Successful players don’t always make successful managers, Sparky

by Martin McCutcheon

Mark Hughes has begun his first season at Fulham, his third club as manager. The question is: was he too successful as a player to make it as a successful manager? He scored over 150 goals for 7 clubs, winning 2 Premier League titles, 4 FA Cups, 3 League Cups and two UEFA Cup Winners Cups along the way. But can he translate this success into management?

He was primarily guided, after all, by England’s most successful manager, Alex Ferguson. Ferguson has won 11 titles with United, two Champions League titles and 5 FA Cups. He also scored over 150 goals, but won only two titles as a player. Like Fergie, Brian Clough was a prolific striker scoring 251 goals (see chart). But he won no titles as a player. He did go on to win two league titles and back to back European Cups as manager, though.

Jose Mourinho also won no titles as a player; he scored barely a handful of goals, played less than 100 matches, but has won 6 league titles in 3 countries, including 2 Champions League titles with Porto and Inter. We’ve seen this change of fortune from player to manager before: Bob Paisley won only one title as a Liverpool player, but led them to 6 League titles and 3 European Cups as a manager. A contemporary of Hughes’s playing era Ruud Gullit won the European Cup in 1989 and1990, and 6 domestic league titles, but as a manager has won only one FA Cup.

While scoring lots of goals brings mixed success, great managers didn’t always win titles as players. It does not bode well for Sparky. Nor Fulham.