A week has now gone by since one of the game’s most high-profile managerial sackings – and what have we learned?
Only, perhaps, that football, far from being “just a game”, as many traditionalists would love to believe, is in fact the most ruthless of businesses. And that the cash-rich Premier League, supposedly the Holy Grail for any coach worth his salt, is the most ruthless league of them all.
Incredibly, David Moyes’ dismissal after just 295 days at Manchester United means that exactly half the 20 Premier League clubs have now got rid of their managers within this one solitary season, breaking the record set in 1994-95. It’s a sobering statistic.
While some sackings are necessary no-brainers, others are rashly ill-judged. All of them are cruel. The jury is still out as to which of the first two categories Moyes fell into though one thing is for sure: it was a glaring error of judgment that United failed to add significantly to their squad last summer. So much for rebuilding.
The harsh reality is that United is a huge global business, whose commercial success off the pitch is directly dictated by results on it. In that regard, for all the worthy comments about them being a “special” club that doesn’t do sackings, they acted, rightly or wrongly, just like anyone else in their position would.
Whilst Ryan Giggs is unlikely to be the main man beyond the end of this season, as night follows day it was inevitable that the first game played after Moyes was shown the door would produce the requisite backlash. So it proved at the weekend as United swept Norwich City aside.
Not that anyone should have much sympathy for Norwich, a homely, welcoming club with a reputation for being decent and fair-minded – until they got rid of their own equally decent and fair-minded manager, Chris Hughton, with only a handful of games to go, as the threat of relegation suddenly loomed large.
Everyone knows why football club boards act with such brutality. Exiting the Premier League, perhaps not to return for several more years, is a financial dagger through the heart. Unthinkable. Inconceivable. Disastrous.
But why do they always believe that installing a new man in the hotseat, in Norwich’s case with a month to go, will somehow bring about a miraculous, last-ditch change in fortune? It’s a flawed premise yet chairmen and directors simply don’t seem to get it.
Norwich, for what it’s worth, are in graver danger now of relegation than they were at the time Hughton was unceremoniously axed. So, as it happens, are Fulham who have sacked not one but two managers this season. And so are Cardiff who, for some unknown reason, decided that the success Ole Gunnar Solskjaer enjoyed in his native Norway, where the rewards and pressures are hardly of a similar standard, would somehow give them a greater chance of survival than they had under Malky Mackay, a proven British manager who got them into the Premier League in the first place.
Personally, much as I have long had a soft spot for both Norwich and Fulham and have been highly impressed with the way the classy, gentlemanly Solskjaer has conducted himself since returning to English shores following his stellar playing career with Manchester United, I will shed no tears if the current bottom three all go. Maybe that would be the only way to get the message across that panic sackings are not always the best approach and that gambles don’t always pay off.
That is presumably how Moyes must be thinking right now, too. It was always going to be a tall order following the living legend that is Alex Ferguson and immediately adding to the glittering array of titles and trophies accumulated under arguably the greatest manager in English football history. But don’t forget, at the time he was appointed Moyes was almost universally viewed as the right man, whatever his subsequent failings – not least by Ferguson who personally endorsed his fellow Scot and should therefore surely take some of the responsibility for things going wrong.
If Moyes had been the man who succeeded the man who succeeded Ferguson – in other words the second manager through the Old Trafford door after Fergie’s retirement – he may have stood a chance. Even in this transitional term, had United been able to finish in the top four, he would almost certainly have been retained. But the extent of the downward spiral was too alarming and worrying for the United board to bear. Lowest ever Premier League position; failure to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 1995; too many lame performances. It couldn’t have got much worse.
Over the weekend, however, some of the reports about United’s alleged conduct in the days leading up to Moyes’ sacking made for grim reading, hardly worthy of a club of such statesmanlike stature. Their millions of fans worldwide probably won’t care a jot but it was pretty unsavoury stuff and won’t make them any new friends.
As for the future, whoever takes over full-time can’t really fail. As ever with football, it’s all about timing: calamitous for some, ideal for others. Moyes, for a combination of reasons, lowered the bar further than anyone at the club could stomach. Whoever steps up to the plate next will have a distinct advantage before he even starts. He can only take United one way – back up again.
Andrew Warshaw was formerly Sports Editor of the The European newspaper and is chief correspondent of Insideworldfootball. Contact Andrew at moc.l1735574279labto1735574279ofdlr1735574279owdis1735574279ni@wa1735574279hsraw1735574279.werd1735574279na1735574279