A story. As an accountant my job is to provide monthly numbers for a company that has recently expanded significantly. In the financial year I only manage to get the numbers right once, and another time I'm sort of there, but not really convincing. The other 10 months I make a complete screw up and am unable to provide the board with the numbers they require. During the year the board suggest I purchase some new financial software to assist me in bettering my ability to do my job, but I stick with what I've got saying it did fine last year. The shareholders are getting worried, they have no idea where the company is going, or how well it is doing. The board are concerned because I'm being paid to do a job but I'm clearly not up to their standards. I'm sacked. Now - explain how that sacking is any different to Ritchie's? The idea of a football manager is that they have a squad of players, a tactic, and a desired result. If you're being paid, supplied with the tools or the money to obtain those tools and you don't achieve what your job objective is, then you're out on your ear. I'm amazed that people think that Ritchie deserved to stay. He won us promotion in a year when there were no outstanding teams that ran away with the division, we got a play-off place partially due to a lot of other teams tripping up as much as we did, and won the final on penalties after being torn apart in extra-time. We're a league higher now and Ritchie's decision to keep the same team as last year (as far as he could) has failed. He has paid the price of that decision - as have we - having seen our team scrape one win and one draw from 10 matches. It is clear we need a big target man up front (proof : every team we've played this season), it is clear we need a left-back with a bit of pace, it is clear we need some strength in depth as we have a first 11 and a ropey selection of subs, it is clear that Tommy Wright is f**king appalling, it is clear that we need some back-up in the centre of defence. It is clear that some of the first team seemed to think their position in the team was a god-given right. I can see all of that. Could Ritchie? Please, stop bleating and start getting on with supporting whoever the club decide to appoint as our new manager. Ritchie got us up to the Championship but I really don't think he was likely to keep us here, we're already in a pool of 4 teams that are 5 points adrift. I'll trust that the club is doing what they think best and I'll be there on Saturday to support the team and whoever it is who manages them. There's my opinion of it.
The theory is the same though. If you're employed by someone and you don't perform to a required standard then you get fired. I fail to see how this should be any different for a football manager. It's been dragging on for weeks now and the board have acted.
If I have a great year and get a nice bonus, and then 3 months into next year all is still looking just about OK, but then I have a bad couple of months, would I get sacked given my track record? Would I chuff, I would get hauled into the boss who would sit me down, try to understand what the problems are and get them sorted. Perhaps give me an ultimatum to the end of the year, after all I have the ability, I proved that last year. Now if I had been Spackmanesque all year that would be a different matter.
