Is Premiership Management lost in translation?

The newly appointed Tottenham Manager, Juande Ramos has caused quite a stir in the media recently, since joining the London club. There are ongoing debates of whether mastery of the host language is essential for a manager at a top club and as this is his first English club, it seems he has not yet got to grips with the language resulting in the use of an Interpreter.

English football and more predominantly the FA Premier League has seen a dramatic influx of foreign players and managers within the clubs. One of the main reasons for this being, the large injection of money it has

received through sponsorship and the greatly profitable television deals. The TV rights auction in 2007 generated £1.7bn ($3.1bn) for the Premier League, with BSkyB paying £1.3bn and Setanta £392m.

Football has experienced an increase in Non-English speaking players, coaches and managers from all over Europe and Asia which is creating a much greater need for translation and interpreters.

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Applied Language Solutions states “Everyone who has learnt or is learning a language will understand that it is best to live and breathe the language. As football is such a global phenomenon we can not expect all foreign managers or players to immediately speak the language, therefore providing translation and interpreting is a necessary step in supporting them. “

Juande Ramos is just one foreign manager who struggles with the language of the Premier League and has needed a translator, but is currently learning English. Other Non – English speaking managers before him have included Attilio Lombardo at Crystal Palace, Claudio Ranieri at Chelsea and a previous Spurs manager Jacques Santini.

In the case of Claudio Ranieri, an earlier Chelsea Manager, who moved to the London club in the 2000/01 season with absolutely no knowledge of English. It was later discovered that his unqualified interpreter did not have a real grasp of Ranieri’s spoken language Italian.

Cases like Ranieri have raised concerns amongst the Hotspurs fans as although Ramos can not speak any English he is currently one of the best paid management in the premiership. Fans fear that the management at Tottenham Hotspurs like that at Chelsea may be lost in translation and therefore produce the same poor results.

Gavin Wheeldon argues that this should not be the case, “Professional Interpreters should be specialised in specific fields. If Applied Language Solutions were providing interpreting services for Juande Ramos the Interpreter would require an in-depth knowledge of the game of football to ensure the interpretation is both accurate and effective. Therefore the poor results would be solely reliant on his team management skills.”

Applied Language Solutions are a rapidly growing language solutions company that deliver a high quality personal and corporate language service with optimal quality, price and delivery.