By Andrew Warshaw
December 31 – Getting the sack is one of football management’s occupational hazards but two sudden dismissals in the second tier of English football have brought into sharp focus the impatience of foreign ownership in domestic leagues.
When Blackburn Rovers host Nottingham Forest on New Year’s Day, the game will be noted more for the action off the pitch than for the occasion itself.
Both clubs have long and succesful traditions and would be considered interesting football assets for speculative investors.
Blackburn until last season were in the Premier League and had even won it in 1995. Nottingham Forest have a history that includes European Cups, and although struggling since the 90s, still maintain a solid support at home and internationally.
The clubs would appear attractive for white knights looking for a cheap way to get to English football’s top table. And there is no doubt that rescuing an impoverished club can have a genuinely regenerating effect.
The problems arise when the investors have little or no experience of the game and become too impatient too quickly.
Blackburn and Forest both sacked their respective managers in the space of a few hours last week. In the case of Rovers, Henning Berg lasted a mere 57 days and 10 games.
Berg, who won the Premier League as a Blackburn player in 1995, was appointed on October 31 after the resignation of predecessor Steve Kean and months of angry protests from fans.
Under the Norwegian, relatively untried as a coach outside his homeland, Blackburn only won once but his unceremonious exit was a typically ruthless response from foreign owners who, if they were so aggrieved by his lack of progress, should not have appointed him in the first place.
Berg’s dismissal followed hot on the heels of Sean O’Driscoll’s departure from Nottingham Forest, the club’s Kuwaiti owners
deciding enough was enough and that they wanted a more high profile figure even though Forest had just beaten Leeds United 4-2 at home.
Almost immediately, Forest announced that former Scotland, Glasgow Rangers, Birmingham City and Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish (pictured) had been appointed in O’Driscoll’s place to fulfill the ambition of getting the club who were twice European champions over 30 years ago, back into the top flight sooner rather than later.
O’Driscoll was sacked despite Forest sitting in eighth place at the time, one point away from the top six and a potential playoff position.
Frerign owners are too often consumed by short-term financial ambition rather than long-term stability. Particular this season, a very good one to be promoted to the Premier League with the new TV rights deal kicking in next term.
The speedy departures of O’Driscoll and Berg indicates a desperation to join the big boys in double-quick time, but the Championship doesn’t work like that as anyone who follows it will tell you.
There are a lot of famous teams with illustrious histories in the division who, just like Blackburn and Forest, who believe they belong in the top flight and are scrapping for superiority. Berg and O’Driscoll may not have been the right managers for their respective clubs long-term but their untimely dismissals proved that there is no such thing as continuity in the modern age. To some, it seems, even 57 days is too long…
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