The cult of the player manager has diminished in recent years. In an era of directors of football and armies of assorted backroom staff, it would seem perverse to have the manager of a team doubling up as a player.
The player-manager concept reached its zenith back in the days of the Big Match and Saint and Greavsie, when they ruled the roost in both England and Scotland. The lifespan of the player manager usually had the same arc. One witnesses the steady winding down of a player's career as he manages the team, picking himself frequently at first, then, as he gets deeper and deeper into the managerial game he became an extremely irregular cameo figure.
Here are the times when appointing a player manager has gone well - and not so well.
GOOD
1. John Giles
Giles came from an era when it was considered needlessly egotistical to do anything so grandiose as 'announce' one's retirement. No, he carried on playing as long as he was needed, which for the Irish national team, was until he was nearly 40. Then, when he was no longer needed he stopped picking himself. No fanfare.
He remains one of the most prolific player managers of all time, having been player-manager, simultaneously of West Brom and Ireland and later, also simultaneously, at Shamrock Rovers and Ireland. And, if that wasn't enough, Don Revie had recommended him for the post of player-manager at Leeds United when he stepped down.
In 1973, while still playing at Leeds, he became player-manager of Ireland. The Irish team improved under his stewardship after the abysmal late 60s/early 70s time when Ireland went almost five years winning a match.
During his first two season long spell at West Brom, he got them promoted and then took them to sixth in the First Division, making him probably the Republic of Ireland's most successful manager in English football (Jackie Carey did allright at Everton before he was sacked in the back of a taxi.)
2. Kenny Dalglish
Beloved for managing Liverpool during the post Heysel years, when they picked off their last few League titles, with a potent attacking unit consisting of John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and Ian Rush.
Dalglish scored the winning goal at Stamford Bridge in 1986 to seal the title. Even if there was no European football, lots happened in Dalglish's reign, the club's first double in 1986, the disaster at Hillsborough, the Michael Thomas goal to deny them the title in '89, and Liverpool's last League title in 1990.
Dalglish didn't pick himself regularly beyond 86/87 but did bring himself on as a substitute in the final home game of the 1989/90 season with the League title well wrapped up.
3. Graeme Souness
Unusual in that he did far better as a player manager than he did as just a manager. We're not quite sure why this is, but we are reluctant to discount the fact that Rangers had far more money than anyone else in Scotland at this time as a factor.
He led by example on the pitch, notably on his debut as player-manager, when he stuck his studs into Hibs' George McCluskey. A veteran of sticking his studs into other players, Souness did it with a panache and insouisance you'd have to admire.
He played 49 times for Rangers in five years between 1986 and 90.
4. Glenn Hoddle
Hoddle spent five years as a player-manager of both Swindon Town and Chelsea. He did brilliantly at Swindon, getting them promoted in 1993, after beating Leicester City 4 - 3 in a thrilling play-off final. He didn't hang around to help them in the Premiership, and Swindon dropped like a stone, leaving the League never to return perhaps.
No, he went to Chelsea and oversaw the transition that turned them from the club of Kerry Dixon, Dave Beasant, the Shed End, the running track, that mysterious car that used to be plonked in the corner of the ground into a glamour club full of exotic, stylish foreigners playing elegant football.
Hoddle only took Chelsea to 11th in the League, but most at Stamford Bridge seem to remember him fondly. Having got in on the whole player manager action, Ken Bates suddenly couldn't get enough. He appointed Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli as Chelsea's next two managers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4K1530txPM
BAD
1. Attilio Lombardo
A man fondly remembered as a creative winger in the Channel 4 Football Italia era, and for his spells at Sampdoria and Crystal Palace, but most of all for being bald, Lombardo enjoyed a disastrous time as player-manager of Crystal Palace in early 1998.
A madcap scheme of the type not dreamed up by too many chairman since the great Mark Goldberg, Steve Coppell, who had Palace sitting in 10th moved to the post of Director of Football, while Lombardo took over as player manager. Most dubiously of all, Thomas Brolin was handed the Manuela Spinelli role of interpreter for Lombardo's English was pidgin at best.
Palace slipped from 10th to last over the next few months and were relegated with a couple of games to spare.
2. David Platt
David Platt belongs to the class of ex England players (Stuart Pearce being another) who were being promoted as one of the bright young things of football management, despite having no flair for the role whatsoever.
After managing Sampdoria for all of six matches, winning approximately none of them, he was sacked (they don't hang around in Italy), he left for Forest. At the City Ground, he brought back himself as a player, and proved to be one of the only players he himself didn't fall out with. He scored against Crystal Palace
He left for the England U21 job, a kind of resting home for failed English football managers. After failing to qualify for the 2004 European Championships he was dumped.
3. Romario
A man of many talents, Romario took over as player-manager of Vasco Da Gama aged 41. The absurdly gifted but tempestuous striker still netted 15 goals while managing the team but his spell over the team was short-lived after he fell out with the club's constantly yapping, busybody owner who kept poking his nose into team selection. Probably the only player manager to be sacked but remain on as a player.
