High profile coaches to hog limelight in new Premier League season

The English Premier League (EPL), which begins in less than a month, has had a curious transfer window in 2016.

It has been a window dominated by big name managerial appointments rather than superstar player signings.

Manchester City has appointed Pep Guardiola, culminating a three-year-long project to get him to take over at the club.

Jose Mourinho, after an acrimonious exit from Chelsea last season, has taken over at Manchester United, and Antonio Conte is back in club management with Chelsea after a spell with the Italian national team.

Jurgen Klopp, on the other hand, has signed an extended contract at Liverpool despite only joining the club in October last year, and Ronald Koeman was the first signing post the takeover of Everton.

Rafa Benitez has stayed on at Newcastle despite the club being relegated last season and Claudio Ranieri, who replaced the popular Nigel Pearson and transformed Leicester City into champions, is staying on to build sustained success at the club.

Managerial appointments and sackings are by no means a rare occurrence in club football.

With the pressure for instant success, there is little security of job or tenure and as Steve McClaren, the former England manager, wistfully remarked, "It's football and it is a results business."

According to the League Manager's Association in England, a record 29 managers were sacked in the top four English divisions between June 1 and December 31 last year. However, the sheer volume of new appointments in the EPL this season signals something deeper than a mere fresh start for the football clubs.

This season is historic in terms of the financial resources available to clubs following a record £5.14 billion television deal and while there have been significant investments on players; none have caught the eye as much as managerial changes.

There can be many explanations for this occurrence and perhaps it is most useful to reflect on the individual cases of the clubs in order to understand the rationale behind their strategy. These cases have overlapping features and can be identified firstly in terms of restoration, secondly in terms signalling and thirdly in terms of stability.

Restoration

Liverpool and Manchester United have perhaps more in common in terms of performance in the last couple of years than in the last 30 years.

Both clubs enjoyed periods of unquestioned dominance in the 1980s and 1990s respectively but in the last couple of years have seen their stock fall to a new low.

In the case of United, this fall was precipitated by the retirement of Alex Ferguson who year after year inspired competitive teams which were superlative as units despite the mediocrity in their parts.

His managerial genius was further underlined when successive United managers could not summon the same commitment from the players following his departure.

Mourinho, despite being seen as an atypical United manager for the doggedness of his football and the volatility of his character, was appointed in the close of the season. His ruthlessness in building title-winning machines persuaded United that he could perhaps restore the old order.

For Liverpool, the decline has been more acute and with the exception of a couple of title challenges over the past ten years, it has been a period of massive underachievement.

When Klopp was persuaded to take over at the club, it was met with great excitement at Merseyside because here was a world class manager, willing to take on a historic footballing giant with a bloated, poorly assembled squad after a disastrous start to the season. Klopp's man management and intensity managed to revive a season that had been written off and Liverpool gegenpressed its way to two cup final finishes.

Newcastle, another underachieving club which has been ravaged with chronic mismanagement and supporter unrest against the club ownership, appointed Benitez in March as a desperate last throw of the dice to escape relegation.

Despite an upturn in form, relegation was inevitable. However, amidst the crippling financial implications of relegation, the club managed to persuade Benitez, who had a release clause should relegation take place, to stay on and rebuild the club.

These cases have a common thread. All involve the fallen stock of a club desperate to regain some of its old glory, of repeated mismanagement and the need for major reconstruction and of the need for a personality to sell a vision of the club in order to attract top talent. These cases are also interesting because they involve managers who demand control and autonomy and the scale of the work required is perhaps why the clubs are willing to cede such power.

Signalling

Another important element behind the change in manager and also related to restoration is the idea of signalling.

In the past eight years, since its takeover by Sheikh Mansour, Manchester City has embarked on a mission for global football dominance.

The City model is one that aims at building an ecosystem of excellence around its footballing and financial operations.

This explains why the club hired top FC Barcelona executives Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano and maintained the desire to replicate the La Masia while also building an identity around the team.

Guardiola represented the final piece in the jigsaw and his appointment was also a firm statement of intent. City, despite being a relatively new footballing powerhouse, now had the wherewithal to attract the game's foremost thinker.

Guardiola's arrival and timing has signalled that City would be the team where he would innovate and build a dynasty. His reign at Munich, blighted by the lack of Champions League success was also highly appreciated because he built a team that was fluid and could interpret and adapt unlike any other team. City is where he can now take that vision forward.

The importance of signalling a vision was also reiterated by the appointment of Koeman at Everton post its takeover by Farhad Moshiri.

Koeman has been credited for building an attractive Southampton team, for encouraging young talent and for a keen eye on bargain transfers.

That he and Steve Walsh, credited with Leicester City's transfer success last season, were among the first appointments after the takeover are instructive of the fact that Moshiri placed priority on signalling that Everton will not be scattergun in their approach to the transfer market, that they will not be held ransom to exorbitant fees (both men like bargain deals) and that this is a larger footballing project and not a cyclical transition.

Stability

The third aspect behind these managerial appointments is that of stability.

Ranieri's appointment was widely ridiculed for being uninspired and regressive by commentators across the board last season.

He was the favourite to face the sack and his team was seen as destined for relegation.

His appointment by Leicester was driven by a need for calm and stability after the volatility of Pearson's reign.

His ability to manage the expectations of fans and players and navigate a title chase are qualities for which he is now revered. Leicester, seen as a yo-yo club for going up and down divisions, is now aspiring for continuity even though last year's successes may be difficult to repeat.

Conte's appointment at Chelsea also followed a period of volatility after Mourinho's reign combusted and ended acrimoniously.

His pragmatism with Italy and his first press conference at Conte's new club suggest that Chelsea may have appointed someone who can build an efficient team again.

His record at Juventus and the clinical way in which he restored it to a period of sustained dominance augurs well for Chelsea, which has seen an incredibly high turnover of managers since Roman Abramovich bought the club.

The approach of the clubs this season by prioritising their managerial appointments is without doubt a new and interesting development.

The EPL may well have some standout players this season and many new stars on the horizon but as the countdown begins, the subtext in the run up to the season is all about how the managers will reshape their teams.