Window Just Delays The Inevitable

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If Digsy doesn’t get to have a sack window, he doesn’t see why anyone else should.

Stuart Pearce probably thinks he’s doing Premiership managers a favour with his sack window proposal, but he’s wrong. The Manchester City boss’s idea was intended to stop all the rumours about struggling managers getting their marching orders.

“This week it is Alan Pardew, next week it could be Iain Dowie, it was Stuart Pearce the week before, Gareth Southgate the week before that,” said Pearce, referring to himself in the third person (is that why they called him Psycho?)

“Who will be next? Rafael Benitez? He had designs on the championship at the start of the season, he spent a lot of money – and he is two points in front of us.”

“It is a ridiculous trend. Maybe somewhere in the future, if you are going to move managers on, you will have to do it during the transfer window. Then at least people would have the chance to get on with their job a little bit.”

But a sack window wouldn’t stop the chatter about the above mentioned West Ham, Charlton, Middlesbrough and Liverpool bosses losing their jobs. The only difference would be that all sack-related sentences would come with a modifier.

“Iain Dowie is facing the sack” becomes “Iain Dowie is facing the sack… in January.” “Rafa Benitez could be replaced as Liverpool manager” becomes “Rafa Benitez could be replaced as Liverpool manager… in January” and so on and so forth. What a waste of newspaper ink (though extra drinking money for any Sun journalists paid by the word). There’d be a lot of dead men walking towards the end of the season.

Even worse, Psycho’s Sack Window ™ would lead to more managers losing their jobs. Just as teams always panic buy in the transfer window (see Michael Carrick, Tottenham to Man United, £18 million) so chairman will panic fire and hire.

Say it’s January 2007 and Psycho’s Sack Window is open. The Newcastle board are backing Glenn Roeder to come good and want to give him a chance, but if they don’t replace him during the window there hands will be tied from February 1st onwards until the end of the season. Without the window Freddy Shepherd and friends can give Roeder some time to turn things around, but with the sack window they have to fire him in January or bank the entire season on him.

Rumours are annoying, but they’re better than actually being fired.