Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich empire should learn from a great knight’s example

Abu Dhabi: Jose Mourinho’s sacking as Chelsea manager last month made him the fifth managerial casualty of the English Premier League season, an indictment of the pervasive fickleness of football club owners.

It was the second time Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has dismissed Mourinho, who rejoined the club in 2013 after previously being in charge between 2004 and 2007.

Mourinho’s departure, which sensationally came only seven months after he led the Blues to their third English Premier League crown, bolstered the perception that the Portuguese is incapable of creating a dynasty after only two and a half years in the hotseat.

Yet his sympathisers, such as the billionaire businessman Sir Michael Moritz, claim Mourinho is the victim of a “trigger-happy” owner in Abramovich.

Moritz co-authored the recently published book ‘Leading’ with Sir Alex Ferguson, in which the former Manchester United manager shares the secrets of his extraordinary success at Old Trafford over 26 and a half years.

The Welshman told Gulf News that Ferguson’s remarkable and bountiful longevity – he won 38 trophies – compares favourably with behemoths of the business world, such as the late Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple.

Meanwhile, Mourinho’s longest consecutive stint at a club is three years with Chelsea between 2004-07 and Real Madrid in 2010-13.

But, in an exclusive telephone interview from his California headquarters, Moritz accused Abramovich of “hurting” Mourinho after “sitting on his wallet” and not adequately replenishing the EPL champions’ squad in the summer.

Furthermore, the chairman of venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, lambasted the Russian and other “know-it-all” owners for the “abominable” turnover of managers in the EPL.

He said the key to United’s prolonged glory since 1986, including a record 13 EPL titles and two European Cups, was the fact that the United hierarchy stood by Ferguson despite an initial lean period.

Of the Scot’s greatest quality as a manager, the Cardiff-born entrepreneur said: “His ability to maintain an unwaveringly consistent drive that was relentless. Many people can do that for a brief period and some people can muster the energy to do it in spurts, but very few can do it consistently.”

Moritz would not comment on the current United manager Louis van Gaal, who has attracted criticism for his cautious and uninspiring style and who has not won any silverware since replacing Ferguson’s equally unsuccessful successor David Moyes in 2014.

“There are far more nuanced observers of football than me, who are much better equipped to render judgement on that.”

He did, however, speak at length about Ferguson’s sustained success, which is unparalleled in the modern age.

Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, is the closest to Ferguson in terms of length of service, having managed the London club for just over 19 years since arriving in October 1996.

But the next longest-serving boss in the English top flight has only spent just over three consecutive years in his job, Bournemouth’s Eddie Howe.

Are there any comparable examples of the enduringly brilliant Ferguson in the US and will there be another like him?

“There are very examples of individuals who have led an organisation in four different decades and been consistently successful in any walk of life,” Moritz said.

“The closest, and I am a little myopic about this because I work in the field of technology, are the founders and CEOs of the great technology firms, such as the late Steve Jobs at Apple, Larry Ellison at Oracle or Warren Buffet at Berkshire Hathaway. But there are not many examples of that.”

“Will there be another Sir Alex? You’d think it’s impossible,” he added. “It’s like in my field, it’s hard to think there would be another Apple.

“It’s an enormously tall order to top Apple or the accomplishments of Man United under Sir Alex. But Sir Alex certainly compared to my late friend, Steve Jobs.

“They had their own obsessions that they wouldn’t let anything else interfere with. Steve had his company and his products and Sir Alex had his team and football games. The obsessive attention to detail each had to their chief pursuit and the intensity with which they pursued it was very similar.”

How does he rate another football obsessive, Mourinho, vis-a-vis Ferguson, particularly after the Portuguese’s spectacular fall from grace this season?

Moritz stressed that Ferguson shared a “deep respect” for his old adversary, who has won eight league titles in four countries and a host of other trophies, including two Champions League crowns.

“Sir Alex is always quick to point out that Jose has this record for winning leagues in multiple countries and what a talented manager he is,” Moritz said.

He rejected the suggestion that while Ferguson had harnessed rage to fuel his drive for success, Mourinho’s frequent outbursts at the media and referees had had a detrimental impact on his tenure.

“I don’t know if that’s a fair comparison. I think there might have been times when people might have said the same about Sir Alex in certain situations.”

“I think Jose has been hurt a little bit by the fact that Abramovich has sat on his wallet a little bit and they haven’t refreshed the squad enough,” he added. “Sir Alex was very fortunate in one respect having been at Manchester United he had owners in both places who trusted him, supported him when times weren’t good and stood by him, knowing they’d selected the right man.

“I think Jose has worked in places where the owners have not had the same traits. Roman Abramovich has failed to exhibit any degree of patience with his managers, plus in my mind he has failed to lead the club in an appropriate manner.”

Moritz, who made his fortune funding start-ups such as Google and LinkedIn, was similarly withering in his condemnation of other football owners of Abramovich’s ilk.

“You look at the turnover of managers in the Premier League and it’s abominable. Nobody is ever going to build a sound, good, solid, let alone winning organisation if they summarily execute the leader after eight or nine months. There are a lot of trigger-happy owners who somehow delude themselves into thinking if they hire a new manager, suddenly everything is going to be different. It isn’t, given the amount of time it takes to whip an organisation into shape.”

“It’s beyond me the way these people approach these clubs, it just ludicrous,” he continued. “The Premier League I think has got through almost 400 managers since its formation [in 1992]. It makes no sense whatsoever.

“High turnover at the top of any organisation never leads to good performance, let alone great performance.”

Moritz is particularly critical of the “despicable” fashion in which the veteran Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce has been treated.

“He’s a wonderful manager and a terrific individual, who has received a hammering from owners at a variety of clubs, such as Blackburn Rovers and West Ham, which is a sad indictment of the moral compass of the owners.”

He believes owners should focus only on three key decisions: Appointing the manager, a CEO “at very big clubs” and finally how much money to inject into the club.

“The really good owners understand that their job is to make that selection or those selections and do everything they can to support their choice. They should only dismiss those individuals with the greatest of reluctance.”

Expanding on his praise of the Glazers, whose purchase of Manchester United in 2005 attracted howls of protest from Red Devils fans fearful of the significant debt they had plunged the club into, he said: “To their credit, when they bought the club, they made no management changes, they didn’t meddle, they trusted in Alex and [the former CEO] David Gill and had confidence in them. They supplied capital and money when it was required, they stayed out of the way and just concentrated on the big decisions, which is credit to them for doing so.”

“I think the trust they placed in David and Sir Alex paid heaps of dividends,” Moritz added. “I think the ownership at Arsenal has been similar over the last 30 years, although the ownership has changed there. Consistency and longevity work.

“Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex are two examples of that. Sadly they are the exceptions to the rule of the short-sighted, trigger-happy, know-it-alls that run or own clubs.”

Moritz said it is too early to appraise the Abu Dhabi-based owners of Manchester City, although he says they have invested “huge sums of money” to yield “very good short-term performance”.

“The issue will be 10 years from now and are they still there? I have no reason to suggest they won’t be, but it’s another thing altogether to perform for 25 years.”

Moritz is unequivocal when asked if he would consider buying a football club.

“The furthest I would go towards investing in a football club is buying a ticket for a game. I think investing in football teams is somewhat akin to investing in movies and films and it’s a sure way to separate a man from his money.”