Managers chief hits out at spate of sackings
The new Chairman of the Scottish Managers and Coaches Association has sent out a warning to the game’s owners and chief executives.
Billy Brown believes they are destroying the careers of young managers, and potentially ruining their own football clubs, by sacking managers without giving them proper time to get things right. Brown has been alarmed to see the likes of Livingston player-manager Kenny Miller, St Mirren gaffer Alan Stubbs and Falkirk boss Paul Hartley all lose their jobs less than a month into the league season. He wants to see a period of calm and a greater level of understanding, from the boardrooms to supporters in the stands up and down the country. Brown told The Sunday Post: “I’ve got to say that sacking managers after three or four league games is crazy. Honestly, it’s ridiculous. “Regardless of the club, or size of the budget given to any particular manager, you have to give the person time to build a team. He needs at least three transfer windows to do that. “You’ve got to remember that, when you make several new signings in the one window – as was the case in the past couple of months with St Mirren and Falkirk – you must allow a sensible period of time to allow things to click and gel. “When you sign 12 or 14 new players, it stands to reason that not all of them will hit the ground running. “Some players may have moved up from England or elsewhere, and they need time get the family settled and find a house. “So the people in charge of football clubs must take all of this into consideration. “It is unbelievable to fire a manager after a few weeks, with 34 or 35 league games still to play. “Surely, they must question their own judgement in that case? “Paul Hartley is a young Scottish manager, and sacking him so soon can be damaging. You are playing with livelihoods and it can destroy careers. “It can also have a negative impact on the football club to keep making changes. You have to show patience and believe in your strategy. “Everyone inside football knows that the most important relationship at a football club should be between the chairman and the manager. “If they trust one another and are happy, then it filters into the dressing room and beyond. “It doesn’t guarantee anything, of course, but, my goodness, it gives you a better chance of being successful.” It’s understood at St Mirren that the players found it difficult to adjust to Stubbs and his backroom staff this season after having the success of promotion to the SPFL Premiership under Jack Ross. If, indeed, player power in Paisley has forced the issue on the future of Stubbs, it makes Brown angry. He said: “Managers must be allowed to manage the football clubs and be given the power to do so. “If there was dressing-room unrest at St Mirren, then I’m sure Alan Stubbs would have sorted it out. “Players must not be allowed to run football clubs and dictate what happens. “What do you think the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson would have done? He would have got rid of the problem players. “That’s where chairmen need to be stronger. They are the people who appointed the manager and yet they get rid after eight or nine weeks. “That wouldn’t happen in any other industry. “During my career as assistant manager to Jim Jefferies at Hearts, Falkirk and Kilmarnock, we were allowed time to build things and it enabled us to deliver a relative degree of success. “But, now, people are just far too quick to judge. It’s not nice to see. “In Scotland we used to pride ourselves on giving managers and coaches a proper amount of time to meet their targets. That was a big attraction for them coming to work in this country. “Now, though, we appear to be going down the same road as the hierarchy of some football clubs in England, and it all leaves me genuinely concerned. “There is a bigger picture and some people are in danger of losing sight of it. “And once you do that, there may never be a way back.”