SPECIAL REPORT
AS THE PANIC CULTURE SETS IN AT NON-LEAGUE LEVEL, WE ASK...
Sam Elliott looks at the worrying statistics of managerial dismissals this season
LET’S play a quick game of spot the difference. Something has changed this season compared to last, and it takes a bit of time to get your head around.
Have refereeing standards improved? Well, certainly not according to a fair number within the game. It’s not that.
Are the divisions more competitive than they have been for a while? A good shout, they certainly are and it’s great to watch, but that wasn’t what I had in mind.
No, it seems Non-League football has fallen into the same trap that makes eyes roll in the Football League. We’re suddenly not giving our managers time. Chairmen shooting on sight as fingers not so much hover over triggers, but the gun fired long before much thinking can be done.
In our top three divisions, we have already seen nine managerial changes. This time last year, it was only two.
Compare to the Football League and the Premier League where jawdropping figures last season saw English football’s top four leagues dismiss 47 managers, not far short of half of them – the most for 13 years. Roles have reversed and some say it is cause for concern.
How times change. Not a single boss from the Premier League down to League Two has gone nearly two months into the season, but in Non-League it’s a totally different story.
Heave-ho
Following Gary Brabin’s firing at Tranmere, four National League bosses have left already. Sacking season comes twice a year for Charlie Clapham at Southport, and Andy Bishop paid the price less than a month in.
Eastleigh got the ball rolling; they gave Chris Todd the heave-ho after only four games before calling on Ronnie Moore. An appointment they really should have made in May.
Guiseley have finally made up their minds. Adam Lockwood was on Friday confirmed as their new boss… he didn’t pick up a win more than five weeks after they got rid of Mark Bower!
Weston-super-Mare were flying high at the end of August but Ryan Northmore’s poor September has cost him his job in the National League South, while Pablo Asensio’s Whitehawk exit is mainly down to his dreadful idea of flooding the club with untested Brazilian and Spanish youngsters.
Neil Young’s resignation from Altrincham is all together different, quitting the game after unacceptable fan abuse while Liam Watson’s reasons may be different, he left Stalybridge to focus on his son’s career.
Bradford Park Avenue made it nine on Tuesday when Alex Meecham was told his time was up.
At Step 3 a wind of change has blown through as well – Leatherhead, Ashton United and Cirencester all making changes.
The big shock this week came at Blyth Spartans where long-serving boss Tom Wade stepped down after “taking the club as far as he could” with Alun Armstrong taking over.
So, is this managerial massacre just bad timing in a one-off season, or are we getting an unwelcome vision of the future? If only there were more clubs like Wealdstone, and if only there were more managers like Gordon Bartlett.
In his 22nd year in charge, the longest-serving manager in the nine senior leagues in English football says the fear factor may have set in from the top of the game.
“There is a panic culture that exists,” said teacher Bartlett, who turned 60 this year. “At the highest end of football is where it begins, then you look at the Championship where every club is desperate to chase the Premier League. It filters down. The bottom line is that every manager is under pressure.
“Remember, every person can do your job better than you can. It seems in Non-League this season that we’ve seen a lot either lose their jobs or walk away. If managers last season at the top end of the game are replaced at an astonishing rate is it any surprise chairmen at our end of the game think it’s a good idea too?”
He added: “There are a few things to blame for the situation. Social media is now huge – absolutely massive. I remember when we had a bad
loud voice – if they aren’t happy, and threaten not to turn up to games, then the people running the clubs know it. It’s dangerous, but it’s the world we now live in. There’s no going back. Things will never return to how they were when one or two would lose their job every season.”
Bartlett took over at Wealdstone with the club in Ryman Division Three. Now they are looking for promotion back to Non-League’s top flight. “It is a special club, there’s no question about that,” the veteran boss added. “I’ve been blessed with four fantastic chairmen but we’re a club who have come from the bottom, without a ground or players 22 years ago and we’ve built it up slowly. It was a project.
“How long will it last? I don’t know. But the one thing you need is to have fire in the belly and it’s still burning inside of me. I’m not planning on going away – unless they want to give me the boot of course!”