With half the clubs in the division having changed their managers since the end of last season, a familiar hint of desperation is in the air in sniffing distance of the Premier League.
Some of you may be aware that I write about the EFL for my part of my income nowadays, and this week, with an international break looming, I had to write a lengthy review of the state of play in League Two and in particular the Opta supercomputer’s predictions for where everybody will be by the end of the season.
But as I wrote it, something started to occur to me. It is probably a reflection upon where power really rests within the EFL that something like 80% of our attention is focused on the Championship, about 15% on League One and about 5% on League Two. It’s a simple fact of life that the second tier is - at least within these three divisions - where the eyeballs are.
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In short, my knowledge levels have aligned themselves accordingly with this necessity. I can name all 24 managers in the Championship now, and I’ve built up a reasonably good knowledge of the ins and outs of that division in just a few months. On League One, I know where the big stories are and which managers are likely to get dumped in the short-to-medium term future, all of which is bad news for Tom Cleverley.
But on League Two, I knew very little because it simply hadn’t been the focus of my attention, and as I worked through all 24 clubs from the bottom up, a realisation started to occur to me, that while the Championship has already been a bin fire of sackings this season, in League Two there have barely been any. Indeed, the only League Two manager to have got the push since the start of the new season has been Michael Flynn at Cheltenham Town a couple of months ago.
It is, perhaps, a reflection of the extent to which League One clubs aspire to be Championship clubs that five managers have already been sacked in League One this season, but even this isn’t as high as the number in the Championship. At that level, seven managers or head coaches - and don’t get me started on the differentiation between those two divisions, which I both understand and don’t care about - or just over a quarter of all the managers in the division have been sacked since the start of the new season.
It doesn’t end there, either. Seven new managers were appointed at Championship clubs between the start of June and the start of the new season. One of those was amongst those sacked once the season had started. To put it another way, half of the clubs in this division have brought in a new manager in the last five and a half months.
The guy to have got sacked twice is probably the most interesting of them all. It was a surprise, that Sheffield United got rid of Chris Wilder following their play-off final defeat to Sunderland at the end of last season. It was even more of a surprise that Ruben Selles was brought in to replace him.
Selles was sacked by Hull City after they only avoided relegation to League One at the end of last season. This was arguably a reflection on the predilictions of the club’s, ahem,colourful owner, the Turkish media magnate Acun Ilicali. This is a man who loves sacking a manager. Selles was the third that he burned through in the previous three months.
Brought in at Bramall Lane, he lasted the Blades’ first six league matches of the new season - all of which he lost - before the owners of the club realised the error of their ways, sacked him, and brought Chris Wilder back. Things have improved a little since then, but not by much, and they remain in the relegation places. Somehow, though, Selles managed to get himself into a new job back in Spain with Real Zaragoza just five weeks after leaving Sheffield United. You can probably guess how that’s going. They’ve won one and lost three of his four matches so far and remain rooted to the bottom of the Segunda Division.
Not every case of a Championship club needing a new manager has been the fault of the club itself. Middlesbrough hadGrand Tour fan Rob Edwards poached by Wolves, even though he’d only been in the job since the start of the summer, because in the modern world is forlosers. But in every other case, patience which can only have been gossamer thin in the first place ran out.
Liam Manning was another one who only lasted a few months in the job. Appointed at the start of the summer by Norwich City, there was supposed to be something romantic about him returning to the hometown club at which he started his academy career getting on for a quarter of a century ago.
But then, there is a case for saying that this particular firing from a cannon into the Sun made sense. Norwich made quite a few changes during summer, and had started the season expecting to do a bit better than the 13th-placed finish they managed last season. By the time he went, his team was one place off the bottom of the Championship, with only the financially-stricken Sheffield Wednesday below them, having managed the singular achievement of losingall seven of their home matches.
Elsewhere, the pressure of expectations weighed too heavily. Will Still was appointed at Southampton at the end of May, only to find that managing in the bearpit that is the Championship isn’t likeFootball Manager. He lasted until the start of November before being relieved of his duties with his team hovering only just above the relegation places.
As at Sheffield United, a burden of expectation was largely at play. Relegated from the Premier League at the end of last season, Southampton have a huge financial advantage over most other teams in the division on account of their parachute money. Challenging for a quick return isn’t just hoped for. It’s expected, and Still wasn’t able to deliver.
At Swansea City, meanwhile, Alan Sheehan had a Remembrance Day to forget. We can only wonder whether they paused for two minutes at 11am for a period of quiet contemplation. Sheehan had won of his previous seven matches in charge of the club, and left with the Swans in 18th place in the table. This was his first managerial position, and he was appointed after a not completely unsuccessful stint as their caretaker-manager. At Watford, Paolo Pezzolano went after 148 days at the start of October because, well, Pozzo gonna Pozzo.
While you might think that this level of trigger-happiness is hardly healthy for a club, it is at least entertainment, so long as you retain the idea that this is all a soap opera rather than a sport. And it may be that it’s us who are getting this all wrong. There was a time when a manager was a sombre-looking man in a suit who was “The Gaffer” and had to be treated in the same way as a sergeant major might be treated in a military situation.
But the game has moved on. The manager - and in particular the “head coach” - is no longer particularly a position of power. The person with ultimate responsibility is the “sporting director”, and they still seldom seem to get held account for the mistakes that they make.
Norwich is a good example of this. The decline in the club’s fortunes since they were last relegated from the Premier League in 2022 doesn’t make much sense when viewed through the lens of who the head coach has been. But it does when viewed through the lens of who the sporting director has been. Ben Knapper replaced Stuart Webber in 2023, and he wasn’t getting anything like as much heat as Liam Manning or any of the other patsies who’ve been head coaching the team since then.
But Knapper is now starting to feel the heat, and Norwich fans may be ahead of the curve a little, here. They’vestarted a petition to get him removed, and perhaps it’s time for everyone to start focusing a little more attention on where the real control rests within a football club. I’ve talked before about how managers/head coaches almost act as human shields for those in positions of responsibility above them. Perhaps that will start to change more and more.
I remain convinced that there’s an air of desperation about it all. The Premier League isthat close. All it takes is foryourteam to get it right and the riches of the top flight could be within your grasp. This might even be all the more accentuated this season, when none of the three relegated clubs have torn up any trees yet. It’s even more within sight than usual! Look!!! Stoke are third!!!!!
As for the rest of us, just sit back and enjoy the soap opera. After all, football is just a branch of the light entertainment industry, these days.
Image byAnnette fromPixabay
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