Wolves slammed for offering manager’s job on unpaid work experience basis

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS have been accused of exploiting the vast numbers of unemployed football coaches by offering their manager’s job on an unpaid basis.

The club, the largest and most profitable in England, has previously been accused of running a monopoly in Black Country football and now faces calls to operate more ethically instead of taking advantage of desperately poor long-term unemployed managers such as John Gregory, Mike Walker, and Les Reed.

Alan Curbishley has turned down the Wolves managerial internship, saying that he feels the role is beneath him despite the fact that he has been claiming the dole from the FA for the last four years and has been forced to downgrade his family home from a five bedroom to four bedroom mock-tudor Essex mansion.

“What on earth would I get out of working for free?” said the former Charlton manager who has earned just £90,000 in the past year for his bi-monthy appearances on Sky Sports News. “It’s just a load of demeaning, menial tasks like laying out the cones for training, motivating the players and picking the team.

“Frankly, I could be doing all that on the Fifa 12 manager mode, and still have time to watch Countdown and Pointless. And I regularly do.”

Wolves are demanding that prospective managers work some evenings and on Saturdays, but have promised to re-imburse travel expenses and provide a Pukka Pie-based lunch.

Conservative employment minister Chris Grayling says out of work managers cannot afford to be snobbish about the Wolves job. “Work is work is work is work is work,” he said. “The likes of Glenn Roeder should count themselves damn lucky to have a chance to get on their bikes, whether they’re getting paid for it or not.

“It’s absolutely typical of modern broken Britain, that is going to hell in a handcart, that some managers would prefer to sleep until the afternoon every day rather than get there hands dirty working with Jody Craddock and Karl Henry.”

But Labour MP for the Molineux constituency Steve Bull believes that his local club should re-consider their stance. “It’s basically slavery. They’re asking the manager to wear a horrible black and gold uniform and it’s not like you can even feel proud to put ‘Wolves manager’ on your CV.

“Look at Mick McCarthy, he did the job for years and he’s still out of work now.”

Published February 21, 2012

Related Posts