Who would be a football manager
Who would want to be a football manager? Certainly not me despite my love for the game, but there are plenty of people out there wouldn’t turn down any chance.
Watching the fall out from the Premier League to non-league in just the first few months of this season has been quite astounding for managers leaving their jobs. With covid last year affecting the game in a big way there was very little movement, mainly due I believe to clubs not being able to afford sacking the top man and paying them off along with a set of coaching staff.
Some clubs did go ahead to save their season, barring the National League non-league wasn’t really affected with the culmination of the season at the beginning of November.
This season though I’m sure some clubs aren’t prepared to wait around having lost two seasons worth of time to make progress and you can’t blame them either. I’m sure that thought has been in the minds of managers and players too since the beginning of the summer.
You can understand the frustration and the wanting or need for a new challenge and I don’t think you can blame people. It can be a short career in the game either on or off the pitch and having lost those years you’ve got to make the most of it.
Last year was definitely tough on those out of the dugout, unable in most cases to even attend games to keep themselves in the public eye the lack of jobs about meant a lot of sitting around and waiting, waiting for almost nothing to be coming along.
What is frustrating the higher up you go into the Football League it’s the same old names and faces trotted out instead of clubs investing in talent from the lower levels. Success is wanted yesterday and there is very little room to build anything at a club these days, sometimes taking a step backwards to rebuild is needed but it’s not always seen like that.
Sometimes however the change in manager and a different voice in the dressing room has the desired effect and it all looks like the right thing to do especially if the team start moving up the table.
It must be though the most unstable job in the world but also one of the very few that rewards failure. Get sacked for not doing a good job and the pay off can be very lucrative, that certainly doesn’t happen for the likes of you and me in our everyday jobs. Maybe on the other side of that though is there are so many candidates to go up against, it’s no surprise to see 100 odd apply for a vacancy in non-league especially if the club is one with a good reputation now or previously, the love of football is like a drug, it keeps you coming back for more whether you’re a manager, player or a supporter.
I know some reading this will be chomping at the bit to get back involved and some might even be looking over their shoulders in case their job is at risk, but sometimes you can think you’re doing fine in the main job and still end up on the dole, I mean who would want to be a football manager……..