ANGE POSTECOGLOU says that the sacking of Jack Ross following Celtic’s 9-0 demolition of Dundee United at the weekend is ‘sad’, and is indicative of the lack of patience afforded to managers in the current climate.
Ross was dismissed yesterday after the mauling at the hands of the champions rounded off a horror run of results for United that was sparked by the 7-0 loss to AZ Alkmaar, but Postecoglou feels the Tannadice hierarchy have taken the easy option by changing their manager so early in his tenure.
The Celtic manager said after the match that ‘sympathy’ was the wrong emotion to describe what he felt for his counterpart in the opposing dugout, but he has criticised football clubs in general who see sacking their manager as a quick fix.
“It’s not that I’m not sympathetic," Postecoglou said.
"It’s more of an empathy of understanding that we’re all in the sort of business at the moment that if results don’t go your way – even in the short term – there’s just less inclination for people to be patient and allow people to find solutions.
“It seems that in football today the solution to bad results is just change, and nothing else. That puts every manager under that sort of scrutiny and pressure.
“There’s no doubt that the result has probably bruised his pride at the weekend, and the unfortunate thing for Jack was that we played very well on the day and that has added to the pressure.
“From my perspective, I think all of us in the role understand there’s just not too much patience or the willingness there from people to find solutions within an existing structure, they just seem to think that change is the only way forward.
“It’s kind of sad, because even for people going into a role now, there’s just an immediacy of people wanting fortunes changed.
“We all know that’s often a difficult task.”
Postecoglou believes that the advent of social media and the plethora of platforms where clubs can see criticism of their managers has increased the pressure in boardrooms to act quickly when results take a downwards turn.
But he still doesn’t think that excuses clubs from making knee-jerk reactions to a run of poor form early in a manager’s tenure, pointing to the example of Liverpool and the faith they placed in Jurgen Klopp.
“Well I don’t think it’s just the media, because I think that’s quite a broad term now, and scrutiny comes from everywhere,” he said.
“When I first started I could wait to the Monday papers or the Monday review shows before the scrutiny started, now it’s full-time.
“There’s so many platforms of opinion and pressure that comes upon football clubs and the people that make these decisions.
“It’s so much bigger and broader than just the media now, and it seems to be that irrespective of where the opinion is coming from, if there seems to be some sort of overwhelming buzz towards the view then people just take it as credible, and it’s often not the case. I don’t think it is.
“Results have always been up and down for clubs, even in the past, but some clubs in the past were able to chart the course they needed to, even the most successful clubs.
“Look at Liverpool and Man City today. Liverpool weren’t successful the day that Jurgen Klopp walked in the building, it took a bit of time.”
