Huge surprise as managers stay with clubs

Monday, February 16 may appear a distant date in football – if a week is a long time in politics then it can be an age in the sport – but January 3 is certainly a little more imminent, and December 7? – Well that is just a week on Sunday.

If the Premier League survives until then without a sacking or a departure then it will be the thirdlongest period from the start of a season without a manager moving from his job since English football was reconstituted under its slick guise.

And, remarkably, it will be the longest period for 18 years since a manager left.

On December 6, 2010 Newcastle United sacked Chris Hughton, replacing him with Alan Pardew, who despite his tribulations and stresses, is the league’s second-longest serving manager after Arsène Wenger (who has his own problems, to say the least).

On January 2, 1996 Bolton Wanderers parted company with Roy McFarland, while you have to go back to 1993 – the first season of the Premier League – for the record which could be broken this campaign if no one leaves in the next 11 weeks.

That record was set when Chelsea, of all clubs, waited until February 15 before sacking Ian Porterfield.

Chelsea have been through a few managers since then – 16 including caretakers and two stints from Jose Mourinho – and, according to the figures provided by Opta Sports, on four occasions in the intervening years they have been the club to change their manager first.

What is encouraging for the managers is that November has traditionally been the month when those dramatic changes start to be made, and we are almost through it without a casualty.

In seven seasons it has been the month when the first departure has taken place and the owners and club boards have acted – and yet, this season, they all now seem likely to carry on into December at least.

Okay, Tony Pulis has gone but that was before the campaign kicked off, as he quit Crystal Palace 48 hours before their first game.

Since then, there have been pinch points and crises at a large number of clubs but no one has done the deed.

A conservative estimate is that no fewer than nine managers have had a rough time when their futures have been credibly questioned, both within the club and from the outside.

In recent years the trend appears to have been accelerating, with a dozen Premier League managers losing their jobs in 2013, and eight the year before. In the early years of the Premier League there were five in 1997 and only three in 1999, although there were eight in 1998.

So why the apparent reluctance so far this season? It cannot be that all the clubs have simply decided that their man is the best man for the job? That is highly unlikely.

It helps that the league is so concertinaed; after the top three only 11 points separate 17 clubs, so no one is cut adrift, no one is beyond rescue, no one feels they have to make that change.

Sacking a manager is an expensive business. Close to £500-million (R8.6-billion) has been spent in compensation alone, while the current two favourites with the bookies, Paul Lambert and Brendan Rodgers, both signed new contracts in the summer.

And there is a genuine dearth of viable alternatives.

Clubs are reluctant to promote from within and they are reluctant to promote from the lower leagues, while outstanding candidates who are out of work are few and far between.

The January transfer window is looming. It concentrates minds. Will clubs entrust their present manager with spending whatever funds are available?

Clubs will not want to come out of that window and then make a change. It does not give the new man a chance.

It means exactly half (36) of the 72 Football League managers have been in charge of their clubs for less than a year. And five of those took over part way through last season. — The Daily Telegraph