Column: Buying a professional football team? Ten lessons learned: #2 - This is by far the most critical post-takeover challenge

Alexander Janssen was involved on the ownership side of two clubs, one in Belgium and the other in Spain, where he learned that the football industry is not only extremely competitive but very, very different to the environment that he used to work in.

As a successful consultant with deep knowledge of turnarounds, he inexplicably experienced a sudden disregard of the discipline and long-term mindset that normally characterised his every move.

Janssen has written ten columns about the insights he gained from being involved with those two clubs. This is the second.

In this column the Dutchman reflects on the simple fact that it is fairly important to have the right manager and the right players on board. It might be an obvious fact, but it's nonetheless really hard to control in real life.