The Cult Of The Manager
5/5/20261 hr
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From Matt Busby to Liam Rosenior, even harking back from the Wilsonian era of the late 19th century, how has the role and the standing of the football manager changed? Certain football clubs may act as if managers and head coaches are no longer their most important employees but certain managers still overshadow their clubs.
Join Rory Smith, John Brewin and Jonathan Wilson for the first of a two-parter, the second episode available only to SC Libero's Einsteins, Special On...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJonathan Wilson· Guest0:00
[upbeat music] This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.
Rory Smith· Host0:04
Hello, and welcome to Libero, the podcast about the most important of the least important things, as Thomas Carlyle once said. [upbeat music] I would admit that when I doodled who came up with the great man theory of history, I initially put in Robert Carlyle, who was the actor who played Begbie on Hamish Macbeth. I am not an intelligent man. Uh, I am Rory Smith of The Observer and Men in Blazers. And for today's deep dive into the wacky world of football, I'm joined by Jonathan Wilson of the Jonathan Wilson Industrial Complex, and Jon Bruyn, who you probably associate with The Guardian, but has a far deeper hinterland than that. How are you both doing? Everybody well?
Jonathan Wilson· Guest0:41
Yeah, I mean, uh, immediately I feel I need to defend the honor of Thomas Carlyle, who... The great man theory of history is much more subtle than is often given credit for. His, his... As of- often happens with managers, it's that they're imitators that, that end up accentuating their flaws. So Thomas Carlyle gets sort of dismissed for thinking that history is only about great men, but he... It, it, it's a much cleverer thesis than that.
Rory Smith· Host1:07
Do you also want to defend Robert Carlyle?
Jonathan Wilson· Guest1:09
I, I, I think he's done pretty well for himself, hasn't he? I mean- Where do you stand...
Rory Smith· Host1:11
You, you love a, a sort of soft core detective drama. Do you, did you like Hamish Macbeth?
Jonathan Wilson· Guest1:16
Never really crossed my radar, to be honest with you. It was sort of a mid to late '90s thing, wasn't it? So I was, I was off at university having, having... doing hijinks.
Rory Smith· Host1:24
[laughs] No, you weren't.
John Brewin· Guest1:26
No, you weren't. Come on. [laughs] [laughs] We've met