Clear your desk and your dug-out

November 4, 2008

Another managerial casualty was announced this morning, the Huddersfield have parted with Stan Ternent just six months after the veteran boss replaced Andy Ritchie at the Galpharm Stadium.

Ternent is the third casualty in 24 hours with Watford and Carlisle dumping Aidy Boothroyd and John Ward and is the 13th of the season so far in the English football leagues. It is only one less than last year at this point, but still is a worrying trend. The past couple of weeks have seen two well-off London clubs release their head coaches and earlier in the season West Ham and Newcastle lost their managers due to their unrest and discomfort at their working conditions and structure.

Over the past couple of years a few of the top clubs have tried the European, director of football/sporting director roles, with not too much success. It was this that caused Alan Curbishley and Kevin Keegan to leave their clubs due to losing control of the players that they able to work with. Spurs have now returned to a more traditional set-up since appointing Harry Redknapp, and the man with the wheeler-dealer reputation would have most likely insisted on such control.

Managers are not only the brain and motivator of a team and it’s tactics, they are often a massive percentage of the attraction for potential new players. Many have mentioned that they came to a club because of a manager, especially in the cases of Redknapp and Aston Villa’s Martin O’Neill.

But with all of the changes in the sheep-skin coats, it’s very easy to spot that the most successful teams in England at least, have stability and a long serving boss. United’s Sir Alex Ferguson had a very shakey start to his tenure in Manchester, and his future was considered by the board at the time, after being given time and belief he hasn’t done too badly has he?

It brings up something that has been mooted before, a transfer window for managers too. Yes it does sound a little bizarre, but something no doubt most back room staff would welcome. It may concern fickle fans yes, and it might worry chairmen who have little patience, but it would force more thought and less rash decisions on the hiring and firing the pitch-side chiefs.
Of course there would be issues like when the window’s would be, because new bosses would need to be able to asses his new squad and buy players - so if it was the same as the player transfer window it might cause problems.

If you are to look at the majority of the gossip from the papers this morning, it is about managerial and coaching changes rather than players. The rumour mill just loves the manager merry-go-round!

One more interesting thing that has become more prevalent in the last few seasons is the method or summary of the departure from clubs. Many chairmen obviously idolised Sir Alan, and imitated him whenever possible - but the fashion has changed, with staff leaving ‘by mutual consent’ being the mode now. Maybe it makes the club appear less harsh, maybe it’s just better on the manager’s CV. But we all know what it really means.

dugout