Two Premiership managers were recently sacked for failing to deliver – Brendan Rodgers at Leicester City, Graham Potter at Chelsea.
Potter had been in position a matter of months.
Other people seemed to making decisions on who was bought or sold.
Potter was then in line to get the other job at Leicester. He declined. Shock, queue headline: “Incredible”. And so the merry go round goes on.
Amazingly, Frank Lampard, who was sacked by Chelsea two years ago, has now come back as caretaker manager.
Covering football for a newspaper gives a pitch side seat as to how these things work.
There seems to be a sort of feeding frenzy goes on, as the pack move from one managerial target to another.
It is incredible to note at press conferences how little time is spent on the actual football and how much on the job prospects or otherwise of the managers.
The way football runs is crazy – no successful business is run in this way.
The expectations are unrealistic, the time given for almost any manager to meet those ambitions impossible.
The huge money involved in the Premier League drives the frenzy.
Take David Moyes at West Ham. He was called in to save the club from relegation in 2018. Having done that, he was replaced as manager by Manuel Pellegrino. 18 months later, Moyes was called in again to save the club. He does that again, then takes the team to sixth and seventh in successive seasons.
West Ham compete in Europe, reaching the semi-finals of the Europa League. This season they are on the verge of similar success.
Things have gone less well in the Premier League, with the club in the relegation zone.
Some £150 million was spent on new players last summer, some of which have succeeded, others less so.
So, given Moyes’ record it is difficult to see how he merits the calls for the sack.
The owners of West Ham, to their credit, have, so far, stuck by their man. To that extent they are unusual.
It is all about results these days, lose a few games and the door beckons. Past achievement, no matter how great, seems to count for little.
Football cannot go on in this way if it is going to sustain.
At present, the demands are unrealistic and often unattainable. It is time for a reality check in football.
- Paul Donovan is a Redbridge Labour councillor for Wanstead village and blogger. See paulfdonovan.blogspot.com
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