For many football fans, we have witnessed a steadily increasing trend of clubs hiring youthful former players as coaches, discarding the traditional trend of going for experienced managers. From Real Madrid with Zinedine Zidane, Manchester United with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Chelsea with Frank Lampard to Napoli with Gennaro Gatuso just to name a few, the new trend has defined the modern age of football coaching and it seems it's there to stay. Many would argue that it is the outstanding success of Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid where he won 3 back to back UEFA Champions League trophies, while adding another Laliga title recently to his stellar trophy cabinet of 11 trophies in just over 200 matches, almost a trophy after every 20 games that kick-started this trend of favouring young passionate managers for the role. The FA Cup final between two young managers in Frank Lampard's Chelsea versus Mikel Arteta's Arsenal shows this track record can be emulated successfully by many clubs. Frank Lampard in a past interview admitted that sometimes experience is overrated in football, a sly dig at former boss Jose Mourinho who he has enjoyed a 100 percent record in the matches he has faced against him so far. This begs the question what next for the veteran coaches in the modern game? Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger hung up his boots after 22 years with Arsenal. Louis Van Gaal is another experienced manager who chose to quit football after being sacked by Manchester United. Whether retiring from football will be the norm for the so-called experienced managers is still up for debate but one thing for sure is that hiring passionate young former players is the new "fashion" trend in the world of club coaching.
