#AgainstModernFootball - caretaker managers

It has become a trade in its own right. There are certain coaches out there who have carved entire careers for themselves from being caretaker - or interim - managers. Take Eric Black, for instance. Before the Telegraph caught him drinking a £99 bottle of Laurent Perrier rose champagne, among other things, you probably knew the Scot as as the guy who at one point or another has taken caretaker charge of pretty much every Premier League club in the land.

In Spain, Voro is La Liga’s go-to-interim manager, or rather Valencia’s go-to-interim manager having taken charge of the country’s most unstable club no fewer than four times over the past eight years. The England national team even has an interim manager right now, with Gareth Southgate holding the position until The FA have vetted every possible candidate before inevitably, and tragically, handing it to Steve Bruce.

Of course, interim managers aren’t exclusively a symptom of modern football, but with more and more coaches losing their jobs as the Premier League’s managerial merry-go-round spins out of control season after season we are seeing more of them. We should probably start learning some of their news.

The interim manager is the tell-tale sign of a club without a plan. Swansea City had a plan when they sacked Francesco Guidolin last week, hiring American Bob Bradley as his replacement before the Italian could even find a translator to read his P45. Hull City, on the other hand, had no plan for Bruce’s exit and have since seen Mike Phelan slide into a role as the club’s de facto manager. He has unpacked his belongings in the manager’s office at the KCOM Stadium, so they might as well just give him the job.

But the shark was well and truly jumped this week as Jackie McNamara was installed as York City’s caretaker manager… after resigning as the club’s permanent manager. “In order to assist the managerial transition period and to accommodate a thorough identification, interview and appointment process, the chairman has asked Jackie McNamara to train and prepare the team until a suitable candidate has been determined,” a statement read, prompting double takes on sports desks all over the country.

Roberto Di Matteo must surely go down as the greatest caretaker manager of all, with the Italian leading Chelsea to Champions League glory following the dismissal of Andre Villas-Boas earlier in the season. In fact, Chelsea are the club of the caretaker manager. Before Di Matteo they had Guus Hiddink in 2009 and again in 2016. Di Matteo himself was replaced by another caretaker boss in Rafael Benitez.

The cult of the caretaker manager is a compelling one, with background figures only known by hardcore supporters of a certain club thrust into the public eye, like a Broadway understudy being pushed reluctantly into the spotlight. Some take on legendary status of their own, like Sandy Stewart, the caretaker manager who won the Scottish Challenge Cup in his one and only match in charge of St Johnstone. By a similar token, Di Matteo will forever be remembered as the man who somehow led Chelsea to their greatest ever triumph. He will be a quiz question in years to come.

But while it’s difficult to begrudge the caretaker managers themselves for getting their chance in the spotlight the proliferation of the uniquely tragic job title is an indictment on the modern game. It is the hallmark of a volatile club, of a club without a direction. The same goes for the England national team. While The FA will claim they had no choice but to sack Sam Allardyce they have since shown a lack of guidance, handing Southgate the job until the end of the year. By which time they can decide to either take the easy route and hand English football’s most famous penalty misser the position permanently or give it to Bruce.

If Southgate were to be appointed England boss permanently he would join a long list of caretakers who have been handed the job for real. With Allardyce still receiving a £1 million pay-off perhaps The FA will take the cheap option, as so many teams have done with interim coaches before. It never really works out, though. Caretakers are, unfortunately for them, always tagged as caretakers. It can be a life sentence, but at least they’ll always be a part of the cult.