"Sir Alex said: don't stop communicating"
Friday 15 May 2008
After the ticket for the Champions
League qualifications Steve McClaren (48) hopes to win
the Dutch Cup on Sunday.
The secret of the Englishman is
his is customized 'people management'.
"It's like holding a pigeon
in your hand," he says trying to visualize it.
"When you give it too much
room it will escape. But when you squeeze it too hard
you will kill it. Communication with players is key."
The phenomenon of 'people's manager'
is getting ever more important in football.
A coach can't make it with just
a nice vision and similar exercises.
He who doesn't have the talent
and the personality to manage players by a human standard,
or say: find the balance between authority and a pad
on the back, has a problem
Gertjan Verbeek at Feyenoord, Huub
Stevens at PSV, Marco van Basten at Ajax: they all suffered
this season on the battlefield of people management
as in their daily contacts with the players they sometimes
were too cold, too stubborn or too direct.
No wonder that any self-respecting
top club nowadays eyes a man like Guus Hiddink.
The experienced globetrotter is
the uncrowned king of 'people management'.
He can be above the group of players
but also within it without his authority being questioned.
These qualities also apply to Steve
McClaren.
The coach of FC Twente, equipped
with a small ego is of the same blood type as Hiddink.
He attaches a lot of importance
to being clear with his players but always in an atmosphere
of humor, openness and acceptance.
Besides the fact that McClaren
carries the human touch in his DNA he has gone through
a tough period of learning.
It started in his days as manager
of Oxford United (between 1989 and 1992), when he practically
ran the entire club with minimal means.
"It was an unforgettable and
valuable time," he says.
"I trained the first and the
second team and the youth, which I drove around the
entire country in a van. In the back I had a jack so
I could change tires if necessary. We really depended
on each other, players and coach. In the meantime I
read a lot of American sports literature about group
processes and motivational techniques. How to make a
successful unity out of a squad with a big turnover
of players?"
Yet nothing is more instructive
than the unwritten laws of daily practice.
In 1999 the relatively unknown
McClaren became the assistant of Sir Alex Ferguson with
the star ensemble of Manchester United.
"That was very testing,"
he remembers.
"But Sir Alex would say: 'Don't
go looking for a confrontation, stay away from problems
but never stop communicating'. It was a matter of investing,
but it worked. As a coach it takes hours and hours of
work to understand and fathom group processes. It doesn't
even matter where you are working."
He also projected his newly acquired
skills and the knowledge of human character, deepened
at Middlesbrough, on the players of the English national
team, whimsical star players with egos bigger than their
Hummers.
"But no matter how big their
status is they are still ordinary guys who benefit from
clearness and a human approach. Boys like Frank Lampard,
Rio Ferdinand, David Beckham and John Terry also need
the support and advice of their coach and they thrive
in a good team atmosphere."
In the end McClaren was axed for
not qualifying for Euro 2008, but at FC Twente his human
and clear approach is paying off immediately.
Joy of the game is the father of
the success of FC Twente; during training seriousness
and a good laugh take equal turns.
The Englishman also knows to keep
his reserves eager and enthusiastic.
"Some players lost their place
on the team and the trick is to still try and convince
these players as well of the way I work so that they
will not put themselves outside the group. Sometimes
you have to crack a nut, sometimes make a joke but always
with natural authority. The pigeon can not fly away
but it shouldn't die either."
With homogenous team McClaren hopes
to lift the Cup on Sunday at the expense of Heerenveen.
"As an Englishman with a sense
of Cup tradition I am really looking forward to that
Cup final. I would love to win it. I have found that
people within the club still talk about winning it in
2001. That prize has made a big impression. It is something
with an eternal value, something that goes into the
history books. And it's something of the human collective,
let's not forget about that."
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