Even Roy Keane is "walking his dog" these days.
Call it firing, dismissal, being terminated, the end of the road, permanently suspended, being “in transition”, or in the case of Hull’s Phil Brown, who was famously put on “gardening leave”, the relationship between a manager and his club Chairman/CEO, fans and players will almost always come to an end either peaceably or acrimoniously. Normally the latter, so well done to SAFC CEO Ellis Short for keeping a lid on things during the departure of Steve Bruce. He is now "spending more time with the family" - to use another euphemism.
I have been trying to list those experienced managers in my years of following top level football that I recall have never been dismissed from a club. It is not a long list – Jackie Charlton, Kevin Keegan, Brian Clough, Arsene Wenger, Sir Alf Ramsey (Birmingham?), Kenny Dalglish (but what were the circumstances of his leaving Celtic with John Barnes?), Bill Shankly, David Moyes, as well as of course Sir Alex Ferguson.
But I believe this list should also contain Martin O’Neill, OBE, now in his first week at Sunderland. Unless of course he was dismissed by Villa, but I reckon from all accounts he “walked” from Aston.
Perhaps these managers should have their own little club, and perhaps they do dine together now and again...however, it is hard to see how Sir Alex and Arsene would be able to have a civil conversation.
Feel free to add your comments and other nominees to my list as Martin O’Neill prepares for his first game at the Stadium of Light, hopefully in front of a capacity crowd.
One big question is: has that preparation included a call to Al-Ain on Asamoah Gyan’s mobile phone, as suggested on Soccernet? OK, we got £6M for the season-long loan and Gyan came off the wage bill for a while, but he is still under contract to Sunderland. This scenario alone would be a great test of the Irishman’s negotiating skills…
PS – I got a couple of comments from Wolves fans suggesting I was a little biased in my reporting of their Sunday win over the Black Cats. I am a self-confessed Sunderland fan, so I see most things through red and white tinted glasses. There was definitely a passion about Wolves, and certainly towards the end of the game they wanted it more. They also had Fletcher, who showed great striking ability from both chances.
©Lars J.S. Knutsen
Comments
Posted by philwil on 12/09/2011
Brian Clough was sacked as Leeds United manager after 44 days in charge
- Thanks, Phil - of course - I even saw the film "The Damned United" - Lars
Posted by jack on 12/10/2011
Although not really sacked, Big Jack was pretty much run out of Newcastle. As for never being sacked, I'm fairly sure Bob Paisley & Matt Busby weren't, not to mention Jock Stein, Jock Wallace, Bill Nicholson & Harry Catterick, just to name a few off the top of my head.
I"m fairly sure there's tons more - before the Premiership days Boards & Chairmen were a more patient lot.
Posted by jack on 12/10/2011
Oh and King Kenny left as Celtic's Football Director when a certain Martin O"Neill became manager, as Martin wanted full control of operations.
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Lars Knutsen was born in Sunderland of Norwegian parents across the Wear from the SSOL back when shipbuilding not car manufacture was the city’s main industry. His first game was in 1968 and he has followed the Black Cats since then, with great memories of the 1973 FA Cup. He hopes the “yo-yo” days are over and defines supporting a team by whether the result affects your mood (but maybe not in the way portrayed in the book “Fever Pitch”!) so has been cheerful recently. He endured school in Newc**tle, has a Ph.D. in Chemistry, a Professorship at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, and works in the Pharma industry as a consultant Medicinal Chemist.
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