Why not all club owners follow a plan?

To answer this question, you need to analyze why these people want to be involved in football. Do they want to make money by selling players? Do they have the knowledge to coach a team? Or do they think that they have the knowledge after a few years involved in football? Or they just want to show off that they own a football club?

A lot of club live by the day or live by the people which they have contracted to organize football for them. So, this means in certain clubs that the philosophy is changing every few years when they hire a new coaching staff. I don’t believe in this because you are not creating a stable club culture. A club owner first should decide what he wants with the club, to be a buying club or a club that wants to develop his own stars!

When you have decided to be a buying club then you only need to know your budget for every season and buy the players that you want and to let your coaching staff work with them, short term. If you however want to develop players you need to be organized; in coaching staff; football philosophy and plan your strategy for a longer period, meaning years.

If a player becomes better by practicing and repeating his techniques and tactics a lot then you need to find the coaches that are able to teach him and don’t jump from philosophy to philosophy or from coach to coach.

The club’s philosophy needs to be backed up by your coaching staff. A long term plan does not work by changing your coaching staff yearly or half yearly and then think that your long term plan will continue with every new coach.

A club culture stays when it is guarded by club people. The club people can be in the coaching staff, outside of the head coach that you have hired or it can be the sport director that has the responsibility to implement the football philosophy from young (academy) to old (first team).

You can not simply change your personnel every year and start over or think that the club will continue on the same path.

For me it is great to read that now Leicester City became Champion in the English Premier League that all was planned when they played in League one (Third level professional football in England). They had their own coaching staff, medical staff, scouting staff and did not allow the newly signed head coach, Claudio Rainieri, to bring his own coaching staff of 10.

No, they simply said they trusted their won people and wanted Claudio Rainieri for his professional managing and football qualities. They did not want him to change the club but selected him to bring the club to the next level with the existing professionals.

I hope Leicester will be an example for a lot of club owners which all think they will have success within the next 24 hours after buying players.

For me it was a great pleasure to read that the club owner had a plan and did not feel that he was in a hurry. He prepared, organized and trusted his people and for the rest monitored the development and growth of the club.