Curve Ball's Sunday Opinion
By Curve Ball
September 10 2002
This week's edition of Curve Balls Article see's Curve Ball comparing 2 fans and there view's on Jim Duffy and how there opinions have changed already into this season. This mostly focuses on why some managers get sacked and others dont.
Curve_Ball’s Sunday Opinion
As there is no club football this
week I thought I’d muse a little over some aspects of the job security and
safety provided by that much sought-after post – the football manager.
I’ve often wondered why some
managers get the chop after a bad season while others appear to be immune from
the bullet. At first I thought it was all about the benign nature (or not) of
each club’s board of directors. Some clubs have them, others do not. Then I
realised that was a load of nonsense, maybe even wishful thinking. After all, us
fans like to think of everything in our particular football garden as being fine
and rosy. In fact, all football club boards of directors are ruthless when
things go badly wrong and the fans are applying pressure…………..………
the fans are applying pressure. Now there’s a thing to consider.
At the start of the season I spoke
to one Dundee fan, a student, we’ll label him Fan A. He was of the opinion
that Jim Duff was a Saviour and that glory was just around the corner. “Jim
got us to the League Cup Final, he was a great player, he’s got loads of
experience from working down South. We should finish in the Top 4 this
season.” This was very different from another fan, a female and a nurse, who
will be our Fan B. In her view, the appointment of Duff as manager was a bad
deal. “He walked out on the Dee before, his success rate is zero and he
couldn’t manage a bingo hall. We’ve no chance of even finishing in the Top
6.” From the above then, you would not expect these two fans to agree on too
much over the course of the season. However, after just 5 games, the positions
of Fan A and Fan B have almost reversed.
This is how it has worked out: Fan
A has been completely deflated over Dundee’s losses against Rangers and
Dunfermline and their failure to defeat United at Tannadice. On the other hand,
Fan B was surprised at how well Dundee played against Hearts and impressed at
the display of fighting spirit shown against Hibs and repeated in the derby
match. In other words then, Fan A’s enthusiasm for JD has distinctly cooled
while Fan B has become more supportive of Jim Duff’s efforts.
So how does this relate to my
original query about how some football managers get the chop and others do not?
Well, in my view it is all about expectations. In particular, supporter’s
expectations. The thing is that when there is a balance of views or when
expectations are low, then the manager’s post appears to be on safer ground,
even if results are generally poor. The position changes when supporters have a
high level of expectation. In this case the manager is skating on thin ice if
things don’t work out well quickly. The discontent amongst the fans can
manifest itself in different ways. They can stop going to games. If they do
attend games they can start criticising the team during the games. Whether they
go to games or not they can criticise through the media. Any or all of the above
will be felt by the club’s directors who will naturally begin a mental
countdown on the tenure of the manager to his job.
Jim Duffy got it right when he took on the mangers post at Dens in the summer. He promised nothing other than commitment. After the failure of Ivano’s second season, the majority of fans expected nothing other than an improvement on 9th place. So far, so good. This is the lesson then, as long as JD keeps the expectation levels of the fans in check then there should be few complaints as he goes about his business of re-organising the Dees. This is important. The club has been on a 2 year roller-coaster with Ivano & co. Some great names were brought in but little work was done in bringing through our younger players. (Leaving aside the exceptional work by Kenny Cameron and his team) This will all change but it will need time. It will also need more people like Fan B.
Think about it, are you a Fan A or a Fan B?