Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
I heard Dwight Yorke on the radio this morning moaning that Lampard and Gerrard were "parachuted" straight into high-profile management jobs, whilst the likes of himself and Ashley Cole were overlooked...

Now he may well have a point about Gerrard/Lampard walking straight into big jobs. But i think he's mistaken if he's categorising himself in the same level of player as they were... they were light years ahead of him.

And didn't Ashley Cole take a gun into training once and shoot a youth player... whilst i think he's one of the greatest left-backs the world has ever produced, and the vitriol aimed at him by England fans was absolutely shameful... it's hardly a surprise that clubs are less willing to take a gamble on someone who they may think of as a "loose-cannon".
You can argue whether Rangers is high-profile or not, being somewhat on the comeback trail after what happened and being in a backwater of a league.

But Derby? I'd hardly call that high profile, unless you are going back to the early 70s to judge a club's reputation.

The lack of Black managers is a conundrum though. If anyone ventures an opinion on why one particular race, nationality, ethnicity or religion may excel at some things, or struggle at some things as compared to others, one needs your tin hat.
I suspect some evolutionary psychologists could lead an interesting discussion, but they tend to be about as welcome as a climate denier at a Green Party shindig.

Here's my twopenneth.

It was really only in the 70s that black players came to the fore, in small numbers initially. I remember a few early ones like Clyde Best, but the West Brom players under Ron Atkinson were the breakthrough.

It takes time to build a depth of player base that then would naturally move through to management.

We are now probably at the point where we could expect more.

But in the last 10-20 years we have also seen a couple of other developments.

Other avenues have opened - we've seen Wrighty and Collymore go down the media route.

We've also seen a rise in overseas managers. It's hit the prospects for domestic managers regardless of ethnicity.

So just as we might expect an increase, other factors have occurred.

I also think there's a further factor. The money available to players now is so high, would you really like to go from £200k per week, to £200k per year, to cut your teeth in management in a lower division? Or would you settle for a seat next to Jeff Stelling each weekend?