Managers are not given any chance to build their teams these days before they are fired which is totally ridiculous.
(Matt le Tissier invites you to play his goal-prediction game before Thursday night and win £200 in November by logging on to www.goaldengoals.co.uk)
This season is barely a quarter the way through and by my reckoning we’ve had NINE bosses sacked since the opening day.
The average term of a manager’s job is getting shorter and shorter – it never seems you are given any time to build anything.
That’s why I didn’t go into coaching or management although I have to admit that I did once apply for the Southampton job.
If that mentality had been around 20-25 years ago Sir Alex Ferguson would never have become the manager he became.
Manchester United stuck with him through some pretty lean times when he first went there and they certainly reaped their rewards.
They actually allowed Fergie to build a football club, and weren’t just planning for the short-term which happens so often nowadays – which drives me crackers.
And what happened? He turned into one of the greatest managers in the history of the game by winning 38 trophies in 26 years!
All because he had a board of directors who did not panic, but stood by him in the bad times and believed in what he was doing.
But that doesn’t happen for the most part these days when managers are solely judged by their last run of results.
Ian Holloway recently left Crystal Palace by “mutual consent” just five months after leading the Eagles back into the top division via the play-offs.
That happened soon after Gillingham sacked Martin Allen who guided the club to the League Two title last season.
Middlesbrough dismissed Tony Mowbray, Bury parted company with Kevin Blackwell and David Weir left Sheffield United just four months into the job.
Gregg Abbott was the first to go at Carlisle just six games into the season and he was the third longest serving manager in English football having first sat in the hot seat in 2008!
Only last weekend Chris Kiwomya left Notts County by “mutual consent” after taking control of the first team in February.
Of course every departure has a different inside story which may not always come out in the media.
I was shocked when Derby sacked Nigel Clough but I had tipped at the start of the season that Paulo Di Canio would be the first Premier League manager to fall.
It was the way he managed at Swindon and didn’t change his ways at Sunderland that made my mind up.
He was never going to manage the Premier League players the same way as he managed in League One.
It just seemed to me that he had the “My way or the high-way” attitude and had to leave.
Times have changed – you can’t really be a maverick manager like that anymore.
Players have got a lot more power than they ever used to have and you have to manage differently this day and age.
The balance of power has very much shifted in the changing room and it’s very difficult to get a balance there.
You have to have a bit of discipline and get the players’ respect but you’ve also got to keep them on your side which is a very tricky balancing act.
Martin Allen’s sacking certainly surprised me. I found it bizarre that a manager can take the club up and doesn’t get the time to adjust in a new league.
It just seems a bit strange that you are flavour of the month and everyone’s hero when you get promoted but become a shocking manager within a few months
I don’t quite understand that and was one of the reasons why I didn’t get into coaching.
Yes, I gave it some thought when Harry Redknapp left my old club Southampton in 2005 and returned to Portsmouth.
I was thinking about putting a management team together with my former team-mate Francis Benali and we had a couple of chats with Sir Clive Woodward, who was working down there at the time.
But I don’t think chairman Rupert Lowe was too keen on the idea and the official line given out by the club was that we didn’t have any qualifications or coaching badges.
It was never a burning ambition of mine to be a manager but at that time I just wanted to help the club out.
Maybe now, thinking back, I’m glad I didn’t get the job because it probably wouldn’t have lasted that long anyway.
This photograph was provided by Goalden Goals.
