Is there ever a right time to sack a manager? How soon is too soon or how long do you leave it before the damage has already been done and this late move now won’t make much if any difference.
Although football has always been a results business there is a real lack of patience around the game, especially since the formation of the Premier League and the wealth it has created since.
That’s not to say managers didn’t get sacked before 1992, but the scrutiny nowadays with the increased amount of social media to highlight and pick out every single bad point and opinion does no doubt make the job a lot harder.
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The loss of revenue from dropping down one division is a huge gulf now and then vast sums are spent trying to regain that place, the pressure it puts managers and coaches under must be an extreme feeling at times.
There is a general consensus that around about the ten game mark is the point where you can get a good feeling of where the season would go especially if the start made wasn’t what was expected back in the summer. Sometimes though even that’s not a good gauge of things for various reasons and that turn of form might just be around the corner, but can you take that chance?
It must be at least a little bit soul destroying as the owner of a club having some great vision in August as everything kicks off and within three months it’s all gone down the drain and you’re looking at another six months of despair.
There are some trigger happy chairman who will turn at the first sign of discontent from the terraces, there are others who will make the decision that things aren’t happening for them, let alone anyone else and just like that in comes the next guy to try his luck.
Very few these days will persevere and keep the faith, of course they are closer than most to what goes on daily within a club and from the outside it isn’t always clear which then leaves everyone guessing.
One pet hate of mine is sacking a manager and within hours or days the next guy is settled into the office before the chair has even gotten cold. That never sits right with me and suggests that even if the result previous was better than expected the new man was already set to come in and everything was being done behind the back of a guy who at that point was still in a job.
Some managers do just ‘run their course’ within a particular club and part ways mutually but rarely do you really see that happen despite that being the media line for a lot of departures.
It also seems to be the only job where if you fail at one club your name’s in the hat for another somewhere else and usually have trousered a hefty settlement bill for leaving as well!
Another thing that baffles as well is when a vacancy comes up these days it’s the same old names trotted out as being in the frame, most of having not done well in previous jobs so why do chairman think they’re going to work out any better for them?
Is there anything wrong in giving a new name whose earnt his reputation lower down and is deserving of a chance to show what he can do? There is no guarantee either method works but my feeling is some of these guys have had their time and the game moves on, but also if these up and coming new guys don’t get the opportunities then what happens when the vacancies are there? Will there be even more of a flood from abroad when we have perfectly good coaches and managers over here?
The way the game works currently I don’t see a lot changing unfortunately unless we have an influx of different owners who view the game differently. At non-league levels there are no vast sums of money but the danger is it can always creep further and further down, who’d want to be a manager eh?
