Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has some big decisions to make (Picture: Getty )
Several years ago I worked for a guy who shared an office with two other members of his leadership team. All three men held senior positions but he was the founder, so with big decisions he had the final say.
The office they were sharing was massive, you could easily have hosted a popular comedy night or had a kickabout in there, assuming you didn’t hit the chandelier.
But even so I wondered why the boss chose to share, when it was clear from everything I’d seen of him that he liked to stand alone and wasn’t hugely keen on company.
One day I had reason to go in, to ask something of one of the other guys. The boss was sitting with his feet up on the central desk, the two others arranged flanking him in a semi-circle. I got out of there as quick as I could and ran into a colleague as I left.
‘Did you notice the desks?’ he asked. As it turned out, I’d missed something important. The boss, according to my friend, had overseen the furniture selection for his office: the biggest desk in the building for him, matching smaller, lower desks for the other two.
He wanted them with him, it seemed, so he could point out just who was in charge.
I was reminded of my old boss earlier this year after the arrival of Ineos at Manchester United, when competing rumours started surfacing.
The review into Erik ten Hag’s tenure had or hadn’t been started; so he was out the door, in the door, or going on holiday; Roberto de Zerbi, Kieran McKenna, Thomas Frank and any manager you’ve heard of had been contacted about the gig at Old Trafford.
Ten Hag’s own talk track has remained consistent – reiterating his record and refusing to admit professional vulnerability, despite all the evidence.
Then, after the electrifying FA Cup win: ‘If they don’t want me, then I go somewhere else to win trophies because that is what I do.’
Erik ten Hag masterminded an FA Cup win but his position is under scrutiny (Picture: Getty Images)
Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino’s failed power struggles with the Chelsea board reminded me of the big desk too. And what about the turmoil of Xavi’s final months in charge at Barcelona?
‘The feeling of being Barca coach is not nice, it’s cruel,’ he said, when announcing his decision to leave, after a proper flop of a loss to Villarreal that I watched at the Montjuic in January. ‘You often feel you are being disrespected, your work is not being valued.’
A feeling that can only have increased when he was persuaded to stay and then sacked with a game to go.
Football clubs’ mania for undermining their managers could be an inevitable side-effect of the fast pace of life in the stratosphere they find themselves in. Since personnel change so regularly and football gossip is so constant, a degree of insecurity is inevitable.
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But when key employees are finding their effectiveness hampered by leaders of the organisations themselves, it looks more like an act of self-harm.
In his brilliant book The Status Game, Will Storr explains how humans have evolved to fight for status inside their communities.
And how this status game gives all our lives meaning. This is what is playing out at Chelsea, Manchester United and Barcelona.
The manager and players might be the faces of the club and, in Xavi’s case, a legend but those in the boardroom with the overall power to hire and fire own the highest status.
Mauricio Pochettino has said his farewells at Chelsea (Picture: PA)
Now when humans’ status gets challenged, ancient neural coding comes into play. We instinctively fight to reassert our position.
This can happen if an assertive manager suggests that the work above and around him is not up to scratch, or that the club is short of funds.
This challenges the status of those above him. And they react like their cavemen ancestors. To dominate – usually in this case by firing.
You hardly need me to tell you that elite football is still a macho culture that prizes dominance. But given the best results in recent years have gone to those clubs able to find managerial stability, it may be that the most dominant thing the men in charge today can do is reject ego and let their employees win this particular game.
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