CCFC v STOKE Big Match Preview

Clutching At Straws

Incredibly, the average tenure of a PL manager (if you take the superannuated Arsene Wenger out of the equation) is now barely 12 months. The managerial merry-go-round at the bottom of the table this season has produced seven changes at the helm of the clubs occupying the last six places, as owners with skins as thick as rhinoceros hides and afflicted with the bloated egos of the terminally deluded tumble unwittingly into Brian Clough's rank of 'know-nowts', scratching around for a new saviour to replace the latest scapegoat.

The facts confirm it's a strategy that rarely works. In recent times for every Tony Pulis there's been a Harry Redknapp (relegated), a Gus Poyet (pending), a Rene Mulensteen (the scapegoat's scapegoat) and, yes, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (tbc).

Sitting uneasily in the PL departure lounge awaiting deportation from the land of milk and money, reluctantly grasping a one way ticket to the land of the lost, the know-nowt owners have only themselves to blame.

With very few exceptions the ownership of a Premier League football club has become a rich man's conceit and a validation of the age-old proverb that 'a fool and his money are soon parted'. The naive and fanciful notion amongst that motley crew of on-line gamblers, top-shelf titillators, off-shore embezzlers and shabby sheiks that they might easily buy into the affections of the undemanding adoring masses and cement their places in footie folklore more than hints at a swollen sense of self and a life spent prioritising the accumulation of wealth over common sense.

Autocratic and temperamentally incapable of delegating other than to appointed flunkies, their considered judgement extends only as far as the knee can jerk. But for the few that have 'managed to keep their heads while all about are losing theirs' the rewards have been obvious.

The prime example of the benefits of loyalty to one manager is of course Sir Alex Ferguson at Man Utd. A patient and considered board gave him the time to turn things around after a pretty disastrous start. Trophies and riches followed.

Easy then to stick with a successful manager when huge expectations and ambitions are realised. At Stoke where the board has been realistic enough to limit the scope of their short-medium term ambitions to survival and consolidation they kept faith with the spectacularly pragmatic Tony Pulis, only ditching him when all parties agreed that after eight seasons it was right to consider a more adventurous approach. The next phase has progressed well and Stoke are now within reach of their best ever finish in the PL.

The Stoke model is one that we should have adopted but one that Tan is inherently incapable of recognising. Unfortunately Tan has a Georgio Armani ambition predicated on a Primark aesthetic.

The tendency to press the panic button is rife across Europe. Last season Palermo changed their manager 5 times, at one point bringing back a man they had already fired just three games into the season. Their President has been responsible for 28 sackings in 12 years. One manager was replaced before he'd been given a game in charge!

The disconnect between owner and manager can be profound. In Bosnia at FK Sarajevo, their manager Robert Jarni, a veteran of the Croatian team that finished third in the 1998 World Cup and only recently overtaken as their most capped player, has been dismissed after just 9 games with his team a healthy 4th in the table. He expressed surprise at his sacking and complained that he'd 'never even met the owner' one Vincent Tan.

Oh, and the Palace 'textgate' hooh-hah? Classy.

clutching at straws(idiom): to pursue even the slightest hope or possibility out of desperation