By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
On Wednesday, Serie A club Lazio appointed Marcelo Bielsa as
their new manager. Bielsa has plenty of experience at the top level, having
coached Chile and Argentina at World Cup finals and had most recently been in
charge of French side Marseille.
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| Marcelo Bielsa has blamed Lazio for broken promises after his two-day reign |
Two days later, he quit the club. It is expected that Bielsa (pictured) will fill the vacancy with the Argentine national team following Geraldo Martino’s
resignation after their loss in the Copa America final recently to Chile.
The Rome club were surprised and frankly staggered. One of
the former giants of the European game, they finished a mediocre eighth last
season and haven’t won the Italian title since the year 2000. They now enter
the middle of July without a permanent manager and a squad that is nowhere near
challenging for top honours in their domestic league.
Bielsa’s decision to walk 48 hours after his appointment
will rank among the shortest managerial reigns in the history of the game. Here
are 10 other examples of managerial appointments that went pear-shaped pretty
quickly.
Leroy
Rosenior (Torquay United)
Year: 2007
Length of
appointment: 10 minutes!
You will be hard pressed to beat this record. Leroy Rosenior
is the unfortunate holder of being the manager who lasted the shortest length
in charge. Appointed Torquay United boss in 2007, he accepted the role just
moments before the club was taken over by a local consortium. 600 seconds
later, he was unemployed again as the new owners decided he wasn’t the man they
wanted. This was simply a case of very bad timing!
Bill Lambton
(Scunthorpe United)
Year: 1959
Length of
appointment: 3 days
Scunthorpe United decided Bill Lambton wasn’t the right fit
for their post in April 1959. He took the post, lost one game to Huddersfield
Town and was promptly sacked. Oh dear!
Dave
Bassett (Crystal Palace)
Year: 1984
Length of
appointment: 4 days
In June 1984, Dave Bassett looked set to turn his back on
Wimbledon and accepted to fill the vacancy that had just cropped up at London
rivals Crystal Palace. 96 hours later, he wound up back with the Crazy Gang.
Bassett hadn’t signed a contract at Selhurst Park. He got there, had a look and
realised the job wasn’t for him and marched back to where he’d come from. He
did return to Palace in February 1996 and only narrowly missed out on guiding
the Eagles back to the Premier League.
Billy
McKinlay (Watford)
Year: 2014
Length of
appointment: 8 days
In just one short week in 2014, Billy McKinlay went from
having two assistant manager roles to absolutely nothing as he was discarded by
Watford with an unbeaten record! He succeeded Oscar Garcia, when health reasons
forced the former Brighton & Hove Albion boss out of the office at Vicarage
Road. McKinlay quit his no.2 post with Northern Ireland to focus on his club
breakthrough. Two games later, Slavisa Jokanovic was brought in – becoming the
club’s fourth manager in a matter of weeks! Watford were promoted to the
Premier League but you had to spare a thought for McKinlay who was another
victim of ruthless ownership.
Jose
Antonio Camacho (Real Madrid)
Year: 2004
Length of
appointment: 23 days
Real Madrid are well-known for not giving managers much time
but even by their standards, Jose Antonio Camacho’s reign was incredibly brief.
He was given a two-year contract by the board. The role would last three weeks.
Real lost 3-0 to Bayer 04 Leverkusen in their UEFA Champions League opener and
then were stunned 1-0 by Espanyol in La Liga. This was a dressing room that had
Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Carlos, Raul, David Beckham and Luis Figo among its
ranks. Knowing he was never going to win that argument, Camacho resigned. In
reality, he was probably going to be sacked anyway. This was a case of jumping
before he was pushed.
Steve
Coppell (Manchester City)
Year: 1996
Length of
appointment: 33 days
The much-travelled Steve Coppell was seen as the potential
saviour to Manchester City fans in 1996. Taking over from Alan Ball, it seemed
like the dream job for the ex-Manchester United player. He soon found the role
to be demanding and overtaxing. Coppell lost 50% of his six matches and asked
Francis Lee to be relieved of his duties after just 33 days, citing stress as
his reason for an abrupt departure. City were to go down to Division Two by May
1998. This was the time when they were the great underachievers of English
football.
Luigi del
Neri (FC Porto)
Year: 2004
Length of
appointment: 36 days
After four years at Chievo, Luigi del Neri was appointed as
Jose Mourinho’s successor at the reigning European champions. However he was
fired before a ball had even been kicked with him in the dugout at the Estadio
do Dragao. He claimed he wanted to return to Italy as he couldn’t settle in a
new country. Porto stated “poor time-keeping” after he missed a pre-season
training session. Either way, this has to be considered as both a strange and
misleading appointment.
Jörg
Berger (DSC Arminia Bielefeld)
Year: 2009
Length of
appointment: 43 days
DSC Arminia Bielefeld were staring relegation in the face in
2009 from the Bundesliga. With one game to go, they sacked Michael Frontzeck
and made a desperate move for Jörg Berger. Berger hadn’t managed since leaving Hansa
Rostock in 2005 but had saved many clubs from relegation in the past. He also
had guided Eintracht Frankfurt to a third-place finish in 1991. They needed to
beat Hannover 96 in their final match to survive. The game finished 2-2 and
Bielefeld were relegated. Berger was not retained and it turned out to be his
final match in professional football management. He sadly died from an enteric
tumor on 23 June 2010, aged 65.
Brian
Clough (Leeds United)
Year: 1974
Length of
appointment: 44 days
This was quite possibly the most ill-fated appointment of
the 1970s. It was so famous that a film was made out of it. Having achieved
great things at Derby County, it was anticipated Brian Clough would do the same
at Leeds United. Don Revie had taken the Yorkshire side to the league
championship the season before and had only left to take the England job.
Clough’s reign though was a disaster. He basically fell out with the entire
playing squad and after just one win in seven games, was told to clear his
desk. He promptly went to Nottingham Forest and won two European Cup trophies.
For some managers, it just doesn’t work at certain clubs. Just ask Roy Hodgson
and David Moyes!
Thomas
Schaaf (Hannover 96)
Year: 2015/2016
Length of
appointment: 97 days
We finish off again in Germany and for one of the shortest
reins in Bundesliga history. Struggling at the foot of the table in 2015/2016,
Hannover 96 turned to Thomas Schaaf in an attempt to rescue their season. The
statistics made for grim reading. Schaaf coached 11 games, won 1, lost the
other 10 and left with a miserable 9% win ratio rate. He also made some
disastrous signings in the transfer market. Adam Szalai failed to score, Hugo
Almeida only got one goal and Hotaru Yamaguchi got so homesick, he returned home
to Japan. In this role, Schaaf was clueless, hapless and basically winless.
Hannover shafted him in early April and will start the 2016/2017 campaign in
the second tier of German football.
For the record, Schaaf did win six major honours in a
14-year stint at SV Werder Bremen. He’s not a bad manager but this was a
nightmare appointment for both man and club.
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