By Tony Attwood
Find a club that is failing to reach the highest levels of football that its supporters might wish for, and you will find pressure on the manager. Much of that pressure emanates in the first place from the media, whose journalists need something to write about every day, especially when there is no news! Of course, most of the time, the media make up transfer stories, but in between that, they like to hammer managers who are said to be “under pressure”.
So far this season, with 21% of the games in the season played, 15% of the Premier League managers have been dismissed: Postecoglou, Potter and Espirito Santo. This compares with one so far in La Liga and none in Serie A. Two have gone in Germany and one in France.
And there are two curious factors within this merry-go-round. One is that generally there is no real evidence at all that sacking a manager mid-contract is of any benefit – occasionally yes, but quite often no. The other is that it can take a manager months to turn a club around, and how much turning around is possible is as much dependent on other clubs (and their willingness to sell players) as on his own skill in changing tactics, and spotting talent in the reserves and youth teams).
Much of the time, sackings come because the club directors are frightened and don’t know what else to do. And often the sacking comes only in response to a few recent games. You might be surprised to learn, for example, that Unai Emery was Arsenal’s third most successful long-term manager of all time when measured in terms of win percentages. What did it for Emery was his transfer policy – particularly Pepe.
But how does Arteta compare to other managers at Arsenal?
| Name | From | To | Games | Win % | Honours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARTETA | Dec 2019 | Present | 301 | 59.14% | 1 FA Cup |
| Wenger | Oct 1996 | May 2018 | 1,235 | 57.25% | 3 PL, 7 FA Cup |
| Bradshaw | June 1899 | April 1904 | 235 | 50.21% | |
| Chapman | June 1925 | Jan 1934 | 411 | 49.64% | 1 FA Cup, 2 Lge |
| Graham | May 1986 | Feb 1995 | 460 | 48.91% | 2 1st Div, 1 FA Cup, 2 League Cup, 1 CWC |
As we can see, by the measure of the percentage of games won, Arteta is the best long-term manager Arsenal has ever had. In terms of trophies, George Graham is at the top of the list, although in terms of league titles and FA Cups it is Wenger.
One other factor we might note is something that Transfermarkt has picked up on, saying in an article just yesterday, “The Premier League has become one of the hardest places to stay in a job for managers” They have a table of longevity for current managers and how long they have been at their club which runs
- Pep Guardiola – 9.3 years
- MikelArteta – 5.82 years
- Maro Silva – 4.30 years
- Eddie Howe – 3.94 years
- Unai Emery – 2.96 years
In fact, as of today, only seven of the 20 Premier League managers have been in their jobs for over two years.
And this is not just the issue of club chairman chucking out managers – you might recall we had correspondence on this site demanding that Arteta should be sacked at the end of last season for clearly not having a winning mentality.
Of course, the problem is the media. With little to write about in terms of actual facts, they invariably turn their attention to transfers and over a five-year period in which we tracked all the summer transfer rumours we could find, it became clear that 97% of the transfers to Arsenal that the media wrote about, never happened. Which of course, then makes it easy to blame the manager for not bringing in the right players.
Most managers are sacked by the board when they have a good idea who they are going to bring in as a replacement, which invariably means someone not currently in a managerial job. It can be someone like Arteta who was an assistant maanger before coming to Arsenal, but often it is someone from overseas, who may not be 100% au fait with English football and English referees. And that becomes a problem.
And so we can see that most of the time it is media pressure that builds up the notion of a change of manager being a good idea. But this leads to a further problem, for quite often a new manager cannot turn the club around at once. Surely there can’t be many Arsenal fans who are not delighted that the board at the club stayed faithful to Arteta during his first season and a half with two 8th place finishes. (Although there were calls for him to go this summer!)
But as we can see, although replacing Emery was a great idea, replacing managers doesn’t always work. Yet the process continues, not least because media pressure encourages fans to demand a change – even if it is for “anyone but the current man.”
Yet of course clubs that are successful don’t want to lose their manager, and so invariably reward him with more money for himself, more funds for transfers, and ever better associated terms and conditions. Which means the number of successful managers actually available when a club is looking for a new man, can be very limited.
Quite often, in fact, clubs are reduced to taking not the man they want, but simply someone who is out of work. And by the time he arrives, the transfer window is closed.
And here’s another thought. Although managers are already being sacked, we haven’t got near the main sacking month of the season: December. In short, there is more to come.
So why does sacking the boss not help? First, because there are often not that many good managers available as replacements. Second, because there may not be that much money left in the kitty to buy new players after the previous manager spent it all. Third, players don’t like to move to failing clubs. Fourth, good managers don’t move that often. Indeed, why should they? As they are successful, the club they are at will already be paying them more and more money to keep them.
Thus, “Change the manager” is a simplistic journalist’s call which helps the journo avoid doing any serious work on an article. But more often than not, it doesn’t help.
So why do clubs do it so often? Quite simply because the board of directors haven’t got the foggiest idea what else to do. And that’s all there is to it.
I know it sounds like madness asking a pundit or indeed a journalist(hack) but this ‘winning mentality’ malarkey what is it ? the jelly tots thought they knew after all they’ve hired about 2 dozen managers in as many years ,who will get them ‘over the line’ why ? apparently every single one had that ‘ winning mentality’ they were all ‘born winners’ and the best of it is every single one has been backed to the hilt by the aforesaid journos and pundits.
Thankfully those at the top at Arsenal don’t resort to asking the above idiots for advice. evidently common sense isn’t all that common.
LeMmy, I am absolutely with you on that question. Indeed I am just at this moment putting together an article which does try and delve a little further into the issue…. but I am sorry to say I still don’t really understand how these people get the jobs they get. Is it all just wishful thinking. Or maybe one or two of them have undertaken deals that are outside the boundaries of the law, and maybe expect their managers to do the same? I really don’t know.