“A recent development in our expectations of football managers is the insistence that they boast an overarching managerial ‘philosophy’ or ‘ideology.’ It’s apparently no longer enough to simply pick the correct players and formulate tactics to get the best from them — there’s a need for a grander, long-term, all-encompassing insistence upon a particular playing style. While managerial strategy has been a crucial factor in top-level football for decades, these lofty expectations are relatively new — but it’s already become an entrenched factor whenever a new manager takes charge of an elite club. Seven of the current top nine teams in the Premier League have appointed a new manager over the past 18 months, and in almost every case it was easy to deduce their philosophy upon their appointment.” ESPN – Michael Cox