Changing Managers Last Year Cost English Soccer Clubs Substantially

The League Managers Association (LMA) have declared that the English Premier League and Football League spent almost £100 million ($154.5m) changing their manager last season.

According to the LMA, the cost of compensation, legal fees and ‘double contracts’ amounted to £99m ($153m).

A ‘double contract’ is when a sacked manager’s contract is honoured until a certain point in time but his replacement also requires a salary.

October is traditionally the month when clubs begin sacking their managers. Between October 2010 and February 2011, 25 clubs opted for that course of action.

Several managers have already lost their job this season, including Peter Reid, who was sacked by League Two Plymouth Argyle last week.

The figure of £99m ($153m) would have been higher had agents fees and the cost of sacking and replacing a manager’s backroom team been taken into account.

According to the LMA, which represents managers in the Premier League and Football League, more than 100 coaches also lost their jobs last season.

Reid, who was in charge of Plymouth at a time when the club were battling to avoid administration, told BBC Radio 5: “Chairman and owners need to be more realistic about their expectations. Certainly in the Championship where they’re all trying to get to the Holy Grail and that’s the Premiership. There needs to be a bit of realism.”

LMA chief executive Richard Bevan, also weighed into this issue.

Bevan said: “We want to move away from managers being judged on their last three results. In fact, when results take a downturn that is when the club should support its manager even more, not jump for the quick fix.”

Sir Alex Ferguson, who has been the manager of Manchester United for almost 25 years, agrees.

“It’s always a problem in modern-day management. You see time and time again that these guys are only in a position a year before the clubs are sacking them,” he said.

The LMA also said that Championship managers who were sacked in 2010-11 had an average tenure of less than a year.

The average was 1.33 years in League 2, 1.67 years in League 1 and 2.07 years in the Premier League.

The average length of time it takes a sacked manager to get another job is currently 1.63 years. Almost half of first-time managers are never appointed to a second management position.