Sacking NOT The Answer

Former Wolves Boss John Barnwell has long maintained that sacking managers is not always the answer. Now a survey conducted by Warwick Business School seems to back him up.

Barnwell managed Wolves from 1978 to 1982 and oversaw the club's last real period of prosperity. He signed Emlyn Hughes and Andy Gray for a british record fee, and in 1980 won Wolves last major trophy, the League Cup. He went on to manage AEK Athens, Notts County and Walsall, before taking his current position, Chief Executive of The League Managers Association

The independent survey shows that the average tenure for a manager is the top four divisions has dropped by more than a third since the start of The Premiership (2.72 years to 1.72 years since 1992).

It also concludes that managers with 10 or more years of experience won 12 percent more games than managers with no previous experience.

'The report has been done independently and the analysis proves conclusively that continuous changing of managers does not bring you the required success,' said Barnwell.

'Therefore, not only does it make the situation unstable and not only does the club not realise its ambitions, but it becomes a very costly exercise because of the financial implications of removing the manager.'

Barnwell has long been an advocate of a national qualification to both help new managers learn their trade, and assist clubs to better eveluate candidates for managerial vacancies.The top flight already has a minimum requirement, but not below, something Barnwell wants rectifying.

'We think it would be beneficial for the game in this country to look at minimum qualifications for managing and coaching in all our leagues,' he added.

'The Premier League has already got the Pro Licence which is mandatory but there are no mandatory requirements for our managers in the Football League.'

'I would not expect someone not be to able to get a job because he didn't have a licence - that would be ludicrous - but it would be an indication that they were taking managing and coaching seriously and had already got themselves on the rungs of the ladder.'

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