‘The influence of overseas coaching and management on the occupational subculture of English professional soccer: views from the dugout’

Abstract

It is generally acknowledged that expatriate British players and coaches were instrumental in soccer’s radiant global diffusion and that different technical and tactical emphases developed according to particular geographical locations and cultural milieu. As the twentieth century unfolded, the trend reversed with increased inward flows of elite foreign playing and coaching labour challenging the distinctive and erstwhile dominant occupational culture of the English game. This paper explores the dynamics and tensions of subcultural modification and adaptation at the British: migrant coaching talent interface. Owing to issues associated with access, the occupational subculture of elite-level football is impenetrable to most researchers. Previous employment in professional soccer allowed this author to overcome such impediments, permitting access to a range of high-status national and international players and coaches (n = 25) affecting and affected by occupational subcultural change. This enabled a distinctive research platform combining insider knowledge and grounded experience with academic orthodoxy. The paper is built upon primary data collected in semi-structured interviews and critical analysis of emerging themes. In doing so, it offers a fresh dimension to understanding the impact of globalization on elite professional English soccer. Key findings indicated the opinion of British coaches on the impact of this foreign influx polarized. Although many demonstrated an enlightened standpoint, adopting innovative practices introduced by overseas coaching talent, these views were counter-balanced by evidence of a myopic arrogance bordering on xenophobic resistance to change in what now has to be considered the global rather than the ‘English’ game.

Notes

1. ONS, 2012-based National Population Projections.

2. Kirkup, ‘One Million Immigrants’, 4.

3. Smith, ‘Influence of Overseas Coaching Talent’.

4. Smith, ‘Migratory Career Contingencies’.

5. Rollin and Rollin, Sky Sports Football Yearbook.

6. Parrish and McCardle, ‘Beyond Bosman’ and Jarvie, Sport, Culture and Society.

7. Smith, ‘Influence of Overseas Coaching Talent’.

8. Maguire and Pearton, ‘The Impact of Elite Labour Migration’ ; Lanfranchi and Taylor, Moving with the Ball; Ben-Porat, ‘The Importation of Foreign Soccer’; Magee and Sugden, ‘The World at Their Feet’; Sekot, ‘The Socio-Cultural Phenomenon’; Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘Glocalization, Globalization and Migration’, Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘Recovering the Social’; Darby, ‘African Labour in the Football Industry’; Darby ‘African Football Labour Migration to Portugal’; Poli, ‘African Migrants in Asian and European Football’; Poli, ‘Understanding Globalisation through Football’; Taylor, ‘Football’s Engineers?’, Poli and Besson, ‘From the South to Europe’; Carter, ‘Re-Placing Sports Migrants’; Elliott and Weedon, ‘Foreign Players in the English Academy League’; Elliott, ‘New Europe, New Chances?’; and Molnar, ‘Pride of the People’.

9. Bale and Maguire, The Global Sports Arena.

10. Maguire, ‘American Labour Migrants’; Maguire, ‘Preliminary Observations’; and Maguire; ‘Sport Labour Migration Research Revisited’.

11. Parrish and McCardle, ‘Beyond Bosman’.

12. Elliot and Weedon, ‘Foreign Players in the English Academy League’ and Northcroft, ‘Stick Around You Might Win Something’.

13. Magee and Sugden, ‘The World at Their Feet’; Carter, ‘Family Networks’; Poli, ‘African Migrants in Asian and European Football’; and Taylor, ‘Football’s Engineers?’

14. Poli, ‘Africans’ Status’ and Sekot, ‘Socio-Cultural Phenomenon’.

15. McGovern, ‘Globalization or Internationalization’.

16. Taylor, The Association Game; ‘Football’s Engineers?’

17. See, for example, Bourke, ‘The Road to Fame and Fortune’; Hayes, Ortelli, and Rivoire, The French Revolution; Harris, The Foreign Revolution; Roderick, ‘An Unpaid Labor of Love’; and Vialli and Marcotti, The Italian Job.

18. Giulianotti, ‘Soccer goes Glocal’, xi.

19. Maguire, ‘Sport Labour Migration Research Revisited’.

20. Mason, ‘Some Englishmen and Scotsmen Abroad’, 74.

21. Dillon, ‘Pioneer Lambert’, 73.

22. Carter, The Football Manager, 66.

23. Carter, ‘Introduction’ and Taylor, ‘Football’s Engineers’.

24. Fox, Prophet or Traitor, 196.

25. Luthans and Farner, ‘Expatriate Feedback’, 780.

26. Smith, ‘Migratory Career Contingencies’.

27. See for example Darby, Talking Shankly; Williams, The Liverpool Way; Harris, England, Their England: Harris, The Foreign Revolution; Molnar and Maguire, ‘Hungarian Footballers on the Move’; and Elliott and Weedon, ‘Foreign Players in the English Academy League’.

28. Tomlinson The Sports Studies Reader, 365.

29. Jarvie, Sport, Culture and Society, 5.

30. Tomlinson, The Games Up, 245.

31. Maguire, Global Sport, 216 and Sugden and Tomlinson, ‘Whistle Blowers’.

32. Sears, ‘Researching the Other/Searching for Self’, 148.

33. Coghlan, ‘Practitioner Research for Organisational Knowledge’, 456.

34. Fletcher, ‘Does He Look Like a Paki?’, 249.

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid.

37. McFee,‘The Researcher’s Hat’.

38. Gummersson, Qualitative Methods in Management Research, 9.

39. Coghlan, ‘Practitioner Research for Organisational Knowledge’.

40. Holstein and Gubrium, ‘Active Interviewing’, 119.

41. Maxwell ‘Designing a Qualitative Study’, 234.

42. Gibson and Brown, Working with Qualitative Data.

43. Gubrium and Holstein, Handbook of Interview Research, 15.

44. Wheaton and Beal, ‘Keeping it Real’.

45. Gray, Research Practice for Cultural Studies; Kvale, Doing Interviews; Gibson and Brown, Working with Qualitative Data; and Kvale and Brinkman, Interviews: Learning the Craft.

46. Gibson and Brown, Working with Qualitative Data and Flick, An Introduction to Qualitative Research.

47. Kvale and Brinkman, Interviews: Learning the Craft.

48. Interview with ‘Steve’ and ‘Mark’, November 20, 2004.

49. Interview with ‘Hamish’, October 29, 2003.

50. Interview with ‘Alex’, April 4, 2004.

51. Interview with ‘Hamish’, October 29, 2003.

52. Ibid.

53. Allsop, ‘Chairman Feared for his City Slickers’, 9.

54. Interview with ‘Karl’, November 20, 2004.

55. Ibid.

56. Interview with ‘Les’, April 14, 2004.

57. Interview with ‘Adam’, October 26, 2004.

58. Interview with ‘Rob’, July 19, 2005.

59. Ibid.

60. Gordon, Coaching Science.

61. Interview with ‘Rob’, July 19, 2005.

62. Tomlinson, The Games Up.

63. Interview with ‘Neil’, January 15, 2009.

64. Interview with ‘Rob’, July 19, 2005.

65. Baudrillard, Simulations.

66. Interview with ‘Ron’, May 1, 2004.

67. Ibid.

68. Interview with ‘Rob’, July 19, 2005.

69. Ibid.

70. Smith, ‘Influence of Overseas Coaching Talent’.

71. Interview with ‘Xavier’, February 11, 2005.

72. Interview with ‘Jimmy’, February 18, 2005.

73. Wilson, ‘The English Can’t Manage’, 1.

74. Interview with ‘Neil’, January 15, 2009.

75. Interview with ‘Ramon’, February 17, 2011.

76. Ibid.

77. Interview with ‘Dave’, April 14, 2004.

78. Interview with ‘Neil, January 15, 2009.

79. Reed, ‘The UEFA Pro-Licence Course’, 2.

80. TheFA.com, accessed March 1, 2011.

81. Hoare, ‘The Beautiful Business’.

82. Interview with ‘Gary’, November 5, 2004.

83. Ibid.

84. Interview with ‘Ramon’, February 17, 2011.

85. Ibid.

86. Interview with ‘Jimmy’, February 18, 2005.

87. Vialli and Marcotti, The Italian Job, 331.

88. Interview with ‘Adam’, October 26, 2004.

89. Interview with ‘Matt’, February 25, 2005.

90. Ibid.

91. Interview with ‘Brian’, October 22, 2003.

92. Ibid.

93. Ibid.

94. Interview with ‘Matt’, February 25, 2005.

95. Interview with ‘Adam’, October 26, 2004.

96. Interview with ‘Steve’, November 20, 2004.

97. Graham, ‘Managerial Talent Doesn’t Diminish with Age’, S3.

98. Interview with ‘Jimmy’, February 18, 2005.

99. Interview with ‘Neil’, January 15, 2009.

100. Kleinman, ‘The Economic Impact of Labour Migration’.

101. Interview with ‘Gary’, November 5, 2004.

102. Interview with ‘Dave’, April 14, 2004.

103. Interview with ‘Ron’, September 1, 2004.

104. Roux, ‘Foreign Coaches Modernised English Football’, 38.

105. Interview with ‘Neil’, January 15, 2009.

106. Interview with ‘Les’, April 14, 2004.

107. Ibid.

108. Ibid.

109. Giulianotti and Robertson, Globalisation and Football.

110. Giulianotti and Robertson, ‘Recovering the Social’.

111. Ibid., 561.

112. Kleinman, ‘The Economic Impact of Labour Migration’.

113. Williams, ‘International Labour Migration’, 34.

114. Smith, ‘Influence of Overseas Coaching Talent’.

115. Warner, cited in King, ‘You’re Too Arrogant to be Given the World Cup’.