SVEN-GÖRAN Eriksson believes English football has adopted the southern European trait of trigger-happy club owners.
Eriksson was dismayed to learn of Sam Allardyce's dismissal by Newcastle on Wednesday night after just 24 games in charge of the Magpies. Allardyce became the eighth Barclays Premier League managerial casualty of the season and the likelihood is he w
ill not be the last.
Eriksson played a major role in the one-time England contender's downfall as his Manchester City side beat Newcastle on 2 January in what proved to be Allardyce's last game at St James' Park. Prior to City's trip to Tyneside, Eriksson had claimed Allardyce would turn the situation around if he was given time.
But owner Mike Ashley chose to ignore the advice, dispensing with his manager's services just three days after an FA Cup draw at Stoke. And Eriksson believes English club owners have now become as ruthless and demanding as those in Spain and Italy, who regularly get rid of managers after just a few games.
"I feel sorry for Sam," said Eriksson. "He has only been there for a few months. Normally you would get more time than that before you were sacked, so it is a surprise.
"Football is the same all over the world. If things go wrong, it is difficult to sack the players or the directors. So who gets the sack? The manager. It has always been like that. But it happens more often in England today than it did ten years ago. We are becoming southern European in that way."
Eriksson is convinced Allardyce would have proved a success at Newcastle if he had been given the opportunity. "I have no idea what has happened, but I did feel, given time, Sam would have solved the situation," he said. "That is what he did at Bolton, so he must be a good manager. I have to defend my colleagues – managers should be given more time."
League Managers' Association chairman Howard Wilkinson, meanwhile, says that the position of football manger is becoming "debased" following Allardyce's swift departure from Newcastle.
"It debases the position of manager," said Wilkinson. "You have to start to ask: 'What's the manager there to do?'"
"It begs the question, given the number that have gone in the Premier League now this season, do you need a manager? Or when you appoint one, on what grounds do you appoint him?"
The full article contains 410 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
