Interesting that Bill never responded to this one, or anything that Zondor posted that contradicted his point.
It is honestly baffling that a person who claims to follow professional sport could effectively claim that a senior coach is little else but a supervisor and that it is only the talent of the team that dictates success, not motivation, tactical formulation and application, and man management.
Maybe it's the amount of Soccer I watch, but a coach who is an excellent tactician and a disciplined but approachable man manger is crucial to success, regardless of the 'cattle.'
See: Melbourne City A-League 2016/17 A-League squad under van't Schip vs Arnold's Sydney FC or Amor's Adelaide United from last season. Tottenham under Redknapp, who had a collection of some of the most talented players in the league for about 3 or 4 years (Modric, Bale, van der Vaart, King etc) who's only success was 1 Champions League appearance. Spurs, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool etc v Ranieri's Leicester City who won the title with a team that only just escaped relegation the season before under a different manager. That's by no means an exhaustive list, just a few examples that immediately come to mind that suggest that quality cattle is meaningless unless there is a good coach coaching and managing the group. A good coach is also significantly more capable of getting performances out of poor players than a poor coach can get from good players.