Tate Britain is one of the cultural wonders of London. Right now an exhibition of work by the Pre-Raphaelites is on display.
It’s wonderful for many reasons – and one minor reason is that Rossetti & Co (artist, not Italian centre-forward) worked in paint, sculpture, photography, fabric, furnishing and stain glass i.e. across ‘multi platforms’ more than a century before today’s technology.
All goes to prove there is nothing new under the sun – or floodlights.
Twitter hummed with shock and awe after Chelsea ‘rewarded’ Roberto Di Matteo for his Champions League and FA Cup-winning achievements by handing him Santa’s sack a month early. The timing, six months after the miracle of Munich, was described in near-apocalyptic terms.
Yet the same fans and journos amazed at Roman’s Russian roulette either laughed at or derided Jose Mourinho’s own admission later in the day. After Manchester City’s failure to beat Real Madrid, Mourinho said that if the Eastlands tables had been turned he would have been sacked by Madrid without even needing bother to fly back to Spain.
He could afford to laugh after the 1-1 draw but he was only being honest, with an eye to history, viz:
In 1998 Jupp Heynckes guided Real Madrid to their first European Champions win in 32 years…and was sacked within a week;
In 2000 Lorenzo Sanz presided over Madrid’s second Champions win within three years…and was voted out of office by the club’s members within three months; and
In 2003 Vicente Del Bosque guided Madrid to the Spanish league title – their seventh trophy in four seasons – and was sacked because, that season, they did not also win the Champions League.
Heynckes is now successfully coaching German league leaders Bayern Munich; Sanz reinvested his family fortune in other (albeit lesser) Spanish clubs; and Del Bosque can modestly lay claim to bossing the national team who are both world and European champions.
So Di Matteo will doubtless bounce back in due course. But he should not sit on his pay-off cash for too long. Football people have short memories.
This, presumably, is the reason Rafa Benitez has taken the Chelsea caretaker coin this time around when it was apparently beneath him in the middle of last season.
Stay too long out of the game, wait too long for the ‘right’ offer, spend too much time on the conference circuit, and the next stop will be regular, cosy bookings as a TV football analyst which means a manager has given up on…management.
Hopefully Di Matteo will heed the Benitez lesson while, simultaneously, accepting that even the best of managers are not immune to the short, sharp sack.
THIS WEEK’S ARTICLES:
CHRIS BRADY: WHAT COMES FIRST?
ROGAN TAYLOR: TAKES ME BACK
DELROY ALEXANDER: A BRIDGE TOO FAR
PROZONE SPORTS: MAKING SENSE OUT OF CHAOS – BREAKING DOWN READING 5-7 ARSENAL
Keir Radnedge is one of the foremost observers of international soccer. He has reported at every World Cup since 1966 and is a regular contributor to TV, radio, newspapers and magazines worldwide. He is editor of KeirRadnedge.com and is chairman of the Football Commission of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS). Visit www.KeirRadnedge.com for further information. Follow him on Twitter for more sports industry updates.
The views of our regular columnists are independent, and as such do not represent those of Leaders in Football.
