FEATURE: Why longevity and patience are dirty words in the Championship as manager merry-go-round shows no sign of stopping with Baggies sacking

Longevity and patience are often viewed as dirty words in football, particularly for managers, but the lack of it around these days has come to the fore quite significantly, especially in the Championship over recent weeks.

Having brought in Forest Green Rovers boss Rob Edwards during the summer and promised to ‘support him come hell or high water’, that lot up the road then pulled the trigger after just 10 games of the season a fortnight ago, swiftly replacing him within minutes, former West Ham United and Croatia manager Slaven Bilic signing a, what seems rather pointless, 18-month deal.

With Luton heading to Vicarage Road later this month, don’t bet for definite on the new man still being in the home dug-out, as with that game some 13 days away, that’s plenty of time for the scattergun approach of the Watford hierarchy to show itself yet again.

It wasn’t just the Hornets who were clearing out the manager’s office either, Hull City doing the same with their former Georgian international Shota Arveladze.

They went one further than those at Vicarage Road though, announcing his exit just hours before their 2-0 defeat against the Hatters, live on Sky, at the start of this month.

It’s not just good things that come in three either, that firing coming a few days before after another high profile manager was out of work as well, Chris Wilder’s time at Middlesbrough over, the former Sheffield United boss, who had been tipped to bring a top flight challenge back to the Riverside Stadium, failing to deliver on those expectations.

The firing culture didn’t end there too, West Bromwich Albion pulling the trigger on Steve Bruce this morning, although at least he did get to face the Hatters, with Saturday’s goalless draw at the Hawthorns the final straw for the Baggies board, who themselves came under huge criticism from the home support in the final 10 minutes of the contest.

When you throw in celebration hater Steve Morison, whose tenure at Cardiff City also expired within the last month, plus last year’s play-off finalists Huddersfield, it takes the clubs in the second tier who have appointed new managers since the season kicked off at a whopping nine.

When taking a look around the rest of the divisions and with 15 managers actually being sacked in total so far this term, the second tier accounts for almost half of those to be handed their P45s, with seven.

In the Premier League, a division where chief executives notoriously possess itchy trigger fingers, only Bournemouth, Chelsea and Wolves have done so, with Derby County the single League One team to opt for a change of approach and now up to four in the the bottom rung, after Crawley got rid of Kevin Betsy this morning too.

Honing in on the merry-go-round at Watford in particular, it becomes even more laughable when you consider that since Nathan Jones returned to Kenilworth Road in May 2020, the Hornets have now tried their hand with eight bosses, including former England supremo Roy Hodgson.

The board's reasoning was that Edwards had enough time to show the identity of his team, but performances hadn't reflected their hopes and ambitions, however, was 10 games enough of the campaign to really judge him?

As for that longevity word, with Paul Warne enticed away from his role at Rotherham to head to Derby County, while Michael O’Neill was given the boot by Stoke City, it means Jones is now the third longest serving manager in the second tier behind Mark Robins and Gary Rowett.

Looking at those currently employed by Championship teams shows just what a short shelf-life the job is, with only the three managers mentioned earlier having passed their two year anniversary.

A further three have done over a year, Leam Richardson (Wigan), Nigel Pearson (Bristol City) and Russell Martin (Swansea), with only four in the six-12 months category.

It mean unsurprisingly, the top mark of 10 have had their feet under the table for just under six months, that soon to become well over a dozen once the next cab off the rank are in place at Cardiff, Hull, Middlesbrough and West Brom.

What makes it even more laughable now is that QPR manager Michael Beale, who has been at the helm for just 130 days and taken charge of just 13, matches is now the 11th longest serving manager in the Championship.

Jones, who signed a long-time deal at Kenilworth Road in January, is fortunate to know that he does have full support of the board at Luton, as thankfully they do possess patience and a clear head, proving so when backing their man in the transfer window, allowing him to shell out a club record fee on Carlton Morris, who has hit the ground running.

At two years and 134 days in charge of his second spell, the Welshman sits 16th in the entire Football League’s list of managers and has set his sights on becoming the number one for the Championship in terms of length of reign.

In this current crazy climate, who would bet against it?