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WHO WANTS TO BE SACKED BY A MILLIONAIRE? PART 2

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Written by Ricky Murray

The average lifespan of a manager is now, according to Gareth Southgate, ‘one and a half years’, which is a very sad state of affairs considering the time needed in putting together a team. In last week’s article I discussed the necessities in allowing a manager time in getting to know his club and surroundings, using a top-flight boss such as Alex Ferguson as an example in showing that PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE. This week I will relate this to the plight of lower-league bosses past and present.

This season has, again, seen many promising managers, young and old, being sacked after a tragically short amount of time. Money will always play a part in football and our own personal lives, but the extent of its importance is becoming bigger than the game itself with clubs becoming more mired in debt than ever before, which has sent many chairman into a blind panic with the large amounts of revenue at stake. Like a gambler in a casino, they hope that the next move they make will be the one that will bring them their rewards, with little thought for time and patience. I hazard a guess that most chairmen do not know much about the history of football otherwise they would have seen the benefits reaped by allowing the right man to build his team. Rome was not built in a day, so they say, and neither are football clubs. If you look to the past and present, nearly every single manager has gained success after being given a substantial period in which to construct a team.

In years gone by it has taken managers years to get a team finally worthy of promotion – take the case of Joe Royle at Oldham Athletic. It took him eight seasons from 1982/83 to drag them out of the old Second Division into the big time having ended the previous campaigns, barring a 3rd place finish in 1986/87, around the mid-table mark.

Wimbledon, under Dave Bassett, were relegated from the old Third Division in his first season, but they kept with him and the same man guided them to the first tier only nine years after being a non-league side, which aside from their unusual style of playing, resulted from the players becoming familiar with Bassett’s methods. The same applies to Royle who was given the time for his team to gel, one that, to this day, many consider to be the finest footballing side witnessed outside the top division as they reached the League Cup final and FA Cup semi-final in 1990.

A year later the Latics were promoted to the old First Division for the first time in sixty-eight years where they would stay until 1994; a culmination of Big Joe having breathing space to figure out what player was best for each position, how each player fitted into his own techniques (because not all do), and if they don’t then having the time to find the right replacement, which is exactly the kind of things that the former Everton man went through to attain the squad that eventually gave him his success.

Continue reading on page 2…

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