Written by Whenever a team is being run, every member of the organization needs to be able to work together. That means the players, the front office, the coaches, the staff, and anyone else who is needed to keep the organization together. However, what happens if not everyone is on board with the decisions being made? Two recent decisions in the sports world got me thinking about the possible awkwardness that could yet occur or could have occurred at two separate organizations.
Philadelphia Flyers: John Tortorella-Chuck Fletcher
On June 17th, 2022, John Tortorella was officially named the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. However, there was one particular rumor going around that general manager Chuck Fletcher may not have particularly on board with the hire. NHLRumorsDaily, a trusted source for hockey information, recently discussed that an outside consulting firm was hired to conduct head coaching interviews for the Flyers and that Tortorella was not one of Fletcher’s favorite candidates among the possible options. A general manager and a head coach need to be on board with each other in order to navigate future seasons properly, so this is already a bad sign of things to come if this rumor is true.
So far, in his four-year tenure, the Flyers have underperformed in the regular season, missing out on the playoffs in three of the four years. In the one season that they did make the playoffs (2019-20), they did manage to have an undefeated run in the Eastern Conference Seeding round-robin games (which allowed them to get the first seed) and win their first playoff matchup. However, they could not proceed any further due to a 4-3 series loss in the second round. The team may have been at or above .500 for three seasons, but a winning season doesn’t necessarily equate to a playoff seed. Also, just barely treading water isn’t a good look on an organization, and neither is going into full rebuild mode like they had to in 2021-22. They had to trade away key players and had the fourth-worst record in the league (25-46-11). He never really made an effort to acquire good players, and not all the promotions from the minor leagues ended up working out. Sticking with the same players without many new additions didn’t help the Flyers to contend.
All of this doesn’t bode well for him and puts him at risk of possibly getting fired if he can’t turn things around in the 2022-23 season. Usually, it is up to the general manager to play some role in the hire of a head coach, as they will have to coexist with each other during their respective tenures. If the Flyers used outside help, does that mean that the owners don’t trust Fletcher entirely with the decision-making? Dysfunction is the last team this team needs to be going through now…
Manchester United: Erik ten Hag-Ralf Rangnick
The 2021-22 season for Manchester United was not as successful as they might have wanted it to be. They finished sixth place with 58 points from 16 wins, 10 draws, and 12 losses, which at least earned them qualification for the UEFA Europa League group stage in 2022-23. In domestic competitions, they were knocked out in the Fourth Round Proper of the FA Cup and the third round of the EFL/Carabao Cup. Lastly, in European competition, they entered the group stage of the UEFA Champions League due to their second-place finish in the Premier League in 2020-21. They did see some success here, winning their group with three wins, two draws, and a loss to advance to the knockout phase. In the round of 16, they were knocked out by Atletico Madrid on a 2-1 aggregate score. This was their fifth trophyless season in a row.
The season started with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer getting a three-year extension until 2024, with an option for a further year as well. Solskjaer was the caretaker manager of United for part of the 2018-19 season and he permanently got the manager role on March 28th, 2019. After facing some big losses against their rivals (5-0 at home vs. Liverpool, 2-0 vs. Manchester City) and conceding 15 goals in their last five games, United’s board of directors had an emergency meeting to fire Solskjaer on November 20th. Solskjaer left the club the next day, which left first-team coach Michael Carrick to take over as caretaker manager. Solskjaer had a record of 91 wins, 37 draws, and 40 losses. Eight days later, Ralf Rangnick was named interim coach until the end of the season. He would also stay on as a consultant to the team after his role as an interim coach would be over, with that tenure lasting another two years. However, that was not to be, as I will soon get to.
Rangnick did not have a particularly spectacular run, only winning 11 games while drawing 10 and losing eight. Other than the results, he was reportedly frustrated with the team composition, as he demanded more investment be made during the transfer window. He was not “happy with the results” during his time, and it showed in the standings. United finished with 58 points total, which is the least amount of points they’ve ever had in the Premier League. In between this, two key things happened: Erik ten Hag was reportedly looking to get the manager job permanently and Rangnick himself was announced as the Austria national team manager on April 29th, 2022. He tried to keep his consultancy role along with the Austria job, but ten Hag and the United bosses thought otherwise.
ten Hag was appointed as the manager on April 21st, 2022, but he wouldn’t start until the following season. He was reluctant to work alongside Rangnick, even agreeing with the termination of Rangnick’s consultancy agreement when he was consulted about it. He also did not meet Rangnick face-to-face, opting for a phone call instead. The United bosses also had issues with Rangnick’s news conference comments as well as the transfer demands he wanted, so it was easier for them to let him go and let ten Hag make his own decisions his way.
Personal Note: To me, it just seems like their comments that Rangnick would “focus solely on his new role as manager of the Austria national team [by mutual agreement]” is a sly way of announcing his consultancy agreement termination. I feel like the same thing happened with Solskjaer’s firing as well, as the emergency meeting by the board of directors wanted to label the departure as mutual consent. That might just be a weird/bad look on the United bosses, but it might just be my personal opinion. Maybe Rangnick wasn’t given the proper chance to succeed at Manchester United and the bosses just did not get to witness his tactical acumen. He is a respected football head but maybe it just didn’t come together at United. Solskjaer, on the other hand, was given time and he did well enough in his two middle seasons (coming in third and second place in the league). He did come close to winning trophies, reaching four semi-finals and a final, but ultimately didn’t.
In one situation, a power struggle (plus the opinions of team bosses) caused someone to leave the organization. In the other situation, there might still be some underlying uneasiness, so that member leaving the organization certainly wouldn’t seem surprising in the future. There’s already some added pressure on that person (Fletcher), so he will have to tread the water well in this coming season. Sometimes, certain people want things to be done in a particular way, so they would want any hindrances out of the way in order to move forward.
It is well within a coach’s/owner’s right to bring in “their own people” in order to run his/her vision, which may mean that a few people will have to get displaced. Most of the time, they can do it of their own volition, like how Chelsea’s Marina Granovskaia, Bruce Buck, and Petr Cech left after the new ownership change. Sometimes, people might be forced out through firings or having their contracts not be renewed. Ultimately, it is all about making it work, and that might mean that tough decisions have to be made in order to have the correct people all on board towards a united goal of having a good season.