a thronged penalty area \u2014 broke its resistance. The second, a late, artful header from Victor Boniface, shattered its hopes. The club\u2019s Europa League adventure will likely extend no further [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/12\/multimedia\/12rory-bubbles-jmht\/12rory-bubbles-jmht-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20085,30109],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24981,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24979\/revisions\/24981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}