How old, is too old…?

Date: 17th November 2024

How old, is too old…?

The highlight of my week has been Maurice, age 70, from the Mountcare Nursing Home. Maurice is, allegedly, the fighting pride of that particular home. And Tony Bellew, the former World Cruiserweight Champion, has championed this particular pugilist as he appeared at the Jake Paul, Mike Tyson press conference to suggest that should Jake Paul get past Mike Tyson, a grandfather, that this great-grandfather Maurice should be next to face him.

It is important, according to Bellew, that Jake Paul builds upon any success that he has with grandparents by taking on the fighting pride of Mountcare. It was a hilarious stunt by Paddy Power in order to get some kind of traction for a fight that has been described by many as some kind of circus.

I didn’t want to see it.

I don’t want to see it.

I didn’t watch it.

Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson has ended up with Mike Tyson adding another loss to his record as Jake Paul outfought him for eight rounds in a fluffy pillowed contest that was not going to be in any way something that lit up any boxing aficionado’s calendar.

On the undercard, there was a real genuine world title fight between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor that provided the controversy and the boxing of the evening. But as they both at the ages of 36 and 38 are getting to the twilight of their career, the question for many is how old is too old?

I ask, because during the week, one other septuagenarian and the image of Claudia Ranieri has become the Roma manager, declaring that only a Roman could help the club get out of its current malaise. At the end of the season, he’s going to transition into a senior executive role. according to the club, goodness knows what that actually means – maybe Hibs are watching to find out. Ranieri has going back to Roma after having managed it twice. This is his third stint and he retired in May earlier on this year after guiding Cagliari to survival. Of course, Ranieri having coached in no fewer than eighteen clubs during a managerial career that lasted nearly four decades has included not just the winning of the Premier League title in Leicester City, but a number of other opportunities at elite League clubs, including Chelsea.

There may be many who would point to one particular aspect of his career and suggest that he wasn’t good there or very well received at another. But the fact of the matter is he comes into this particular role with a massive amount of experience.

But simply being on the planet for a long period of time does not guarantee anybody that they’re going to be good enough to become the manager that’s going to dig you out of a hole or guarantee you some kind of championship.

We have also seen over the recent past managers coming back to manage for a second time. The most recent one is probably Brendan Rodgers coming back to Celtic. There were many who thought that this was a step back for the former Leicester City man as he had previously left Celtic under some form of a cloud. Many thought that after Ange Postecoglou that this was just trying to re-establish past glories and he was not the guy who was going to take the work that Ange had done and turn it more opportunity for the club to grow and develop.

He has, of course, proved many wrong, given that he is now at the top of the Premier League, is in the semi-final of the Scottish League Cup and he managed the double last season. This is a manager who has a pedigree and seems to flourish in Scottish football.

Brendan, however, at 51 years of age, is a mere whippersnapper in comparison to some others who are currently making their way in the Scottish Professional Football League management circus.

Of course, coming into the manager’s seat is a career that is late on because you must have at some point had some kind of professional football career prior to transferring your understanding of the game into the hot seat.

In the SPFL, we don’t have anybody managing quite at the age of 73, though we do have somebody just three years shy of it.

What’s not to love about Dick Campbell, who is currently blazing a trail at East Fife, having spent a career that has seen him in the lower reaches of Scottish football, but managing to become a club legend at places like Forfar and Arbroath. He may not have managed eighteen clubs like Ranieri, but his current eight club roster includes stints at Ross County, Partick Thistle, Dunfermline Athletic and a long period of time at Brechin City. The stints at Brechin, Forfar and Arbroath are probably the ones that were the most successful, suggesting that longevity with your manager has to be added to by longevity in the hot seat, managing to become not just a stable presence within your club, but also managing to get the time to bring success to it.

62-year-old John McGlynn is currently heading a resurgent Falkirk who have managed to match the resplendent nature of their stadium by clinching one championship and looking as though they are well on target to clinch a second. A return to Falkirk to the Premier League will see a club whose building of the infrastructure matched their ambition whilst the results on the park didn’t come anywhere near close to it. It is a manager who has not only managed to be somebody to be admired in what he has achieved but admired in the way that he has gone about it.

Third in the group of people managing in the SPFL who are in their 60s is 60-year-old Douglas Samuel, who is the longest serving manager at 12 years plus. Manager of the Spartans in League 2, who can deny that the Spartans have managed to become everybody’s, favourite community club and made their mark in Scottish football. Douglas Samuel has clearly been central to all of that.

When we go down to those who are the youngest, we find 31-year-old Jordan Brown is co-manager at Peterhead. He is, however, co-manager with a 34-year-old in Ryan Strachan. They are not the only two who co-manage, as Arbroath also have a 31-year-old in David Gold, co-managing with a Colin Hamilton at the age of 32.

Their combined co-management ages, at the helm of both Arbroath and Peterhead, do not match Dick Campbell!

So as Ranieri attempts to help Roma out of their predicament, perhaps we should also celebrate the fact that we have managers who have longevity in teeth, who provide with stability in the dugout, ensuring success as time goes on.

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