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The Magnificent Seven: top gaffers

Niall Kelly fills the bench with some of sport’s best-ever managers.

WITH ALL THE talk of managerial comings and goings over the past few weeks, we’ve had plenty of opportunity here at Score Towers to think about what it is that makes a great coach.

Is it the ability to get a bunch of rag-tag Sunday leaguers to play way above their ability? Is it having the smarts to tactically outthink the bloke on the other line? Or is success simply measured in terms of silverware?

To get you thinking, this week’s Magnificent Seven brings you seven of our favourites from across the sporting world.

1. Brian Clough

Since the film adaptation of David Peace’s novel The Damned United hit our screens in 2009, discussion of Brian Clough’s managerial legacy has been unfairly titled toward his ill-fated 44-day spell in charge of Leeds United.

Sure, Old Big ‘Ed didn’t help himself. Telling your new squad to throw away all of their league winners’ medals because they were won by cheating is hardly the best way to win their affection.

But that was Cloughie. Arrogant and abrasive without giving a damn for the repercussions.

It was through this unswerving self-confidence that Clough instilled remarkable spirit into teams which would have been otherwise unremarkable. This is the man who took over Second Division Derby County in the summer of 1967 and within five seasons had turned them into Division One champions.

To achieve such a feat once was impressive. To do it all over again was historic.

Not only did Clough drag Nottingham Forest from Second Division mid-table mediocrity to the summit of the First Division, but he turned them into the conquerors of Europe, winning back-to-back European Cups in 1979 and 1980.

Clough’s impressive on-field record was only surpassed only by the legacy of soundbites he left behind. This was, after all, the man who once claimed that whenever one of his players disagreed with him, they two of them “would talk about it for 20 minutes and then decide that I was right”.

Clough certainly believed his own hype but he had the stats, both as a player and a manager, to back up the talk.

He may not have been perfect or everybody’s best friend, but he truly was a managerial giant.

2. Mick O’Dwyer

At 74-years-young, legendary football manager Mick O’Dwyer has nothing left to prove to anyone.

A brief glance at his managerial CV is all that it takes. In fact, just read the first line, the one that says “Kerry, 1975-1986: 11 All-Ireland Titles”.

Point proven.

Over the last 40 years, GAA fans have been fortunate enough to witness enough truly great managers – men of the calibre of Kevin Heffernan, Sean Boylan, and Micky Harte – that we have now reached the stage where it has become acceptable to debate whether Micko really is the best football manager ever.

The line of argument usually runs thus: Kerry’s footballers in the late 70s and 80s were talented enough to win an All-Ireland under the 1970’s GAA-equivalent of Steve Staunton. Micko may have presided over their success, but they would have done just as well without him. Heffernan, Boylan, Harte – they, on the other hand, made something out of nothing.

There is a degree of truth to this. The Kerry football team managed by O’Dwyer truly were a remarkably talented bunch.

Success often breeds complacency, however, even in a footballing stronghold such as Kerry where to pull on the green and gold hooped jersey is seen as a grave responsibility rather than a reward. As Spillane, Ó Sé and co. picked up their fifth, sixth, seventh All-Ireland medals, Mick O’Dwyer was the man who drove them on, convincing them to forget about the sweet taste of the last success and concentrate on the next one.

For good measure, Micko went on to show us that he could make something out of nothing as well. Prior to his arrival, Kildare and Laois were perishing in the wilderness of a Leinster scene dominated by the Dubs and Meath.

By the time he left, Kildare had picked up two Leinster titles in quick succession to end a forty-two year barren spell that stretched back to 1956. The men of Laois had an even bigger gap to bridge, but fifty-seven years after their last provincial crown, they too stood atop the pile in Leinster.

Where Micko goes, success usually follows.

3. Angelo Dundee

Behind every great fighter stands a great trainer.

The list of fighters to have worked with boxing legend Angelo Dundee reads like a Who’s Who of the sport’s greats. Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard – and they’re just the household names.

As Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali and went on to mesmerise the world of boxing, Dundee was in his corner every step of the way.

Such was Dundee’s devotion to Ali that it has been suggested that he may have been involved in illicitly gaining an advantage for his fighter in one of his most celebrated bouts, the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman.

It was in that fight that Ali pulled off his patented “rope-a-dope”, leaning back on the ropes and absorbing Foreman’s shots until his opponent had tired himself out. Though Dundee denies having loosened the ropes in the run-up to the fight to facilitate Ali’s strategy, the suspicion remains.

Years later, as he trained another boxing great, Sugar Ray Leonard, Dundee ensured that he would be remembered for all the right reasons.

Leonard’s clash with Thomas “Hitman” Hearns in 1981 is considered one of the classic bouts of all time. Having recovered from a slow start to dominate rounds six and seven, Leonard dropped his guard. By the end of the 12th, he was behind on all three scorecards, staring defeat in the face.

Enter Dundee who made sure that his fighter was under no illusions. “You’re blowing it, son. You’re blowing it” have since become some of the most famous words spoken in any boxer’s corner.

When Leonard re-emerged for the 13th, he was a changed man. By the middle of the 14th, it was all over. Without throwing a single punch himself, Dundee had tipped the scales and snatched victory.

4. Vincent O’Brien

If horse racing is the sport of kings, then Vincent O’Brien was the king of kings.

Somewhat unusually, the Cork-born trainer was equally adept at training a winner over fences as he was at training them on the flat. So much so that when the time came to draw up some end-of-century “best of” lists, he was voted the greatest national hunt trainer and the greatest flat trainer of the 20th century.

O’Brien began his training career in 1944, concentrating predominantly on National Hunt horses. By the time he had reached the age of 38 in 1955, he had already achieved so much success in that code that he could draw a line under it and concentrate on training horses for the flat.

After all, once you’ve won three consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cups (1948-1950), three consecutive Champion Hurdles (1949-1951), and three consecutive Aintree Grand Nationals (1953-1955), there’s not really an awful lot else left to do.

Incredibly, O’Brien’s career as a flat trainer proved to be even more successful. Some of the sport’s greatest horses, including 1968 Derby winner Sir Ivor and Triple Crown winner Nijinsky, were nurtured and developed under O’Brien’s watchful eye.

Over the course of his 50-year career, O’Brien won every race worth winning, most of them on multiple occasions. His record of 27 Irish Classics, sixteen English Classics and three Prix de l’ Arcs remains a testament to his greatness.

O’Brien’s legacy continued to dominate horse racing long after his retirement in 1994. The names of Ballydoyle Stables and Coolmore Stud, both of which were founded by O’Brien at the height of his success, have become synonymous with success in the industry.

Each new victory, of which there are many, serves as a great tribute to the man who was the master of horse racing.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7zhb_epsom-derby-1970-nijinsky

5. Vince Lombardi

To understand the magnitude of Vince Lombardi’s success while head coach of the Green Bay Packers, one has to understand the situation which he inherited.

The once-great Green Bay Packers, who had dominated the National Football League in the 1930s, were in dire need of help. 1958 had been the worst season in their history. Twelve games, one win, one draw, 10 defeats.

When he took over at the declining Packers in 1959, Lombardi stepped into something of an unknown. Though he had coached at West Point Military Academy for five years and won an NFL championship as the offensive coordinator for the New York Giants, he had no previous experience as a head coach.

That really didn’t matter. Lombardi was a master tactician with a winner’s mentality. Success inevitably followed.

Lombardi’s Green Bay became great because their coach was able to make his team share in his hunger for success. This after all is the man with whom the phrase “winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” is frequently, if inaccurately, associated.

When the Packers were beaten by the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL Championship game at the end of Lombardi’s second season in 1960, he explained to his players that losing in the playoffs was unacceptable.

They listened and understood. For the rest of Lombardi’s nine-year tenure, the Packers would not lose another playoff game, winning five NFL championships as well as Superbowls I and II.

6. Rinus Michels

Michels’ list of managerial successes certainly stands up to scrutiny.

Four league titles and a European Cup with Ajax, a La Liga title with Barcelona, and a European Championship winner’s medal with the Netherlands is a decent haul by anybody’s standard.

Michels is revered, however, not so much for the silverware which he brought home but for the manner in which his successes were achieved. His Ajax and Holland teams of the 1960s and 1970s were the pioneers of “total football”, a dynamic footballing mentality in which every player was expected to adapt to different positions and tactics as the circumstances of the game dictated.

The ideology of “total football” asked a lot of the 10 outfield players on the pitch at any one time, but the freedom which it afforded Michels’ more creative players, such as Johan Cruyff, made the Dutchman’s teams a joy to watch.

The beauty of Michels’ tactics were that they never favoured style at the expense of substance. If flowing moves and clever touches were considered “stylish”, so be it. Michels and his players only ever set out to win, playing the game in the way they truly believed it was meant to be played.

The World Cup of 1974 was the chance for Michels, then manager of the Dutch national team, to bring “total football” to a wider audience. That he did, and as his team dismantled each successive opponent on the way to the final, the watching world sat in stunned appreciation.

Holland were eventually beaten 2-1 by the hosts, West Germany, in the final, consigning the squad of 1974 and their manager to their unenviable place in history as the greatest side never to win a World Cup.

7. Brian Cody

In the years which followed their repeated successes of the late 60s and early 70s, Kilkenny’s senior hurlers entered what must be considered a drought by their standards, winning only four All-Ireland titles in the 1980s and 1990s.

For a county with a proud hurling heritage, this was far from an acceptable return. Enter Brian Cody.

What Mick O’Dwyer is to Gaelic football, Cody is to hurling. The former All-Star took charge of the Cats in November 1998. Twelve years and seven All-Ireland titles later, Cody’s Kilkenny have entered the history books as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, hurling team of all time.

As if that haul wasn’t impressive enough, it is worth remembering that Kilkenny have only lost one game in the Leinster Championship since Cody took the reins, a 2004 semi-final loss to Wexford.

Not even defeat at the hands of a Tipperary team who outplayed them to put a halt to the “drive for five” in September 2010 can take the sheen off Kilkenny and Cody’s success.

Typically magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat, one of Cody’s more famous moments in recent years came in the aftermath of the 2009 final. As his players celebrated their historic four-in-a-row, Marty Morrissey chose to use the post-match interview to grill the Kilkenny boss on the referee’s performance.

As you’ll see below, Cody was less than impressed …

Read more of Niall Kelly’s Magnificent Seven series

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