All quiet on the managerial sacking front - are Yorkshire's clubs getting the message?
When Manchester United pulled the trigger on Erik ten Hag this week, it took the number of managerial casualties across the four divisions to 10 this season – 10 clubs who had backed their managers (or head coaches) in the summer transfer window, changed their squads and in ten Hag's case backroom staffs to suit him only to pull the trigger weeks later. Manchester United had even given the Dutchman a summer contract extension.
It is a sign of muddled thinking, panic, or both.
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Hide AdLast year it took until December for a Premier League club to reach for the P45s, when Sheffield United sacked Paul Heckingbottom, but over league football as a whole, it is perhaps a sign of progress.
By October 28 last year, 17 managers had left jobs across England's four divisions, including Huddersfield Town's Neil Warnock, Sheffield Wednesday's Xisco Munoz and Bradford City's Mark Hughes.
Twelve months earlier it was 22, with Danny Schofield shown the door at Huddersfield, Shota Arveladze given his cards at Hull City, Chris Wilder at Middlesbrough and Gary McSheffrey at Doncaster Rovers, plus Paul Warne leaving Rotherham United to replace the sacked Liam Rosenior at Derby County.
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Hide AdThree relegations last season, Danny Rohl's remarkable rescue act at Sheffield Wednesday and Doncaster's charge to the League Two play-off semi-finals raised expectations for 2024-25. You could make a case for Leeds United, Middlesbrough, both Sheffield clubs, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Rotherham, Bradford and Doncaster all at least striving to be in play-off contention.
It has not all been plain sailing.
The grumbles about Daniel Farke's conservatism at Leeds began to grow from Easter and continued until serious injuries to Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev tipped the balance in an unexpectedly positive way. They are dormant whilst results are on track.
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Hide AdMichael Carrick's Middlesbrough were booed as recently as the 2-0 defeat to Bristol City, and doubts about Steve Evans' ability to recreate the old magic at Rotherham have grown during an underwhelming start to the League One season.
Walter, Michael Duff and Darrell Clarke are yet to convince fans of Hull, Huddersfield and Barnsley respectively. Ilicali and his Huddersfield counterpart Kevin Nagle are not known for keeping schtum when things go badly but have kept their fingers off the trigger so far.
Bradford managers will always be under scrutiny when the team is not in League Two's automatic promotion places but a decent start, especially at home, has kept the worst panic attacks at bay.
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Hide AdRohl's first week of the campaign raised hopes Wednesday have been unable to back up so far but running into Sunderland and Leeds in weeks two and three was tough, and last season built a genuine belief they have an outstanding manager.
It is only early, but none of Yorkshire's 11 league clubs have so far been sucked into a relegation battle.
Not all managers can be judged the same way.
Chris Wilder was brought in to rebuild a bedraggled Sheffield United, whereas Rotherham explicitly eschewed that for a sugar rush under Evans. Where the Blades are exceeding most early-season expectations, the Millers are trapped in the bottom half of their table.
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Hide AdBut League One is hugely competitive, with big-money Birmingham City expected to box off one of the two automatic promotion places and a traffic jam of former Premier League clubs vying for the scraps.
Farke, Carrick, Bradford's Graham Alexander, Doncaster's Grant McCann and the patron saint of managerial patience – Harrogate Town's Simon Weaver – know their squads well so should be expected to be squeezing more out of them by now (most are) but Walter, Clarke, Duff and Evans are still working out their best combinations, what buttons to push with who and in Walter's case getting to know a league like no other.
It did not save the likes of Munoz, Danny Scofield, Markus Schopp and Alan Stubbs in recent years but miraculously this year's new Yorkshire managers have been given that grace, if not always on the terraces, then in the boardroom.
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Hide AdOf the 17 clubs who had pulled the trigger by this time last year, only six – including Wednesday and Bradford – have not changed again since, often more than once.
No one either could argue swapping Munoz for Rohl was not a shrewd move, for example, but chopping and changing at the first sniff of trouble with no consistent thread is no way to run a club.
It is far too early to say Yorkshire's have got the message, but at least there is hope.
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