Dyche, Clough, the art of man-management and who motivates the motivator.
When Sean Dyche’s father worked for British Steel, one of his duties involved doling out wages. The young Dyche would sit at the dinner table and listen to his father talking about you handled people in tense situations brought on by money issues. Some British Steel employees, usually men, went through the wages quickly, Dyche senior explained, leaving their wives struggling to feed and clothe the kids.
Dyche senior would go to the house, make sure the wages went straight to the wife, and then give the spendthrift dad some words of wisdom. Sean absorbed the skills of man-management, as well as staples vital to any profession like work ethic, from his father.
“Look at players’ body language,” Sir Alex Ferguson always told Dyche when the young manager was starting out at Watford in 2011 and Burnley in 2012. Read them, understand them, know their strengths and weaknesses, their hopes and fears, and also what’s going on in their lives away from football. They’re human beings, not simply employees.
Man-management has always been one of the qualities associated with Dyche. He’s far more into sports science, nutrition, marginal gains and all the weapons of modern management then he is often given credit for. But Dyche’s greatest asset is his character, an essential humanity, as well as his humour. Dyche read ‘The Horse Whisperer’, the famous story of the power of understanding animals (and, by extension, people) and it profoundly affected him.
So did his apprentice and reserve-team years at Nottingham Forest marching to Brian Clough’s upbeat style. Dyche never played in the first team for Clough but has always talked of being influenced by a manager he called a “genius”.
But who motivates the motivator? Dyche, 53, has looked jaded recently, reflecting Everton’s sliding form, and his dismissal yesterday came as no great surprise, beyond the timing of three hours before kick-off. Dyche has good staff around him, people he knows and trusts like Ian Woan, Steve Stone, Mark Howard and Billy Mercer, who have also left the club. They support him well.
Dyche’s reputation may take a kicking over the next few days, as is often the unseemly way after a dismissal in the sport of many agendas, and the football that Everton played this season was hardly School of Science. But Dyche’s motivational skills were needed in guiding Everton clear of relegation in the past two seasons. Dyche may have become exhausted, drained by the constant fire-fighting at a club with many off-field issues from takeovers to points deductions, but he definitely inspired struggling players in those past two seasons. Everton should not forget that, although the club seemed to in a perfunctory announcement of his exit.
Dyche is good one-on-one with players. They often say it, enjoying the sound of him shouting ‘Champagne’ when one does something special in training. When he arrived at Burnley he gave the players a question sheet to find out more about their desired approach. He engages with players.
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Maybe if there is one shared trait that many of those who came under Clough’s sway at Forest and went into management, the likes of his son Nigel, Dyche, Frank Clark and Martin O’Neill, is man-management. Most managers of any substance or longevity have this. But people skills are something all four of those possess in abundance.
I’m focusing on Forest players here, and leaving aside Clough’s Derby County players like Roy McFarland (who went on to manage Derby, Bolton, Cambridge and Chesterfield) and Colin Todd (Bolton, Derby and Bradford City).
The focus is partly inspired by this month being the 50thanniversary of Clough’s arrival at the City Ground. His influence stretches far beyond his remarkable 18 years at Forest. Nigel has enjoyed a well-regarded managerial career at Burton Albion (two spells, one promotion), Derby, Sheffield United and now Mansfield (one promotion). He treats players well, and they respond accordingly.
Clark succeeded the retiring Clough at Forest in 1993, and got them promoted back into the Premier League, qualified for Europe and with a run to the 1996 Uefa Cup quarter-finals.
When O’Neill was Republic of Ireland manager assisted by Roy Keane, the Irish media would often run editorials on Clough’s influence on the pair. Even though O’Neill and Clough would argue, the respect was always there. I once interviewed O’Neill at an event at the King Power, mentioned Clough’s name, and O’Neill was off and running, entertaining the audience. Both were mesmerising talkers, brilliant man-managers and when venturing into television studios during tournaments, outstanding, often acerbic pundits.
O’Neill had 30 years in management, including Wycombe Wanderers, Leicester City (two League Cups), Celtic (three titles and beaten Uefa Cup finalists), Aston Villa, Sunderland, the Republic and briefly Forest. Players loved O’Neill, and would do anything for such a charismatic leader.
There is a sadness that Keane’s career in management didn’t last. When doing his LMA course at Warwick University, Keane’s work was described to me as some of the most original and exceptional they’d ever seen. Yet his managerial career was only for five years. It encompassed Sunderland, whom he got promoted in 2007, and Ipswich Town, which I remember well for his opening press conference at Portman Road when I got the full hair-drier for an innocuous question; that was more Fergie, than Cloughie. Surely Keane would draw more on working under two such managerial greats and forge a successful career in the dug-out? Keane’s proven brilliant as a pundit, and maybe simply didn’t have the patience with those who lacked his hunger as a player. Whatever the reason, Keane’s loss to management is a pity.