THE LIFE OF A FOOTBALL MANAGER
Leeds United 1 West Ham 2
The last time West Ham won at Elland Road was… But that isn’t the kind of report I want to write. See, Leeds have been out of the Premier League for seventeen years. Then it was called the Premiership. Peter Ridsdale was their Director, with a giant fish tank in his office. He called it a grand aquarium. They borrowed a fortune of cash which seemed to bother no one so long as they kept winning. Then they stopped winning, got relegated, and people forgot about them. For seventeen years. Now they are back with an Argentinian manager who sits on a plastic bucket and wears a dodgy-looking anorak, but has the coaching acumen of Rinus Michels. His name is Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera (though forget the Alberto and Caldera for now) and his CV includes managerial positions at Argentina and Chile, and Lazio and Marseille. He was voted the World’s Best National Coach by the IFFHS in 2000-01. So twenty years later here he is at Leeds United, with his translator, having won the Championship with them in 2019-20, and already impressing plenty in his first season in the Premier League. He was so keen to become a manager that he gave up playing football at 25 to achieve his dream. Forty years of success later, Leeds, who stuck with him when he didn’t get them promotion straight away, have had their patience rewarded, and are now back in the top division.
Thank you for reading that last paragraph. I wrote it because West Ham are currently managed by David Moyes, a coach (they call them ‘coaches’ in Europe) who first came to the club as a stop gap between Slaven Bilic and whichever pricey second-language speaking world pedigree manager could be persuaded to take a chance at West Ham’s London Stadium, where success had been in short supply. Moyes proceeded to keep them up and was binned for his efforts in favour of Manuel ‘Pedigree’ Pellegrini, a man who, armed with a pile of cash and plenty of decent international players, had won the Premier League with Manchester City in 2014. He won just 24 out of 64 games at West Ham, and was on his way after just eighteen months. Meanwhile David Moyes was called back to clear up the mess, again, which he did, helping the side avoid relegation in the 2019-20 season. This time he didn’t get binned, possibly because Rafael Benitez preferred to go to China to manage Dalian Professional FC. There could be other reasons. Maybe they finally recognised his talent. But it has worked out. Moyes has already won 8 games out of 15 this season (three and a half months). That’s a third of all the games Pellegrini won in his year and a half here.
Thank you for reading that last paragraph. So you get the gist. Tonight Moyes is giving a first start to Saïd Benrahma, his main close season squad-strengthening purchase. I have already let anyone who would listen know that this is a special player. He starts. We win. I have 100% on that one for now. Tonight he makes a dotted line around the Leeds goal with various efforts that a foot either way would have turned into something meaningful. For those who scream ‘Profligacy!’ let me suggest that he is merely adjusting his aim for the weeks ahead. Either side of those efforts Tomas Soucek heads in from a Jarrod Bowen corner and Angelo Ogbonna powerfully heads home what turns out to be the winner in the 80th minute from an Aaron Cresswell free kick. Just before that Pablo Fornals suffers the frustration of watching his effort trickle inches wide from a perfect Declan Rice through ball. But that is nothing to the agony of Sébastien Haller, whose industry over the ninety minutes (involving a spectacular late overhead, brilliantly saved by Illan Meslier) only achieves significance in the second minute when he loses possession to Liam Cooper who puts Patrick Bamford through to be pulled down by Fabianski for a third minute penalty. The keeper saves Mateusz Klich’s kick, but VAR spots Fabianski a centimetre off his line, so Klich gets another chance, which he doesn’t waste.
The spectacular penalty start counts for bugger all in the end, though it gives Moyes something to be disappointed about in his post match interview. And it was his team that won. That’s what I love. When the manager gets three points but is still annoyed at the end of the game. This can only mean higher… and higher… Crystal Palace on Wednesday. Let me check my crystal ball. Well, if Benrahma starts… (it says here)…
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 4 Fabian Balbuena, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice (c), 28 Tomas Soucek, 9 Saïd Benrahma, 18 Pablo Fornals 20 Jarrod Bowen, 22 Sébastien Haller
Substitutes:, 16 Mark Noble, 31 Ben Johnson
Scorer: Tomas Soucek, Angelo Ogbonna
