Russell Slade's brief
time as Coventry City manager came to an end last Sunday after just
74 days – easily the shortest reign by a manager of the club, a
record previously held by Mark Robins who stayed for 148 days in
2012-13.
Slade was in charge for
13 league games and three Cup games and his league record of just one
win in 13 is the worst ever by a post-war City manager (a 7.7% win
ratio). The only manager with a worse ratio is William Clayton –
City's first boss when they entered the Football League in 1919.
Under Clayton the side lost its first seven games at which point he
was sacked. However it should be pointed out that Clayton had been
the manager the previous season in the unofficial War Legaue Midland
Division and it was City's performances in that 1918-19 season that
were influential in the club being elected to Division Two in the
summer of 1919. If that season's results were included he would have
a much healthier win ratio.
The previous worst
post-war manager was Don Howe who took over from the sacked Terry
Butcher in January 1992. Don, whose managerial exploits never lived
up to his record as Bertie Mee's number 2 at Arsenal when they won
the 'double' in 1971, won only three games out of 19 as City hurtled
down the league table. On the last day of the season the Sky Blues
looked down and out as they trailed 2-0 at Villa Park only for
already relegated Notts County to have a second half rally and
condemn Luton to the drop. If Slade's cup results, two wins and a
draw in the Checkatrade Trophy, are added into his record he
overtakes Howe's win ratio for all games!
By Monday Mark Robins
was back at the club – only the fourth City manager to have two
stints in the chair, the others being Harry Storer, Billy Frith and
Bobby Gould. His previous stint saw him lift the Sky Blues from 23rd
place in League One to 8th place when he departed five
months later. Under his stewardship the team won 13 out of 25 league
games and four out of eight cup games – with a win ratio of over
50% - the highest by any City manager. Only one other manager has won
more than 50% of games – Jesse Carver in his short spell in the
autumn of 1955 when he led the team to 14 wins in 27 games before
disappearing to Italy to manage Lazio.
Robins is full-time
manager number 42 in the 91 seasons since the club arrived in the
league in 1919 – an average of just over two seasons per manager.
The average tenure of our managers has been falling however and
Robins is the 15th in the 16 seasons since we left the
Premier League- an average of virtually one season per manager, and
that excludes caretakers. In that time only one, Chris Coleman, has
lasted more than 100 league games.
Robins is the fourth
man in charge this season after Mowbray, Venus and Slade but it's not
the most in one season. In 2012-13 Andy Thorn started the season as
boss but was sacked after four games, Richard Shaw & Lee Carsley
took over as caretakers but failed to win a league game, before
Robins arrived. When Robins was lured away by Huddersfield in
February Carsley was caretaker again until manager number five,
Steven Pressley, arrived from Falkirk.
Apparently the record
for any FL club is six different managers, set by Swansea in 1995-96
and equalled by Blackburn in 2012-13 and Colchester last season. The
six Blackburn managers that season include two with Sky Blue
connexions. Steve Kean, Chris Coleman's assistant, started the season
in charge at Ewood Park but was sacked after eight games despite
being top of the Championship and replaced by his assistant, former
City manager, Eric Black. Black was temporarily in charge for six
games before Henning Berg, Gary Bowyer (caretaker), Michael Appleton
and Bowyer again.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment