I often see this role as misunderstood in England; it’s different, the press don’t like it, and the head coach is always willing to blame the sporting director when things are going wrong (as well as accepting the plaudits when things are going right). Yet the theory behind utilising this continental model to football management makes sense; the structure aims for a semblance of consistency at the club when managers come and go, which has happened with far too much regularity in recent seasons – with managerial succession planning also under the remit of the sporting director.
It’s a structure that former Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp prefers to work under, as stated by his agent Marc Kosicke, highlighting the benefit of leaving the sporting director to deal with the business side of the game and the head coach to focus on working with the players:
The Premier League is very exciting. And we do not only think about the top four because there are some other great clubs below them. But I am not sure the profile of the job could work.
In Germany there is a clear separation between manager and sporting director and I think in principle this is very good. Jurgen does not like to speak to players' agents or to carry out a transfer. So we have to see which is the most useful arrangement.
There seems to be a misconception in England that the head coach doesn’t have a say on transfers, having to deal with players being forced on him, in part due to the likes of Dennis Wise’s ill-fated spell at Newcastle. Gus Poyet even blamed Congerton for the lack of recruitment, declaring that he was the head coach and not in charge of this side of the game. However, he also credited himself with some transfers and there are also reports of him rejecting opportunities presented to him by Congerton, such as Micah Richards and Toby Alderweireld (Paolo Di Canio reportedly did the same with Roberto De Fanti, insisting that the club signed Jozy Altidore instead of Romelu Lukaku), so Poyet clearly had at least a strong influence over Congerton. Would any club really want to trust their money with Poyet, given that players that were likely his signings, either by his own declaration or extremely likely to be, were almost all completely ineffectual? The list doesn’t make for good reading – consisting of Liam Bridcutt, Santiago Vergini, Oscar Ustari, Nacho Scocco, Jack Rodwell, Will Buckley, Sebastian Coates and Ricky Alvarez (although Coates was impressive under Dick Advocaat).
If anything, this supports giving the sporting director more control of transfers, following the American model of a general manager having full control of player acquisitions with the head coach getting little-to-no say. The key for the structure is for the sporting director and head coach being able to have a strong working relationship, which Congerton did not appear to have with Poyet. Yet Congerton did not play a role in Poyet’s appointment, and he inherited a head coach who was always willing to deflect blame, so a fractious relationship becomes understandable. That, of course, is no longer an excuse – so really we should be judging Congerton from this point on, but it should be noted that this structure requires patience, something that hasn’t been seen at Sunderland for a long time.
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