Yesterday we published a story about a study by Henley Business School, coincidentally not far from Reading, which looked at when football managers should be sacked. The general implication was that under performance could be picked up quickly and managers who under performed should be got rid of sooner rather than later. The rest should be given more time.
Yesterday we published a story about a study by Henley Business School, coincidentally not far from Reading, which looked at when football managers should be sacked. The general implication was that under performance could be picked up quickly and managers who under performed should be got rid of sooner rather than later. The rest should be given more time.
Reading have sacked Brian McDermott, a manager respected in the game, although the home crowd appeared to have turned against him recently. In many ways he is the victim of his own success. He secured promotion against expectations and kept his team competitive in the Premier League. If they were in contention for promotion from the Championship this year, he might well still be in post.
If Reading were going to get rid of him, perhaps they should have done so before now. Nine games does not leave a lot of time even for the mercurial Paolo di Canio to turn things around. Nine Premier League clubs have changed their manager from March onwards while sitting in the relegation zone, and all nine subsequently went down.
All four managers sacked in the Premiership this season have been at foreign-owned clubs (admittedly the ratio of changes has been higher in the Football League). However, unlike other foreign-owned clubs, Reading have not splashed the cash. They have one of the smallest budgets in the Barclays Premier League.
Events at Reading bring to mind what happened to Wolves when they sacked Mick McCarthy last February. They now risk relegation to League One. Reading don’t just need a manager who can stage the great escape but also get them up again next season.
The conclusion to be drawn is that either Reading should have stuck with McDermott and given him a bigger budget or sacked him during the run of bad results in November and December from which he did recover.
In a sense there is a natural experiment because QPR are a foreign owned club who have splashed the cash and brought in a manager with a somewhat exaggerated reputation for Houdini escapes from the drop.
For all relegation threatened clubs the stakes are higher this year because the financial rewards of being in the Premiership increase so much next season. Of all the clubs threatened with relegation, Wigan have the least resources to get back up again but they have shown a formidable talent for survival. As Manchester United march towards reclaiming the title a relegation struggle that will probably go to the last day will maintain interest for neutrals in the Premier League this season (and help the betting industry).