WINDOWS AND DOORS SLAM SHUT

February 2011

Just under 24 hours ago the transfer window came to a close. It means we all pretty much know what we’ve got for the rest of the season, bar the odd temporary loan. I’m sure though, the closing of the window takes on an added significance for more than a handful of managers. If they have survived it still in a job, they can sleep a bit more comfortably at night – for a little bit longer at least.

The start of the window these days seems to be a cue for Chairmen up and down the country to consider their options. After all, for those who may have niggling doubts creeping in about the man they have at the helm, if things haven’t gone well so far do they really trust them to make good use of the opportunity to improve their team, or is it time to place that trust in someone else?

It certainly looks like someone found another gear for the managerial merry-go-round in the last few weeks. There have been 31 managerial changes already this season and 10 of those were in January alone. If you throw in the fact that Chris Hughton became the 15th to depart when he left Newcastle on 6th December then you really do get a view of a frightening picture.

Of course, not all of these changes are sackings due to poor performance; some are prompted by managers moving to fill a vacancy higher up the football pyramid. Nonetheless they are statistics changing the face of football as we know it. Research at the time suggested that between 1992 - when the Premier League started - and 2005, 80% of management changes were due to dismissals.

In 1992 a manager could expect to be in a job for three-and-a-half years; last season that average fell to the 16 month mark. That is a dramatic decline in less than 20 years.

It’s something emphasised by the fact that former Cobbler, Paul Trollope, was the ninth longest serving manager at the start of the current campaign – despite the fact he only hung his boots up in 2005.

So where does that leave things? Well for a start, without any more room to explore the reasons why in any detail but it’s something we can consider in a future publication.

Instead, I’ll leave you with a little brain teaser. Of the Cobblers players that faced Manchester United in the FA Cup seven years ago to the weekend just passed, how many have gone on to become managers?

 

Answer: Four

Ian Sampson (Northampton Town – appointed September 2009)
Lee Harper (Kettering Town – left by mutual consent in September 2010)
Des Lyttle (Tamworth – appointed October 2010)
Greg Lincoln (Thurrock – resigned in January 2011)

Paul Trollope (Bristol Rovers – sacked December 2010) was suspended.

One to watch out for in the future is Paul Harsley. He was appointed as Scunthorpe United’s Under-9 to Under-16 schoolboy co-ordinator in January 2011.

 

This was first published in the Northampton Town matchday programme in February 2011.

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