Has a manager ever been sacked straight after promotion?
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Version 0 of 1. SACKINGS AFTER SUCCESS “Increasing numbers of Blades fans are becoming despondent with Nigel Clough’s inability to present an automatic promotion challenge despite signing 20 players this season,” writes Liam Blizard. “Promotion via the play-offs remains a possibility, but when was the last time a manager was given the boot after leading their team to promotion?” We’ll add the caveat of “before the following season started” to that as, of course, plenty of managers have failed to see out a season immediately following promotion: in the Premier League Gary Megson’s post-promotion sacking was the quickest, if you’re interested, with the then West Bromwich Albion manager getting the Baggies boot after 10 games of the season in 2005-06. But for a post-promotion pre-season P45 we must head to the Bundesliga and the hapless Mainz manager Jorn Andersen. The bulk of the Norwegian’s playing days had been spent in Germany and his managerial career was following suit. He had arrived at the Stadion am Bruchweg in the summer of 2008 after a pretty miserable time with Kickers Offenbach. Mainz had finished just outside the promotion places and had their sights set on a return to the top flight. Anderson duly delivered, with the team finishing runners-up to the champions Freiburg. Only one man had previously led Mainz into the Bundesliga – Jürgen Klopp in 2003-04 – and things had worked out pretty well for him. Not so for Anderson. Before the club could kick their season off with the visit of Bayer Leverkusen, Anderson was out on his ear – only six days before the opener. “We evaluated the situation, discussed it internally and explained in frank terms to Jorn Andersen what the philosophy of the club was,” said the club president Harald Strutz. “At the end of these discussions, we concluded that our vision and his were not compatible.” Mainz had, as Daniel Bickermann points out, lost a German Cup game 2-1 to the fourth-tier side Lubeck three days before his departure. “We sat down together for a long time,” said Anderson. “But we have found that we are no longer in agreement on our views about the working partnership. That is a real pity, I regret the decision of the club very much, but our ideas were simply too different. We don’t part on angry terms.” Things didn’t really improve for poor old Jorn in his next job. After 16 months out of the game he managed to bag himself the manager’s role at Larissa in Greece just before Christmas 2010. He began with a 1-0 defeat against Olympiakos – not an awful result against one of the big beasts of the league – but in the first game following the winter break the team were beaten 3-0 by Atromitos. On their return through Athens the windows of the team bus were smashed and the vehicle pelted with rocks, eggs and yogurt. According to Reuters “players and staff were left stranded inside the vehicle for four hours as angry fans set up a blockade by lighting bonfires in front and behind the bus so it could not move”. Five days later (after a third and final defeat of his reign) Anderson was sacked, which must have come as something of a relief, even though he had been in charge for only 24 days. We’ve looked at other hard-done-by managers in the Knowledge before and there does seem to be a Bundesliga theme: CONSECUTIVE DOUBLES “I recently won my 20th consecutive league and cup double on Fifa,” writes Stefan Glosby, who probably needs to change his difficulty level. “It made me wonder which team hold the record (in real life, obviously) for most consecutive doubles? I’m sure I read about Dinamo Tblisi winning six on the trot in the ’90s, but has anyone done better?” “Dinamo Tblisi’s six in a row from 1992 to 1997 is indeed a European record,” writes Sean DeLoughrey. “Uzbekistan’s Pakhtakor Tashkent equalled Dinamo’s record with six doubles in a row from 2002 to 2007. They were AFC Champions League semi-finalists twice during that run. Round these parts Linfield deserve an honourable mention for six doubles in seven seasons in Northern Ireland between 2005-06 and 2011-12.” SEEING RED (OVER AND OVER AGAIN …) “Barnet have had players sent off against them in nine out of our 40 fixtures so far this season,” writes Barnet fan Rafi Cooper. “Is this some kind of record? What’s the most number of games in a season that teams have played against 10 men (or fewer)?” It’s quite the achievement for the Bees but Portugal’s Cláudio Gameiro has the skinny on a side that have benefitted from card-happy referees to an even greater extent: “I can tell you that here in Portugal there’s a team that can beat that. Twice,” he writes. “Almighty Benfica, who surely don’t need any kind of outside help to win their games, also have the happy knack of causing their opponents to be so clumsy that they get sent off. It has happened 11 times already this season. In 25 league games. If we add up the League Cup games, it will be 14 games out of 29 playing against 10 men. “The situation is so – let’s use the word ‘strange’ – that even the Spanish newspaper AS wrote about it, although only one Portuguese newspaper thought it worth mentioning. And Porto’s coach, Julen Lopetegui, has also spoken about it. Regarding league games alone it is still far from the 2009-10 season when Benfica played 17 games out 30 league games against 10 men. That’s 56.66 % of the games played against 10 men. But I’ll bet that if you go look at the numbers of Porto’s team during the 80’s and 90’s you’ll find some similar ‘records’ or even worse.” MORE THAN 51 PLAYERS Last week we looked at the teams to have used more than the 51 Blackpool have so far used in the Championship this season. Ian Williams has been in touch with news from South Africa. “Back in the 2003-04 season, Cape Town club Hellenic were in dire straits, with just three points from 16 matches in the SA Premier League. The beleaguered club owners – their franchise convenience store was under pressure – put the club up for sale, and the franchise was bought by a club, Premier United, based in the Gauteng, near Johannesburg. “Part of the deal was that the clubs would swap squads – Premier’s players would play in the PSL under the name Hellenic, and the Hellenic mob would play First Division, under the name Premier United. As a result, 27 (Hellenic) and 31 (Premier) played for the ‘team’ during the campaign. The PSL side were relegated, and the side in the First Division also got the axe.” KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE “Is Verein für Leibesübungen Borussia Mönchengladbach the longest team name in football?” asked Robert Bashford and Justin Walker in 2005. Far from it chaps: Anglesey League team Clwb Pêl-droed Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch came pretty close to landing the prize with a weighty 70 letters, but Stuart Orford can do even better. “My favourite is Dutch Eredivisie side NAC Breda,” he begins somewhat unconvincingly. “It expands to Nooit Opgeven Altijd Doorzetten Aangenaam Door Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning Combinatie Breda.” “I’d like to nominate my team, UCD, in the League of Ireland Premier Division,” says Kevin Burke. “Under some universities’ act a few years ago, we officially became University College Dublin, National University of Ireland Dublin, Association Football Club (81 letters). There are some who’ll suggest that, with that hideous new crest, it should now (unofficially) be University College Dublin Dublin, National University of Ireland Dublin, Association Football Club (87 letters). This would translate into Irish as Cumann Sacair Ollscoil na hÉireann Baile Átha Cliath Baile Átha Cliath, Ollscoil Náisiúnta na hÉireann Baile Átha Cliath, which is 102 letters and a comma.” Not bad, Kevin, but a rival school of learning trumps it. “I think you’d have to go some to beat the full name in Thai of Bangkok University FC,” claims Liam O’Brien. “This would include the longest place name in the world, using the official Thai name for Bangkok. When translated into English, it would run to 189 characters as follows: Samosorn Maha Vittiyalai Krungthep Mahanakorn Boworn Rattanakosin Mahintara Yutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noparat Rajathani Burirom Udom Rajaniwet Mahasatharn Amorn Phimarn Avatarn Sathit Sakkatattiya Vishnukarm Prasit.” But there’s an even longer name in the very same city! That of Thai Pro League side Bangkok Bravo. “Should they ever wish to refer to themselves by their full [English translated] name,” notes Dale Farrington, “they would be called: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit Bravo Association Football Club (196 characters). Try fitting that on a pools coupon!” For thousands more questions and answers take a trip through the Knowledge archive. CAN YOU HELP? “While getting my hair cut recently the lady stylist told me she had been to see the Spurs and asked did I know that the linesmen’s flags signify seniority and that she knew as she had Googled it,” writes John Tumbridge. “My obvious initial response was to scoff; somehow I managed to restrain myself, and I checked and there is indeed a Yahoo answers type response that suggests that the flags are in terms of seniority, but it could also be read as a sarcastic reply; is this true or do we just use the different flags to show which slow, biased, short sighted elderly chap is which?” “With their defeat on away goals to Monaco, Arsenal have now exited the Champions League prematurely for, by my count, the 17th time in a row,” writes Albert in Vienna. “Surely this must be far and away the record for the greatest number of successive failures in the competition. But is it also the outright record in underachievement? Has any other club participated in the CL/European Cup more often in total without ever going on to win it? My first guess would be directed towards perennial champions from perhaps Greece, Belgium or the Czech Republic – if not Rangers.” “As it stands all the newly promoted teams – Leicester City, Burnley and QPR – are most likely going down,” begins Femi Ogunniyi. “I would like to know if this has ever happened before (in England or any other league) where all the promoted teams in a season get relegated back to the second tier.” “As my housemate and I were half watching the Scotland-Northern Ireland game I completely misheard the commentator say that it was some players first appearance in 16 years,” writes Jamie Dodd. “This turned out to be false following a quick rewind but got us thinking – which player has the biggest gap between two international matches and how long was it?” “I was flicking through Wikipedia one lunchtime (as you do) and noticed that Andrés Iniesta is the majority owner of Albacete after helping out his hometown club due to financial difficulties,” writes Ankur Jain. “It turns out that they were promoted to the Segunda Division for the 2014-15 season, which a certain Barcelona B also play in. It got me thinking that Iniesta, given his lack of playing minutes this season, might turn out for Barcelona B and he may even end up playing against Albacete. Has there ever been an owner who ended up playing (or nearly playing) against his own club?” “The Uefa Respect Fair Play ranking has been used since 1995 to grant three berths for the first qualifying round of the Uefa Cup/Europa League,” writes Max Green. “My question is, which team has gone the furthest in the competition after receiving a berth from Uefa for fair-play?” “When Israel and Cyprus were drawn together in group B of the 2016 Euro qualifying round, no one was surprised,” sighs Ravid Alon. “Since joining Uefa in 1992, it seems Israel is always drawn to play against its closest European neighbour. Actually, Israel has been drawn in the same group as Cyprus five times since the 1994 World Cup qualifiers, out of a possible 12 (almost 42%). What other duos battled it out so often in qualifiers?” “Between 2009 and 2012 Iceland forward Eidur Gudjohnsen played for Monaco, Tottenham, Stoke, Fulham and AEK Athens but scored only two goals, for an average of 0.4 goals per club,” writes David Taylor. “Has a striker ever had a less impressive record?” “Have any players had careers which saw them progress through and then return to several clubs in palindromic fashion ending where they started?” wonders @Mike65ie on Twitter. “Marouane Fellaini and Adnan Januzaj’s club and national teams have identical nicknames,” notes @FutbolsaCountry on Twitter. “Are they the first?” Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com |