Tuesday 17 December 2013

Trigger happy Premier League chairmen

With less than half of the unpredictable and fantastic 2013-14 Premier League season passed, one quarter of clubs have changed their managers. Four have been sacked while another departed by mutual consent.

As BT Sport battles with BSkyB for rights to televise matches, more and more money becomes invested in football, and thus the importance for clubs of guaranteeing success becomes ever more pronounced.

This season has seen chairmen crack down on their clubs' managers with unprecedented severity. They are no longer allowed a series of losses while the team adjusts to a new style of play. If a new swathe of players is brought in, they are expected to deliver instant results.

Failure to pass this latter test has resulted in, or at least contributed to, Sunderland and Tottenham departing with their bosses.

The media, this season, have too been faster than ever to shine their spotlight on an underachieving manager. Arsene Wenger was 'in crisis' after the opening day loss to Aston Villa. Andre Villas-Boas went from delivering modest success to leading the sack race in one heavy defeat by Manchester City.

In the weeks that followed it was David Moyes, after consecutive home defeats, whose credentials were being examined. Then Villas-Boas's Spurs lost 0-5 to Liverpool and was out of the job the following morning.

In a cooler, less trigger happy climate, any of the departed managers could still be in their jobs. Here's why the five who have gone should have remained:


Paolo Di Canio (Sunderland), sacked after five games
• Took the reins from Martin O'Neill, who left after winning only two points from a possible 24. Di Canio was an immediate hit, recording back-to-back wins against Newcastle and Everton, and eased Sunderland to safety over Wigan Athletic.
• The team was radically overhauled in the summer. Over a full team's worth of new recruits were brought it, and while the fiery Italian's widely maligned political views may have communicated the wrong message about Sunderland's brand, ultimately it was Di Canio's inability to embed them into a winning outfit which cost him.

Ian Holloway (Crystal Palace), resigned after eight games
• Won promotion from an especially competitive year in the Championship.
• Squad appeared to lack Premier League quality, and Holloway felt he wasn't the person to ensure top-flight survival.

Martin Jol (Fulham), sacked after 13 games
• Built a healthy squad of young and old players

Steve Clarke (West Brom), sacked after 16 games
• Led West Brom to their record points tally and an eight-place finish.
• Beat Manchester United away.

Andre Villas-Boas (Tottenham), sacked after 16 games
• Led Spurs to their record points tally (73).
• Sold a player for a world-record fee
• Left Spurs with the highest win percentage of all Spurs managers since 1899.

Monday 16 December 2013

The Premier League's knee-jerk culture is growing out of hand

Andre Villas-Boas became this season's fifth Premier League manager to lose his job on Monday morning. Steve Clarke was the fourth, just two days earlier. The league is not yet at the halfway stage.

There are similarities between the two in the circumstances leading to their dismissals. Neither were abject failures; if anything, the opposite is true. Both led their sides to their clubs' highest ever points tallies in 2012-13. Villas-Boas was a point away from usurping Arsenal for fourth spot, while Clarke masterminded West Brom to a remarkable eighth-placed finish.

Spurs' total of 72 points was the most ever recorded by a team that finished outside the top four. They were edged by their north London rivals and Chelsea, who recorded 75 points. The manager had succeeded yet failed: Spurs chairman Daniel Levy's ambition of turning Spurs into a Champions League side would have to wait another year. Villas-Boas wasn't given the chance to better his total.

Daniel Levy fired AVB after only 16 games of the new season; photo by Doha Stadium Plus

West Brom finished one place below the 'super seven' last term. The points gap of 12 between them and Liverpool, who finished seventh, is so great that it could be said that West Brom under Clarke won a 'league of the rest'. To break the monopoly of those seven would be an achievement of staggering proportions.

The following campaign was destined to be tougher for both clubs as each lost their star player. Gareth Bale and Romelu Lukaku contributed 38 goals last term combined.

West Brom replaced Lukaku, a battering ram of a centre-forward who could finish too, with Victor Anichebe. It was a like-for-like swap in positional terms, yet a severe reduction in quality.

Spurs sold Bale, the league's most devastating attacking force since Cristiano Ronaldo, for a world-record £86m. They spent a large chunk of this on Erik Lamela, but expecting an immediate impact from a 21-year-old who just altered cultures is unrealistic. Meanwhile, Andros Townsend has been less productive than his eye-catching performances would suggest.

Spurs spent the remainder of this money, and £21m more, on six others. They were expected by Levy to go straight into the first team and deliver instant success. But settling so many players into a team takes time. Levy is not a former footballer and clearly does not appreciate this.

A manager should be allowed to finish the season. When the team has been totally overhauled, and is one point better off than at the same stage last season where they went on to record their highest ever points tally, the manager should be afforded until the season's end at least to achieve his goals.

Villas-Boas might have avoided the sack if he applied some damage limitation in matches against Manchester City and Liverpool. Steve Clarke might still be at West Brom if they had beaten Chelsea. These are such small margins. The knee-jerk reactions of Premier League chairmen, giving managers no room for failure, is getting out of hand.