Don't sack the manager

ANOTHER VIEW

Since the start of the season in August, 43 of the 92 Premier and Football League clubs have changed managers. Some even managed to wield the axe more than once, so that 52 managers were involved on the merry-go-round. That's more than twice the average for a normal season, caused largely by the relegation of four clubs instead of two from the Premier League and the increasing financial problems of those in the lower reaches of the Football League.

Statistics show that only a small percentage of clubs benefit from a change at the helm. Yet, in addition to a great deal of anguish for the victims, the cost to clubs in compensation is at least pounds 5m. The cost to the game's image is many times greater.

Some tenures of office are remarkably brief: five months for Russell Slade, followed by four months for Howard Kendall at Notts County; fewer than eight weeks for Paul Futcher at Darlington. Surely, ask many observers, there must be a better system. One problem is that every vacancy produces a hundred applicants from a huge and relatively unskilled labour pool. The majority are, in American parlance, Monday morning quarterbacks asking only a pittance for the chance to put their theories into practice. Some chairmen, particularly in the lower divisions, are ever ready to chance their arms if a few thousand can be knocked off the wage bill. So another head is lined up for the guillotine.

As an association, we have discussed possible solutions at length with the Football Association and Premier League. We have reached an important agreement with the Premier League, which will require that all clubs must register the manager's contract with the league.

If the task of finding a replacement thus becomes more difficult, the risk of termination may be reduced. But the Football League, which accounts for about 75 per cent of all sackings, shows no signs of adopting a similar regulation.

Ideally, we would like to see all chairmen's cars carry a sticker saying "A Manager is for the Season!" But a regulation to this effect, sadly, would have no chance of obtaining the necessary two-thirds majority in either debating chamber.

We believe, therefore, that the longer-term solution lies in better training courses, better qualifications and a Football Association regulation that clubs can only appoint as coaches and managers those who hold the appropriate qualifications. That is precisely what happens already in most European countries. Because the labour pool is far more skilled and far smaller, a club is less likely to sack its head coach at the whim of the chairman. The pool of replacements may well be dry.

There are encouraging signs that the game here is moving in that direction and the League Managers Association is doing its utmost to hasten the pace of progress.

The writer is chairman of the League Managers Association and manager of Leeds United Football Club.