The November international break is almost upon us, which always means one thing - the managerial merry-go-round is about to properly get into gear. It's known as 'sacking season' for a reason - the new campaign has started to take shape and I know from experience that any manager who is not winning games will always be sleeping with just one eye closed, and the other one open. At any club on a poor run of results, the owners and supporters will be questioning whether the manager is the right fit to continue.
This two-week break from domestic games is the ideal opportunity to blood the new incumbent and give them a period of getting to know everyone before the games start up again. That means it is 'hiring season' too, but there are always far more out-of-work managers than vacant positions. Since the start of last season, 60 different managers have resigned or been sacked by teams in the Premier League and Football League.
Three of them left to take up offers from other clubs but, in total, 37 of them - or 62% - are not currently in management. For most managers, it's rarely the case where you walk into a new club within a few weeks of leaving your last one, so what do out-of-work managers do between jobs to make sure they are ready to take the next opportunity that fits? It is more than 32 years since I received my marching orders from my first job at Bournemouth, who were in what is now known as League One.
I had - as I always did - given everything I could do to benefit the club, and with it being my first sacking I honestly did not know where my next step would take me. But, on the second day of me being out of work, my home phone rang and at the end of the line was Jim Smith, who was in charge of Portsmouth, a few miles down the south coast. I knew Jim then, but not really well.
I'd been a manager for two years, but by then he had already spent 25 years in the dugout, at eight different clubs. He asked how I was and, before I could even reply, recited these immortal words, which always stuck with me - "son, you're not a real manager until you get sacked at least three times - so get your backside off the sofa and get on with getting another job" - then he put the phone down! I've used that sentence myself many times since to managers who have lost their job and are struggling to come to terms with it.
People outside the game maybe don't realise how difficult it can be when you are sacked, and how it affects certain individuals differently - you can easily fall off the merry-go-round and, as a manager, you never know for sure whether you will get another chance. Someone else who phoned me up in the summer of 1994 was another great name in the game as a player and manager, Bruce Rioch. At the time, Bruce was having a lot of success as manager of Bolton - he would get the Arsenal job a few months later - and he asked me if I would scout for him while I was trying to find my next manager's post.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
