If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Stay Out of the Dugout!
West Ham manager Alan Curbishley is the latest in a long line of Premier League managers to feel pressure from both his own fans and from the poisoned pens of the press after a string of poor results.
This criticism comes despite a marked improvement in both form and League position from last season which leads one to question whether fans and chairmen demand far too much from the men in charge of their clubs these days.
Managers Dropping Like Flies
Already this season we’ve seen 8 Premier League clubs dispose of their managers, of those eight clubs, seven of them find themselves unsurprisingly in the bottom half of the table. If you look at the League positions of the clubs when they sacked their managers and compare their predicaments now, only two men have made impressive impacts at their new clubs. The men in question are the Juande ‘the cup collector’ Ramos and Steve ‘look at me now Birmingham’ Bruce.
Martin Not So Jolly as Ramos Revolution Takes Shape
When Martin Jol was dismissed back in October, Spurs were struggling in 18th place but under the mercurial Spaniard they’ve leapt a stunning seven places to 11th. Ok, so it’s not a staggering improvement in four and a half months if you take into account the strength of the squad he inherited but they are definitely on an upward curve. The Dutchman lost his position at Tottenham despite two 5th placed Premier League finishes in successive years. His failure to achieve qualification to the Champions League, the Holy Grail for Premier League clubs was in the end his ultimate downfall despite overwhelming fan support.
Bruce Brings Hope to the Latics
Steve Bruce was Wigan Chairman Dave Whelan’s 2nd choice for the manager’s role after sacking the hapless Chris Hutchings. His first choice for a return to the JJB was former manager Paul Jewell. However, once he rejected the clubs advances for the strange decision to take charge of Derby, Bruce was brought in. When he was appointed the club were lying in 18th position and on a losing streak, he’s since taken the Latics to the dizzy heights of 13th and made a mockery of the Birmingham board’s ridiculous criticism of him. In fact, the Blues themselves have dropped 2 places to 17th from when Bruce was sacked until now.
Big Sam Sacked Toon Soon?
Some clubs will rue the decisions they’ve made to replace their managers so early in the season. One such club could be Newcastle if their situation doesn’t improve in future weeks. Despite an impressive track record in establishing Bolton as a Premier League force on a shoestring budget, Sam Allardyce was given just 24 League games in charge of the Toon. He has a reputation as a ‘long-ball specialist’ which did not fit in with the Newcastle fans romanticised views on football so he would have always struggled to win over the Geordie hordes unless his team was particularly successful, which they weren’t. However, when he was sacked the club were in a comfortable 11th position and despite Newcastle owner Mike Ashley giving the fans exactly what they wanted in the shape of former Tyneside legend Kevin Keegan, things have got far worse. Was it fair to judge Big Sam on just 24 League games? Fair enough, the team were not pulling up trees in the division but he’d hardly spent a huge amount of money by Premier League standards and new signings nearly always need time to bed in at a new club. Did Toon fans really expect their side to be competing with the big boys this season after performances in recent years? Surely a bit of patience, at least till the end of the season would have sufficed.
Sanchez’ Spending Spree Spelt Doom
Lawrie Sanchez lasted the same amount of games in the Fulham hot seat as Allardyce did at St James’. However, he was only given 19 League games this season. He won just 3 of those matches on the back of a £20million spending spree on 13 new players so his chances of an extended stay with the Cottagers were slim. Like Big Sam, Sanchez was not a fashionable appointment but after backing the manager with the biggest spending spree in the clubs history, was it wise to replace him? Especially when you consider the lack of time the new man (Roy Hodgson) has had to make his mark on a squad largely bought by his predecessor.
Curbishley Paying the Price for Own Success
Can we as fans judge a team’s performance in the League purely on the points accumulated? Should we not take into account the circumstances off the pitch in each case? Take Alan Curbishley for example. If you’d offered Hammers fans a year ago 10th position in the table, they’d have bitten your hand of. Yet despite narrowly surviving last season and losing their star player Carlos Tevez, the Upton Park faithful have begun to turn on the former Charlton man. West Ham are in no danger of the drop but also no danger of pushing on for European football. What exactly do Hammers fans expect from a side almost relegated last season, dreams of Europe smack of being a tad unrealistic. A run of emphatic defeats has turned the mid-table melancholy around Upton Park into a cauldron of pressure on Curbs, but if you look at the circumstances regarding the Hammers season, it’s fair to say he has been extremely unlucky, especially in the injury department.
Should We Look at the Bigger Picture?
Curbishley went on a huge spending spree in the summer but has received very little in return, at least £26million worth of talent has been unavailable through injury for the majority of the season in the shape of Julien Faubert, Kieron Dyer, Craig Bellamy and Scott Parker. Therefore the majority of the West Ham team line-ups this season have been dominated by the same players that struggled so badly last season. If you take those circumstances into account then Curbishley’s performances take on a whole different light. Whether the Hammers fans or board will accept that excuse if their losing run continues remains to be seen. However, it goes to show that both the men in charge of the clubs and we as fans should sometimes look at the bigger picture and not just reach for the quick fix as it could all go horribly wrong, as Mike Ashley and Newcastle may soon find out!
Written by Christian Goodbrand
Tags: Alan Curbishley, Lawrie Sanchez, Managers, Premier League, Sam Allardyce
March 14th, 2008 at 16:41
Curbishley has bought loads of sicknotes that’s the problem, the fella has wasted so much money it’s untrue. When you lose 4-0 three times in a week of course you should be under pressure, we ain’t Derby are we??