Jermain Defoe has stepped away from his first managerial job at Woking, and by the sounds of it, the whole thing gave him quite a lot to think about. The former Tottenham and England striker described the experience as eye-opening after just four months and nine matches in charge of the National League side. That is not a long time, and it raises the very fair question of whether Defoe was quite ready for the jump into management at that level.
Now, nobody should laugh at Defoe for giving it a go. He was one of the best strikers this country has produced in the last twenty years, and the natural instinct for someone like him is to stay in the game after retiring. Management is the obvious route. The problem is that scoring goals and organising a struggling non-league club are two completely different skills, and plenty of great players have found that out the hard way.
Nine games is a short run, but if results were not going well and the club felt a change was needed, then both sides moving on is probably the honest outcome. Woking are fighting at a tough level where survival matters more than sentiment, and they cannot afford to wait around for anyone to find their feet, no matter how many England caps they have earned.
What is interesting is the language Defoe used. Eye-opening is a phrase that suggests he learned things he was not expecting. Whether that means the demands of the job surprised him, the resources available shocked him, or the day-to-day grind of non-league football was different to what he imagined, only he truly knows. But it sounds like a man who has come away with a much clearer picture of what management actually involves.
Defoe is still young enough to take these lessons and come back stronger in a coaching or managerial capacity somewhere down the line. Most successful managers had bumps early on. This does not have to be the end of that chapter, just a very honest first lesson.
Let me know your thoughts.