Archibald has sympathy for managers in the line of fire
HANGING one’s jacket on a shoogly peg is an occupational hazard for a football manager. Either that or the clubs themselves have to employ better handymen to hammer up the fixtures and fittings.
Mark McGhee’s metaphorical jaicket plummeted when he was given his marching orders from Motherwell yesterday and Alan Archibald, his counterpart at Partick Thistle, had plenty of sympathy ahead of his own team’s encounter with Dundee tonight.
It wasn’t that long ago that both Thistle and Paul Hartley’s Dundee were propping up the Ladbrokes Premiership but now they are fighting it out for sixth place in the league.
Both Archibald and Hartley seemed to have the grim reaper lurking about them as their respective sides toiled in the early part of the campaign but in a fickle game of fine margins the fortunes have improved considerably.
Dundee heaped on the misery for McGhee when they romped to a 5-1 win at Motherwell last Saturday while Thistle are aiming for a fourth win on the bounce in all competitions.
“I do feel for Mark and it’s disappointing when you see any other manager losing their job,” said Archibald, whose seventh-placed side sit just a point behind sixth-placed Dundee.
“It just shows you that football is crazy. He was top six last year and they were still more than capable of getting top six this year. [Claudio] Ranieri’s sacking just highlighted it too. It’s just madness to go from that extreme to losing his job.
“But it could be any of us. The last time we went up to Dens, Paul [Hartley] and I were both at the bottom of the league. I think it was Paul’s name up at that point and he was under pressure.
“A few weeks later, it was me at the bottom of the league and getting a bit of stick. We have all taken a turn of it. Thankfully, our club stuck by me and we’re now in a better position than we were.
“I have got an open relationship with the board. They don’t say I have a free run of the place and can afford to keep losing games. It’s not like that.
“But we have open dialogue all the time and we know where we both stand. We know the remit of the job. I have a good relationship here and long may it continue.”
Like Archibald, Hartley also has a strong relationship with his board and through the tough times the unity was the strength.
Hartley added: “I was always confident in my ability. I work under a good board, I think that’s a key thing. If you have key people working with you, you have their support and your backing.
“We always knew we could turn it, we know we have enough quality in the squad. I think having a good board and a strong board is important.”
Meanwhile, Dundee managing director John Nelms has confirmed that he and owner Tim Keyes are preparing to make a land-use application on a site near Campderdown Park in the city for the construction of a new stadium.
Nelms said: “We’re aware we’re trying to give a 21st century entertainment product in a 19th century building. Tim and I have bought 29 acres near the ice rink at Camperdown Park.
“We will be putting in a land-use application shortly that we hope really enhances Dundee Football Club.”