Despite writing that I’d be back on Tuesday, the multiple managerial dismissals this weekend have forced this issue. Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday have now been joined by Wigan in the search for new managers.
It’s hard not to feel sympathy for Owen Coyle. In the last two seasons he’s been appointed and then dismissed by clubs that had been relegated from the Premier League and both Bolton and Wigan have quite a lot in common other than being based in Lancashire. Both have ambitious chairman who probably think of their clubs as somehow ‘better’ than the Championship and must have assumed that Coyle would have the ability to get them promoted.
Regular readers will already know this, but I’ve shown over and over again that the Championship does not work like that. To put it simply, a promotion contender needs to spend at least one season in the Championship: look at the top of the table after the weekend’s games. Of the top six, QPR and Reading were in the Premier League last season but although Blackpool and Burnley have recent experience at the top level, Leicester and Derby have spent the best part of a decade outside the top flight. Nigel Adkins, Sean Dyche, Nigel Peason and Steve McLaren all have plenty of experience in managing in the Championship.
So for the umpteenth time: the theory to be a successful Championship team is to become an established Championship team with a manager that has experience managing in the competition. So although I can understand the decisions made at Oakwell and Hillsborough over the weekend, Wigan Athletic have made a big mistake.
Leicester took over at the top of the table on Saturday after QPR and Burnley both lost: oddly enough, Jamie Vardy’s second goal against Millwall amd James Vaughan’s penalty for Huddersfield against Burnley were almost simultaneous. Burnley finished the game with ten men after Michael Duff was dismissed for a second yellow card following a foul on Vaughan with five minutes left. At the bottom, in the last post I emphasised the long term importance of Yeovil not finishing bottom at the end of the November and the Glovers duly won 3-0 at Watford. Defeats for Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday meant the end for messers Flitcroft and Jones: I would expect the latter to be dragged into the Sky Sports studios over Christmas as a pundit.
There are three games of interest tomorrow and all are contests between the top and bottom six. Sheffield Wednesday’s only home win this season – and only their sixth win in the league at Hillsborough in 2013 – came at the start of last month when they battered Reading 5-2 but their record against teams in the top half of the table has been dire otherwise and includes three draws and five defeats. Leicester have only won two of their last seven visits to Hillsborough but have lost at both Doncaster and Charlton in 2013/14 so this might be as straightforward as it appears for the Foxes.
Yeovil and Blackpool haven’t met since the League One playoff final six and a half years ago and the Glovers have never beaten the Tangerines in Somerset: although this game can’t really be described as a ‘must win’ for the Glovers, the five points the currently separate the bottom three clubs from safety can’t be allowed to get any wider. So the question is whether last weekend’s success at Vicarage Road is either a flash in the pan or something more tangible and Blackpool will provide an answer: their only defeat away from Bloomfield Road this season was a 3-1 loss at Millwall in mid-September but Paul Ince may have to be happy with a point.
Charlton travel to Reading having only won twice on their travels this season and having lost three of their last four games. The last time they won in Berkshire was at the old Elm Park in 1981 and with the Royals not having lost at home in the Championship since January – a seventeen game unbeaten streak – Chris Powell’s men will have their work cut out for them. Despite the good work Powell has done at the Valley over the last few seasons, I think there’s a case to be made that either Powell or Lee Clark of Birmingham will be the next manager looking for a job: a bad run over Christmas with a poor result in the FA Cup may be all it takes.
On that cheerful note, I’ll leave you alone until Friday…
2 comments so far
1 Jimmy // Dec 2, 2013 at 6:39 pm
The problem was Owen Coyle was trying to make a team that pass the ball into a more direct style, no problem if you get the results but it was patchy to say the least, all the players with skill sat on the bench, ie beaujour, espinza gomez all skillful yet wasted. No plan b, a bad plan A as well. The problems were endless I could litterly go and on.
2 Mike Roberts // Dec 5, 2013 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for comment Jimmy – I’ve not seen Wigan play since the FA Cup final so it’s interesting to hear from someone who has. The recent run of defeats didn’t help his cause much either and it’ll be interesting to see how Wigan do in 2014 if they don’t get to the next stage of the Europa League.