S'PORT |blogging on football, finance and fans

Nov 2

What if I don’t make it?

A headline pertinent to the many youngsters that aspire to be pros but fall out of the academies at EPL Clubs (or below) and then seek alternative career destinations. Well this time it’s a warmer news story, as this post seeks to make our followers aware of a new publication prepared by former Stockport County, Marketing Manager, Phil Brennan.

His first book was a winner and previously highlighted in this Blog. This second in the portfolio of RoseMartin Publications has a novel appeal around the festive period or towards end-Season, when rewards and praise might be forthcoming. The end-product is self-published, which we know a little about aka “B&B” and “Get those sheep off the pitch”. Well, here’s the full story to whet your appetite. Why not mention to prospective clubs or partners – and help a fellow County fan out in the process?

“RoseMartin Publications was originally set up in 2013 to allow the publication of the biography of Danny Bergara ‘The Man from Uruguay’. More recently the new children’s book ‘What if I don’t make it?’ has been published. It tells the tale of a little boy who wants to be a footballer but is hindered by his inability to play the beautiful game. The book takes us through his growth as a player via a series of poor ‘coaches’ before finding his perfect teacher. The book is unique in that it can be tailored to be about a boy or a girl, it can also be tailored to feature any football club, from grassroots through to the top club teams in the World.

Having copyrighted the package (characters, idea and content) RoseMartin intend to contact football clubs at all levels with the hope that the book will be made available to supporters and players from each and every club. It can be tailored to each club both in colour and to include the club crest, making it both a nice souvenir and teaching implement.”

The publication is the brainchild of Phil Brennan and Rob Purdon who are both FA qualified coaches and who between them have well over 25 years experience of coaching junior football teams. Both became involved in coaching after their respective sons became interested in playing football and soon became aware that their children were not receiving the type of teaching that they would expect.

The two began working together at Stockport County when Rob joined the Club from Blackpool FC and due to their mutual love of coaching became firm friends. Phil had written several football poems regarding his experiences during his years coaching and, having seen some of his artwork, asked Rob if he fancied putting some drawings to the stories.

Their first collaboration is “What if I don’t make it?” and having spoken to several clubs already at junior level, the book has been well accepted within the coaching fraternity, with several orders already received.

Phil and Rob would welcome the opportunity to speak to clubs/coaches on a face to face basis when a sample of the book will be made available along with an explanation as to how it can be tailored to each individual club. For further information please feel free to contact Phil on bergarabook@outlook.com or philbrennan58@yahoo.co.uk.

Oct 30

Media Debates

There was the usual anti-SKY TV rhetoric that has surrounded lower league football this Weekend – including the one in which my team now plays. I recall one along the lines to a chorus of “you can stick your SKY remote up………….”. Naiive to blame for County’s downfall but good humoured fans’ banter amongst this direction of abuse.

The political football is out again with Labour acting out a vision for supporter engagement and ownership. Lip service or manifesto we’ll have to wait and see. When all demise is discussed, ITV Digital is the butt of all ridicule. Without defending them, the demise of that programming forced many a club into unforseen cashflow crises, but the ownership and management of clubs must share some joint-responsibilities. The latter remain challenges in many a football enterprise – and don’t get me going on the Fit and Proper Person Test. There cannot be many a net with more holes in!

Debate on media in Europe has recently been in the limelight and I introduce a debate from our European counterparts so you can all have a view on whether models are more suited elsewhere?

Sportel Monaco 2014 | European Football: Winning Media Strategies

The Guardian has said: “At the height of concern over financial meltdown at Portsmouth, Liverpool and elsewhere in 2010, the coalition talked about empowering fans. Fourteen clubs – including Portsmouth and Swansea – have become wholly or partly fan-owned, but despite the promises Whitehall has done little to encourage the trend. Labour insists this time will be different, vowing to legislate early in a new parliament.”

The overriding messages appear to share the common belief that ‘Football is more than a business, and fans are more than customers’. If progress is to be made on this stance, which can only be correct – surely media must become more under the microscope. I never forget the statement that for many, after religion, football and loyalty to a team’s brand is often the second strongest bond in a person’s life, outside the family. New media models should be investigated.

Oct 10

1 Comment

To Sack or not to Sack that is the question

Again, we are pleased to have a blog post kindly scribed by guest and colleague at FC Sports Marketing, the great Steven Seggie. He titles it: “Don’t Change Manager During the Season”.

“We are only a few weeks into the new English Premier League season and already we hear rumblings about managers whose jobs are on the line if the results don’t go right soon etc. During the 2013-2014 season, the number of sackings was in double figures (if you include the departure of Ian Holloway from Crystal Palace by mutual consent) and I am sure this year will be no different. Yet these mid-season sackings make little or no sense to me.

I have always wondered whether or not replacing your manager mid-season has any impact on the performance of the team. I would hazard the guess that the primary driver for most of these sackings is the hope that performances will improve yet we rarely see any analysis or discussion in the media or elsewhere as to whether or not performances improved. This may well be a function of the fact that most sports journalists do not have the ability to conduct such analysis, nevertheless that’s not really an excuse. Luckily some academics have analysed these mid-season changes and the results make for interesting reading. There are 3 major studies that I will discuss briefly here and they all demonstrate that changing manager mid-season is an exercise in futility.

The first study that I looked at was conducted by Allard Bruinshoofd and Bas ter Weel . These authors examined all the mid-season managerial sackings/changes in the Dutch league between 1988 and 2000. A little bit of analysis led them to the conclusion that you shouldn’t sack your manager mid-season. In fact, they find that if the manager had stayed his team would have performed better than the team with the new manager.

Similar results are found in a study of Italy’s Serie A between the 2003-2004 season and the 2007-2008 season. The authors of this study, Maria de Paola and Vincenzo Scoppa found that changing the manager during the season was essentially a wasted exercise as it made no difference to subsequent performance.

Finally, Andreas Heuer, Christian Müller, Oliver Rubner, Norbert Hagemann and Bernd Strauss , in a study of the Bundesliga from the 1963-64 season to the 2008-2009 season (a total of 14,018 matches) found no impact on performance of changing the manager mid-season.

So there we have it. The results are fairly clear cut. Changing manager mid-season has no positive effect on performance and may even lead to worse results than if the incumbent had continued. While performance may not be the only reason clubs change manager, I would guess it is the most often cited reason. So for all the supporters baying for the blood of the manager after some bad results and all the club directors thinking that changing the manager mid-season will improve performance, I have some bad news. It won’t. So you may want to think twice!”

Bruinshoofd, A. and B. ter Weel. 2004. Manager to go? Performance dips reconsidered with evidence from Dutch football. European Journal of Operations Research 148:233-246.
De Paola, M. and Scoppa,V. (2008) The effects of managerial turnover: evidence from coach dismissals in Italian soccer teams, Journal of Sports Economics, 13(2), 152–168.
Heuer A, Müller C, Rubner O, Hagemann N, Strauss B (2011) Usefulness of dismissing and changing the coach in professional soccer. PLoS ONE 6/3: e17664. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017664

Sep 24

Freezing Hot

‘Ice bucket challenge’. We’ve all heard of it and what a simple concept to gain engagement amongst fans, secure momentum and viral penetration and assist a worthy cause in the meantime. Initially, the initiative was to benefit myotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) but latterly participants have chosen either this or an alternative closer to their hearts. Surely, there are methods in this madness that can apply in a sports of football setting. I for one can see how the same ideology might help a team in crisis, or fundraising appeal. It combines action, visuality, ‘pain’ (or theatrical undertaking), satisfaction on achievement and most of all money.

Celebrities in the football weren’t slow to join in…and why not it’s infectious. Below are a few that caught my attention – and yours truly took part of course not wanting to be left out!

Mesut Ozil