Managers who have been successful will tend to repeat their successes as they know what the secret is to winning. Once you know how, you are never going to lose that ability as it is that obvious.
All sporting teams are looking to unlock the secret formula of success and very few can achieve this as it is not an easy take to accomplish. So many things have to fall into place at the same time that this special plateau of success is so rare.
Personally I think it is more about the players than anything else as a mangers role is to keep them focused for the season and making sure the players are in the right frame of mind. I see a mangers role as more psychological these days than what it was in the past. First up a manager has to know each individual player and the characteristics that make that player perform as everyone is different.
Wat back in my rugby career I was fortunate enough to be part of a team of players who all had exceptional talent. Fitness was not an issue as we were all in the various wings of the Defence Force having been called up to do our duties.
We had limited training time together so the skill sets had to have already been in place. The 3-4 hours we spent training were not about fitness which the first practice session of the week normally is. We would spend 10 minutes discussing the previous game followed by a 15 minute warm up period and that was when the practice/training session started for real.
The difference is we knew as a team that we were the best and if anyone wanted to beat us they were in for a fight. In most games we played we had extra gears we could go through that were never required. That season we played around 40 matches and were never pushed once as we dominated all before us.
I do believe a trick was missed here as we were all still very young being the U21 champions that year. A forward thinking club or agent should have kept us altogether as we were the real deal. When you look back at sides like Chelsea dominating the youth division a decade or so ago who in their right mind let those players go off to other clubs? The work has already been done and the next stage is to integrate those players into the fist team replicating what they have already achieved.
The side I was involved with was that special and do believe we would of gone onto further success as we matured. Many of the players unfortunately left at the end of their Army stint and joined clubs overseas earning higher honors nationally for their respective countries. Without doubt this team would have dominated any League around the globe if we had all stayed together and is kind of crazy reflecting back as to what we had all experienced.
The formula to success does lie in the squad and the new faces you remove or add over time. I would ay this is a combination of many factors that make a team gel so well and out think and outplay their opposition through the combination of skills each player possesses.
The rarity of this happening is once in a lifetime type stuff and why when you find it you do not let players leave. Leicester City, Liverpool and others have failed to hang on to what they have as no matter the price being offered keeping a team together with a winning formula is priceless.
