Hoyle’s decision though seems to be symptomatic of the way chairmen can be in football. The need for quick success and the damaging effect that a continuing lack of success can have on a club’s coffers often constitutes a quick-fire decision. I’m all too aware of this being a Preston North End Fan, a club which has hired and fired three managers in the last three years and look nowhere near to a return to the kind of form which saw them reach the Championship play-off final in 2005. Surely stability is the key for a club to be run successfully and smoothly.
Let’s look at the most classic example of this, current Premier League champions Manchester United. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been at the helm for just over 25 years. 25 years of unparalleled success in the English game. That’s what stability does for a club. Take a glance at the club’s title rivals Chelsea for an example of how not to run a steady ship. Chairman Roman Abramovich has hired and fired four managers in three-and-a-half years before employing current boss Andre Villas-Boas. Chelsea currently find themselves 17 points adrift of league leaders Manchester City.
Hoyle is the not the first and won’t be the last chairman to make a decision which will baffle many in the public eye. He obviously made this with the club’s best interests at heart and genuinely believes that Huddersfield Town may well gain promotion – simply not with Lee Clark at the helm. But, let’s be honest here – firing a man who has suffered three defeats in 55 games? A man with a 49% win ratio? It seems a little bit short-sighted and surely Clark should have at least been given till the end of the season, particularly with the club still in with a good shout of automatic promotion?
Clark’s exit paves the way for him to take the vacant managerial role at Leeds United, a job for which he is currently favourite. However, chairman Ken Bates (a man with few friends in football) and his fellow board members are on a hiding to nothing from the club’s fans who have frequently expressed their disapproval at the way in which the club is currently run. From the frying pan into the fire it seems for the young, ambitious Clark, if he were to take over of course. Just don’t expect him to be safe from the dreaded chop should he fail to take Leeds up in his first 12 months.
The sacking of Lee Clark is a shame for the game but one which is a sign of the times, an indictment of the current football world in which we live. Success is fiercely coveted and it must come quickly – or the manager must fall. Shame it can’t be the players who face the sack.
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I just wish all of you that were saying it is unexpected had sat at all the games we have this year and seen lacklustre performances, scrambled draws, poor tactics, ‘old manned’ by other managers (especially Martin Allen). All this from a manager who has bought without thought. Of course the squad is worth more – he has spent (squandered) the money! Why purchase every midfielder (Johnson, Miller, Gobern, Ward, Arfield, Robinson, Higgingbotham, McDermott etc) when everyone knew we needed pacey defenders. For every good player he bought, there are 3 signings not even good enough to get on his bench. Huge squad, 3 player changes every game, lack of cohesion.
At the end of every game his interview was that they will sort it out on the training ground next week! But next week was always the same.
IT WAS NOT UNEXPECTED, only to those with their head somewhere dark!
I do not comment on NUFC games, as I have not seen them play, so what makes you such an expert on HTAFC?
Spot on Mr Wood – after 3 years we are exactly where we were. Same division still not running away with it. LC has squandered millions & we still can’t even win a playoff. He lost it for me with the negative team selection for the playoff final. Posh were there to be attacked given their poor defensiuve record & what do we do – play 4-5-1 with an Arsenal novice as the only striker for 80 mins, with Rhodes on the bench ??!! LC just has not learnt anything…Also his dodgy touting of himself for Leicester & Leeds was unprofessional…
Thanks for the feedback. I have a good mate who’s a Town fan and he wanted shot of him too. I’m just seeing and saying it from an outsider perspective. Still, I’d swap positions with you lot in a heartbeat!