It won’t be like before.

14 layoffs is not the limit

The pace of life is accelerating rapidly. This is also reflected in football. In particular, on the attitude towards results, successes and failures, the interaction of clubs and coaches. 8 May marks the 10th anniversary of Alex Ferguson’s announcement that he was stepping down as Manchester United manager. After 27 years of work. It’s been ten years and now there’s the boss Premier League it can be considered successful if it lasts 27 weeks.

Panic has replaced patience in executive offices. It’s all because of the fear of financial loss, as spending soars, spending records are broken, the stakes are high. And moving away from the elite, missing out on European competitions – all this has a strong impact on the club’s financial prospects. And in a panic, the owners are ready to pay penalties, shake up the staff, putting the momentary result first and taking on new risks, trying to avoid existing ones.

Javi Gracia was sacked by Leeds last week after 70 days on the job. The former Watford manager became the 14th Premier League manager to lose his job this season. A record figure for a championship. Graham Potter (Chelsea, 206 days) and Nathan Jones (Southampton, 95 days) have also been hired and fired this season. And Christian Stellini lasted 31 days as interim manager of Tottenham following Antonio Conte’s sacking in March.

Now, various sources say Chelsea interim manager Frank Lampard is guaranteed to stay in charge of the squad until the end of the season, while the club is looking for a new permanent manager. But after six defeats in six games since his return to Stamford Bridge, it cannot be ruled out that the 44-year-old will find himself in the position of being sacked by two clubs in the course of a single season. Indeed, in early January he was sacked by Everton, where he spent less than a year.

Retirement is not a panacea

Sky Sports conducted an interesting study last month. He proved it from the first season Premier League in 1992/93, 73 teams sacked managers in the relegation zone. And since then only 31 clubs have managed to keep a place in the elite, which represents 42% of the total. So even the change of head coach itself, often perceived as a banal emotional jolt that has nothing to do with the coaching talent of a newly appointed specialist, does not always guarantee success.

The job of a coach has always been subject to risk. Ferguson’s longevity Manchester United can be considered unusual. But even though he struggled to survive after a rocky start, the bosses gave Sir Alex more than three years to switch sides before he managed to win his first trophy, the FA Cup in 1990. Such patience is now unthinkable.

After a run of three defeats in a row, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp recently said his position is only secure thanks to previous successes at the club:

I am aware that I am sitting here for the past and not for what we are showing this season. If this were my first season, things would be a little different now. We have smart owners who understand the situation, but usually mean nothing.

Klopp emphasizes two essentials to job retention: success and owners who know what they’re doing. Klopp understands that winning is the best guarantee against losing your job. But now it’s an exception. Most coaches are denied time. If they don’t give immediate results, their days are numbered. Potter, Jones, Gracia are examples. Although, perhaps, there was an error in their signature.

Measure seven times

When Liverpool hired Klopp in October 2015, then club sporting director Michael Edwards spent several months researching the former Borussia Dortmund manager. To be evaluated if he adapts to Liverpool with respect to the structural plan drawn up by the American owners of the club. It took Manchester United five months to identify Erik ten Hag as a permanent replacement for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer last season. And director of football John Murtaugh has conducted a detailed analysis of the former Ajax manager’s profile.

Potter themselves, Jones and Gracia appeared to be largely random figures whose appointment was the result of an impulsive decision. These solutions lacked the depth of research. There is, for example, a clear example of the appointment of Sean Dyche to Everton. Only time will tell how true the passage was. After all, the club wanted to see Marcelo Bielsa as Lampard’s replacement. And it turned out to hire Dyche. Sean has a great reputation, but they are completely different from Bielsa in terms of football philosophy.

And this toss of the club’s garments shows that this is not an in-depth study of options. This is an attempt to point a finger to the sky. And there are more and more such attempts. No one is arguing that deep processing guarantees no errors. But one perceives, after a thoughtful appointment, the current result through the prism of previous research. This gives more patience and confidence. If the decision was impulsive, after the first failures you think you have missed the target and change coaches in much the same way, creating a vicious circle.

The cycle of “survivors”

It is interesting that even in such a frantic approach there is a more or less working scheme. It is used both in Russia and in England. Crystal Palace, for example, have hired Roy Hodgson to save them from relegation. He did so in March by sacking Patrick Vieira. Hodgson had planned to retire last year but had previously worked at Crystal Palace for four years. Therefore, the club understood perfectly who it was hiring, had an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe working methods of a specialist.

Leeds have made a similar bet on Sam Allardyce, who has previously helped the likes of Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Everton avoid relegation in desperate situations. His last spell at West Brom in 2021 ended in relegation. But Leeds are unable at this moment to reflect on every scenario experienced by the expert Allardyce. There are four rounds left until the end of the season. Leeds upped the ante and rolled the dice, deciding a better survival specialist was better than Gracia, who lost seven of their 12 games.

One thing is clear: the days of coaches like Ferguson being given time to overcome early setbacks are long gone. Now everyone is waiting for the result immediately. And this fits perfectly with the universal acceleration of life. We started living faster. This has both its pros and cons. You expand the range, the breadth of choice, by examining more options, but because of this speed, you can easily miss out on something of real value without giving it time to impress you.