LONDON — Kevin Keegan and Alan Curbishley resigned this week as managers of Newcastle and West Ham because the new breed of Premier League owners wouldn't let them manage.
Chairmen chair board meetings, players play but maybe the days of managers managing are drawing to a close. Portsmouth's Harry Redknapp, the second-oldest manager in the Premier League after Sir Alex Ferguson, thinks so.
West Ham's Icelandic owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson typifies the new breed of billionaire owners who, as Redknapp put it "sign whoever they think is a sexy name and they sell whoever they want . . . the days of managing as I know it are coming to an end . . . you will basically be given the players and told to get on with it."