Sacking Managers May Not Be The Best Option - LMA

Last updated : 07 January 2011 By Covsupport News Service
With Roy Keane having been shown the door by Ipswich Town yesterday and a number of Premier League managers facing possible dismissal due to poor performances on the pitch after a spate of managerial sackings by clubs including Preston and Burnley, the Tachbrook Park in Warwick based - League Managers Association, has said that sacking managers may not be the right way to go.

Chief Executive Richard Bevan has called for manager appraisals and said: "In these, the strengths and weaknesses of how the football-side of the club is performing might be assessed against realistic expectations and previously, mutually agreed goals.

"In any other sector, there is a recognition that the highest performing organizations are those who build winning organizational culture - shared beliefs, goals and ways of behaving - coupled with a long-term vision.

"Yet, in football, there is an incomprehensible belief that the continued sacrificing of the football manager, the 'scapegoat' and installing another will turn around a football club's performance."

Bevan who said that an average manager's tenure in 2009/2010 was a year and four months, added: "It is clearly the decision of club chairmen whom they hire and fire and when they choose to do this.

"But the statistics show that a club is likely to end up worse off when they sack their manager, they have less points and are often significantly out of pocket due to monies spent on compensation and paying up contracts.

"Clubs in lower leagues simply cannot afford to keep sacking managers."