Sacking a manager: How soon is too soon?

Laudrup becomes the latest BPL manager to be shown the door

Ever since the inception of the Premier League, it has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride for managers. The sacking of Michael Laudrup barely a year from his side’s League cup victory only highlighted that all too well. Since the beginning of the Premier League, the average time given to a manager has been dwindling with each season.

With Swansea relieving him of his duties yesterday, Laudrup became the 175^th top-flight manager to be sacked since the Premier League began a little over two decades ago. While some might call it the jinx of the Capital One Cup, which has taken five of its last six winners, others might just call it another day in the life of a top-flight football manager.

Such is the life of a manager these days that even an acrimonious sacking is just considered run-of-the-mill. Laudrup became the seventh Premier League manager to be sacked this season and the first in the New Year and joins a long list of managers who had got the boot from their respective clubs.

Greg Abbott, ex-Carlisle United manager was the first to get the boot this season

The worrying fact is the number is growing higher and higher with every passing season. And it is not just the Premier League, but English football in general, as, with still a few months to go before the season ends, more than 20 managers outside the top-flight, have already been sacked.

In the Premier League, over the last six years, not including the current campaign, a total of 59 managers have been sacked, with more than 10 managers getting the boot in three of the six seasons. Another startling statistic is that, since the inception of the Premier League, there hasn’t been a single season in which no manager was sacked. In fact, with just three dismissals, the 95/96 campaign, was the best time to be a manager.

With the increase in TV deals and money coming from outside the football pitch, the need for staying in the League has forced the hands of more than a few chairmen. Before the advent of the Premier League, managers were left to sort out their own mess, they were given at least a season or two to get things sorted. They had time to get their players motivated, tweak the tactics and change a few things around to get things back on track. Failing to do so, would have resulted ultimately in them getting fired.

However in the current day and age, all it takes is a string of bad results and the distrust of the fans, and poof, before you know it, they are gone. We are creating a system in which, the manager has no time to establish his authority on the players. And before he has time to realize and correct his mistake, the manager is being shown the door.

Now, whose fault is that? Whilst some part of the blame has to go to the club and the fans, much of it, should be attached to the media. Funnily enough, it is the hugely popular football section of papers, the growth of a plethora of sports websites that forces the chairman’s hand. Any manager who has lost a few games in a row, is now “under pressure” and with more space to fill, the papers are having a field day.

Now, is that right? Well, all of it is contextual. If Chelsea or Arsenal lose a couple of games on the run, it can be dismissed as a blip. But if the same scenario is faced by a relegation-threatened club, then the chairman now faces a dilemma. And more often than not, that has resulted in the manager being shown the door. No action is taken on the players for under performing, none taken on the Chief executive who signed him, but just the manager, becomes the scapegoat in this situation.

The chairmen are now overseeing the entire scenario with a preconceived notion that sacking is not just the best thing to do, but the only thing to do. Patience has become a vice in the modern-day football landscape. And that is something that certainly has to change.

Though it is difficult to see past sacking a manager whose team doesn’t look like winning a game in the foreseeable future, the truth is it isn’t always the case. While there are times in which, a change is necessary, in most scenarios, it is better to let things be and let the manager sort out the mess, instead of sacking him and creating a whole new level of bad.

After all, football just like life, is full of ups and downs and you appoint a manager for all seasons, not just the good times. Then again, what do I know, I am not a top-flight chairman overseeing millions of pounds of cash flow. I have told you my opinion on the entire managerial sack-race, it is now time for you to make your own. Do you think managers deserve more time?