Will season of goodwill last in boardrooms of Premier League?
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Version 0 of 1. Ian Porterfield is synonymous with May 1973 at Wembley but the scorer of Sunderland’s FA Cup-winning goal against Leeds United has another, rather more obscure, claim to fame. Porterfield, who died of cancer in 2007, set what would become a longstanding record when Chelsea sacked him on 15 February 1993. That was the Premier League’s inaugural season and the Scot was its first managerial casualty. Since then there has not been a campaign in England’s top division during which the 20 managers present at kick-off in August were still occupying their posts the following February. Whether that is now poised to change remains very much a moot point. November and December are traditionally dangerous months for managers but this season has so far been distinguished by a remarkable absence of culling. For the first time since 1995-96 we have got to mid-December without a single sacking. Back then Roy McFarland lasted until January before falling at Bolton Wanderers. But two decades on a measure of admittedly fragile stability appears to have replaced the frenzied hiring and firing of past winters. Only last year Fulham’s Martin Jol, West Brom’s Steve Clarke, Tottenham’s André Villas-Boas and Cardiff’s Malky Mackay were handed their P45s during December and, by then, Paolo Di Canio and Ian Holloway had long since departed Sunderland and Crystal Palace. The poster boy for the new-found spirit of loyalty and continuity is Newcastle United’s Alan Pardew. After spending weeks topping all available “next for the axe” bookmakers’ charts, Pardew choreographed a run of six victories and has just collected a manager-of-the-month award. Granted “the chop” proved a key topic of conversation during his last press conference but it merely related to his back garden – Pardew, unusually, arrived late after having “had a tree surgeon to sort.” If Premier League chairmen and owners suddenly seem markedly less trigger-happy perhaps they are simply reluctant to put themselves through all the upheaval and financial pain involved in regime change. Maybe the herd instinct also comes into it. Mike Ashley may not be uber-popular among his fellow owners but they will have noted that holding his nerve over Pardew paid off. Then there’s Sam Allardyce. “On the brink” last summer he is now masterminding a European challenge at West Ham. Not that the new trend for preservation of the status quo is merely about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. Quite apart from the often daunting cost of paying off fired coaches, there are also the compensation packages for backroom staff, while the precedent set by Fulham, Cardiff and Norwich last May serves as another deterrent. Despite all changing managers mid-campaign – twice in Fulham’s case – that trio were still relegated. West Brom survived, just, but their recruitment of Pepe Mel ended in tears, prompting suggestions they might have been better off sticking with Clarke. Brendan Rodgers’ name has been cropping up in an awful lot of sentences also containing “axe” just lately but, so far, there are no indications the Anfield board are tempted to dispense with the coach who, only months ago, led Liverpool to within touching distance of the title. Similarly last season’s large turnover of top-flight coaches is almost certainly informing current events. It is, for instance, surely still too early to judge Crystal Palace’s Neil Warnock, who stepped into the vacuum created by Tony Pulis’s dramatic Selhurst Park exit 48 hours before the season began. Then there’s the case of Burnley’s “Ginger Mourinho”. In recent seasons winning promotion from the Championship has proved a dangerous business for coaches with several, including Chris Hughton at Newcastle, Mackay and Holloway, paying the price for “over-achievement” by departing within months of arrival in the Premier League. When Sean Dyche spent the opening weeks of the season striving to conjure a win many thought Burnley’s manager would go the same way, but the Turf Moor board stood firm and now Dyche’s side are threatening mid-table. Not that a man who once lost his job at Vicarage Road because Watford’s Italian owners coveted Gianfranco Zola is taking anything for granted. “Anything can happen in this game,” says Dyche. “Some crazy, amazing things happen, both good and bad. There are no guarantees.” While Dyche is performing minor miracles after spending £5m in the summer, Steve Bruce has invested £30m during 2014 yet won only a handful of League games. With Hull now in the relegation zone, Bruce would normally be extremely vulnerable but his feat in reaching last May’s FA Cup final seems to be insulating him. If Leicester’s Nigel Pearson, QPR’s Harry Redknapp and West Brom’s Alan Irvine harbour greater reasons for concern as the January transfer window approaches, life at the top seems a world away from the Football League where Nigel Adkins’ departure from Reading this week made him managerial casualty No28. The Championship – featuring 13 casualties since August and with Leeds United already on their third coach – is particularly hazardous. “Nonsensical decisions are made all the time,” says a sanguine Dyche. “It really is the maddest business but we all love it. It’s a case of c’est la vie.” First out the door 92-93 Chelsea Ian Porterfield 15 Feb 93-94 Man City Peter Reid 28 Aug 94-95 Tottenham Ossie Ardiles 1 Nov 95-96 Bolton Roy McFarland 2 Jan 96-97 Blackburn Ray Harford 25 Oct 97-98 Sheff Wed David Pleat 3 Nov 98-99 Newcastle Kenny Dalglish 27 Aug 99-00 Newcastle Ruud Gullit 28 Aug 00-01 Chelsea Gianluca Vialli 12 Sep 01-02 Leicester Peter Taylor 30 Sep 02-03 Sunderland Peter Reid 7 Oct 03-04 Tottenham Glenn Hoddle 21 Sep 04-05 S’hampton Paul Sturrock 23 Aug 05-06 Portsmouth Alain Perrin 24 Nov 06-07 Charlton Iain Dowie 13 Nov 07-08 Chelsea José Mourinho 19 Sep 08-09 West Ham Alan Curbishley 3 Sep 09-10 Portsmouth Paul Hart 24 Nov 10-11 Newcastle Chris Hughton 6 Dec 11-12 Sunderland Steve Bruce 30 Nov 12-13 Chelsea Roberto Di Matteo 21 Nov 13-14 Sunderland Paolo Di Canio 22 Sep |