Vincent Kompany is in the top fifty
Sean Dyche, for a period of time, was the second longest serving manager in English football so it’s ironic that Gareth Ainsworth, the one who kept him off the top, is the manager whose move has seen Vincent Kompany reach the top fifty.
Ainsworth had been Wycombe boss since September 2012, initially as caretaker, following the departure of Gary Waddock; that was just over a month before Dyche strode into Turf Moor. I saw our manager slowly climb the list but, because of Ainsworth, he never quite made it to the top, and he even lost second place when Simon Weaver took over following Harrogate Town’s promotion to the Football League.
I’ve been fascinated for some time at the frequency that clubs continue to change manager. Only recently we’ve seen Southampton shed a fortune with the hiring and firing of Nathan Jones. In our league, the same has happened at both QPR and Wigan as Neil Critchley and Kolo Touré came and went.
Kompany was appointed by Burnley on 14th June last year, just a few hours after Jon Dahl Tomasson moved in just down the road and the day before former Claret Michael Duff was appointed as the new Barnsley manager.
In any sensible world, there is no way he would have risen from 92nd, as he was when the appointment was made, to 50th in just a short time, but this is football and managers come and go so quickly that it’s hard to keep up.
I support a club that has rarely gone in for this quick turnover of managers and history will tell you that when we have rapid changes, it’s been at our most unsuccessful times. Brian Miller was sacked in January 1983. By the time he returned in the summer of 1986, we’d seen all of Frank Casper, John Bond, John Benson, Martin Buchan and Tommy Cavanagh in charge. The club had deteriorated enormously during those three and a half years.
Jimmy Mullen was shown the door in February 1996. Just over two years later, Stan Ternent breezed in with Adrian Heath and Chris Waddle having had short spells in charge. Three times in four years, we fought against relegation, successfully thankfully, before it was all stabilised with the arrival of Barry Kilby to support Stan.
Back to today and how can you possibly move up so quickly? The answer is simple. Fifty of the current 92 clubs have changed manager since last season ended, and an incredible 39 since this season kicked off. No fewer than fourteen of those fifty have made more than one change and some, including Huddersfield in our division, have made three changes.
So Kompany is just four places now from reaching the top half. Former Burnley loan player Neil Wood holds that 46th position at Salford having been appointed on 20th May. Joey Barton, another former Claret, celebrated his second anniversary at Bristol Rovers yesterday; he’s now in the top twenty, the highest placed ex-Claret although our former manager Steve Cotterill is 16th.
I always think that one day clubs will come to their senses and look for more stability, but that won’t happen. Keith Curle went at Hartlepool last night, their third change since the end of last season.
Meanwhile, I’m sure we all hope to see Vincent Kompany continue to climb that list as Burnley manager.
How long could it be before we could see him in the top ten? Three years and four months is how long Gary Rowett has been in charge at Millwall and he sits tenth.
THE TOP TEN
01/04/2009 – Simon Weaver (Harrogate)
17/09/2014 – John Coleman (Accrington)
08/10/2015 – Jürgen Klopp (Liverpool)
01/07/2016 – Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)
06/03/2017 – Mark Robins (Coventry)
22/03/2018 – Karl Robinson (Oxford)
10/10/2018 – Thomas Frank (Brentford)
26/02/2019 – Brendan Rodgers (Leicester)
01/05/2019 – Matt Gray (Sutton)
21/10/2019 – Gary Rowett (Millwall)
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