I think:
- coaches lose players' respect much less often than fans assume,
- it rarely happens due to losing, rather
- winning hides personality issues and losing embiggens them, and
- the main causes are favoritism, imposing no discipline or too much, and just being there too long.
Players act out when losing because they are frustrated at losing; it does not mean they do not respect the coach. What matters then is that the coach acts to squelch it using appropriate measures (see favoritism, too little/much discipline etc).
A
hugely critical point. And it's one of the reasons I've said, "Nick is our guy." He was a schools coach and a development coach before becoming the gaffer at Manchester City Women and taking them from a standing start -- and a horrible first few months -- to a perennial championship caliber side. He knows how to connect with players on a personal level, mold a team, mold talent.
He's taken a lot of knocks for not being able to develop players, but when has he really had the chance to do it until now? At least with us. When all is said and done, we're going to see what he really can do as far as nurturing potential is concerned.
He also knows the game. He had his FIFA A-license at, what, 28 years old or something like that? But for all his knowledge, he has no illusions of being some kind of genius. He has the quality I've seen in successful businesspeople, over and over: humility with pride. He's humble, but proud of his work.
It all came through in something he said yesterday: we shouldn't start to think the process is complete just because we had such a great week. There's still a lot to be done, still a lot of room for improvement, and there are going to be more twists and turns, more bumps in the road. He's not all full of himself and he's not going to let the lads get all full of themselves, either. And the areas he highlighted are the exact ones we've been highlighting ourselves.
I couldn't have hoped for a better postgame press conference than he had after beating Red Bull. Absolutely spot on.
He's our guy.