The chairman of Ipswich Town, David Sheepshanks, said at the time, ‘‘given our single minded ambition to gain promotion this season the directors have decided to draw a line under a frustrating 12 months.’’ The term ‘‘single minded’’ seems a very appropriate one to apply to him and the board. Burley had served them for 20 years as a player and manager, so virtually knew the club inside out and because of this and his past achievements, was most likely the best man to take them back up again. He knew what the job required.
The hypothesis of Sheepshanks certainly hasn’t paid dividends because what have Ipswich Town achieved at senior level since then? NOTHING! Their impressive youth system whilst Burley was there, bringing through young players such as Darren Bent, Richard Wright, Kieron Dyer and Jamie Scrowcroft, is still in place and still nurturing very good young talent, but Ipswich have been lumbering in the second tier for nearly ten years now, often in the bottom half.
So does any sane person really think that giving George the boot was the right decision? I don’t think so. The people on the board of the club showed initial patience, sticking with Burley through the play-off heartbreak’s, which paid off, but as soon as a blip occurred, they pushed the panic button. It is a decision that has consigned them to being mere also-runs and a symbol of mediocrity in the division ever since.
This could now happen to Cardiff City as it often takes teams a few attempts before finally hitting the big time rather than regularly chopping and changing managers in order to achieve that goal. I mentioned earlier that it took Wolverhampton Wanderers a while before Dave Jones came in and won them promotion via the play-offs after many near-misses, whilst for George Burley and Ipswich, there were three seasons of play-off agony before winning them at the fourth time of asking.
These are just a couple examples of patience being a virtue. Some chairmen and their cronies seem more interested in punishing their managers rather than stepping back and thoroughly assessing the situation. I’m sure they try to do that, but so many just reach for the panic button hoping for a quick solution, which one will seldom ever find. There was a time when many different football clubs would win varying honours as most managers were given time to train and get to know their players in finding the most effective ways in which to create a winning formula, but clubs will never lay down solid foundations to becoming successful without patience, which is one of the reasons why, I feel, that it is more or less the same clubs winning the same trophy’s time and time again. As the old saying goes: Rome wasn’t built in a day.
And that sentiment certainly applies to football clubs.
Don’t be surprised to hear me rant on this subject in the very near future. Give us your thoughts. Feel free to leave me any comments on here and/or on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or YouTube:
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Jones had six years at Cardiff, his longest spell at any club. In the end, despite several admirable achievements, he failed to win promotion with a squad that was clearly as good as those of the three sides who went up. Fair enough to give a new man a chance.
In general terms I agree with the point you argue, but, speaking as a Cardiff fan, I think you could have picked a better club to make it with.
Let’s not forget that Dave Jones had six seasons at Cardiff, so we are not talking about some knee jerk reaction here. Six seasons is a long time, especially when you see the same things going wrong in each of them (for example, have a look at Cardiff’s record in the month of November since 2005/06).
Cardiff’s capitulation over the last four matches of the season just ended would be a top contender for biggest footballing implosion of the twenty first century if they hadn’t surpassed it themselves with the mother of all late season collapses in 2008/09.
Dave Jones’ Cardiff side had a history of losing the very big league matches during his time in charge. That is why many of the 23.000 Cardiff fans present on the night watched the Play Off defeat by Reading with a sense of resignation – they had seen it all before and expected no different from a City side under that manager.
That said, I think Dave Jones did a good job overall at Cardiff in his first five seasons with us, but that cannot be said about 2010/11 when we played like a collection of individuals as opposed to the three sides above (and many below us) who were teams in every sense of the word.
Last September Dave Jones himself said that he did not expect to still be in a job if the squad (which he called his best ever) he had put together were still in the Championship in twelve months time. If the man himself thought that you can hardly blame the club’s hierarchy for feeling the same way.
I don’t think it was a traditional sacking, more like when you realise you don’t fancy your girlfriend much any more, and she doesn’t fancy you. Was a parting of two seperate souls. It was the correct decision and am pleased we have appointed MM.
This report fails to state that Cardiff have stuck by Dave Jones for six years making him the longest serving manager in the championship.
Dave Jones worked wonders with a shoe string budget taking Cardiff to Wembley three times and he was a great manager for Cardiff.
After six years it was time for a change, his tactics were too
predictable and the team never won if they conceded first!
There was no plan B and an over reliance on highly paid underperforming players and rarely gave youngsters a chance!
DJ was too quick to blame fringe players who made mistakes,
EG Adam Mathews who Celtic signed on a free.
Having said that, Dave Jones is an experienced manager that any other team on a limited budget should seriously consider.
I do agree with all your points, but I think, whether Cardiff have got a fair amount of money or not, I think he’s done well to get them so close to promotion to the Premiership considering the club have been lingering in the lower divisions for nearly fifty years now. They’ve only been in the play-offs two seasons in a row and I think he may have eventually achieved it had he been given another season or two. It took Alex Ferguson SEVEN seasons to win the league for Man Utd, a club that is and was EXPECTED to win it. He finished in the bottom half a couple of times as well. I think there was more expectation to win the top division than the amount expected at Cardiff to get promoted to the top division as United had won it many times in the past and were often challenging for it when they failed to do so unlike Cardiff who have only been near the top for the past two seasons.