Football management. The career where the next emotion could be the highest of highs or the lowest of lows, sometimes the job where everyone wants to know you and other times the loneliest occupation in the world when the hustle and bustle dies down.
It’s also one employment where if you make it to 18 months these days then you deserve a medal just for that, let alone actually winning some silverware.
Some of that in my opinion comes from the Premier League. Wanting to win yesterday without building the foundations for tomorrow has long been one of my key lines to tell.
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It’s true though when you think about it. If clubs allowed managers to build for success instead of binning them off within months or a year then sometimes you get a stable club instead of the car crash we see so many become season after season.
While I agree not every manager or coach fits, some of that must be down to a lack of due diligence not being carried out well enough to avoid it. Granted though some things do happen within a season that send things south, but how much of that is a high percentage?
My own gaffer at Barnet Dean Brennan is on the brink of returning the Bees to the Football League, a three year project which has culminated in the club needing a single point to win the National League.
There were times within that when he feared the sack in his first year, the team getting thumped on more than a few occasions, really Harry Kewell’s team but Dean struggled to get a tune out of them.
Each year given time the team has improved, as has the league position. 18th in that first year having taken over with two points on the board after seven games.
A jump to 5th and then to 2nd, now sitting in 1st place with two games to go, the time given to improve and now getting their rewards. Not every club will find it’s the right way to go, but seeing some managers getting sacked after just months is pretty ludicrous.
On Wednesday evening I popped along to Corinthian FC in Kent, a club whose programme I pen a column for every home game, to see Michael Golding’s final home game in charge.
Golding has been in the home dug out for ten years, yeah read that one again, because this level of appointment in one place is becoming very few and far between.
I’ve actually encountered a few managers in Sussex this season who’ve managed over 400 and 500 games, levels we’re likely to see disappear as the game moves forward.
But one full decade managing just one club is almost unheard of in today’s modern game. The Hoops are fairly unique, one of that handful or two of clubs that don’t pay their players meaning recruitment is tough.
Michael himself mentioned in a couple of interviews recently his pool of players to pick from and to try and find is running dry. Younger players are their aim, who then move onto higher levels after performing well and get paid whilst trying to entice experienced players is out of the question without a pound note.
His Corinthian side were up against a Whitstable Town side enjoying one hell of a season, the type that don’t come around too often. Having chased down the play-off’s from afar thanks to some excellent cup runs, the Oystermen are in good shape.
Jamie Coyle is at the other end of Golding’s scale, although he’s had a couple of managerial experiences at Ramsgate and Welling Utd the level they have played to this season and managing the late season fixture congestion has been impressive.
Those cup runs have taken them to the Kent Senior Trophy which they couldn’t quite get over the line but next month they experience a day that every Step 5 or 6 club and player want every season, the FA Vase Final at Wembley.
Only the third Kent club to make it to the final, Corinthian reaching the semi-finals themselves a few years ago, the day out is something these players won’t be forgetting in a hurry.
However, before they get there the small matter of trying to achieve promotion back to Step 4, the level they’ve had a taste of in years previous. The thirst is there off the pitch, almost 3000 cramming in to the home leg of the semi-final and an area of Kent where Ramsgate are making a mark themselves.
A 2-1 win on the night for Coyle’s team, not quite to be for the Hoops although the amount of chances created could easily have been 7-7 at half time alone!
Both keepers Andy Norburn and Dan Colmer were superb on the evening, the latter with some breathtaking saves and when beaten one post and the crossbar coming to his rescue.
The curtain comes down fully this weekend on Golding’s tenure away at Lydd Town, a summer to recharge the batteries and then who knows. It’s a not a trip into retirement, he’s far too young for that.
You would hope that clubs will look at his record, especially of signing young players and developing them enough that they move seamlessly into a higher level and believe he can push that higher with a budget at his disposal.
The game though moves on and a space opens up at Gay Dawn Farm for someone new to cut their teeth, take their first steps or take over a side who are established at Step 5, but some ability to hit Step 4, the managerial merry-go-round begins again on Monday…..
