Time To Give the EPL Managers...More Time!

Yesterday was one of the sadder days in the English Premier League this season. Two managers who were brought in to change their teams fortunes were quite brutally sacked by their chairmen and there are quite a few similarities between the cases of Luiz Philipe Scolari and Tony Adams.

They weren't given enough time and the more interesting fact is that their former clubs' chairmen were both Russian.

Tony Adams was perhaps the unluckier of the two, if there was a choice that one could make. Why he was given the entire January transfer window to bring in players of his choice only to get sacked after his team lost to Liverpool in one of their better performances is inexplicable.

The former Arsenal captain was always going to have a difficult time after succeeding Harry Redknapp. The one thing he wanted when he took over was that no one should leave his team.

That changed in a matter of days when both Lassana Diarra and Jermaine Defoe were sold, albeit for substantial sums of money. Oddly enough, that money wasn't pumped back in to improve a now depleted squad and Adams has had to bring in the likes of Angelos Basinas.

He is no Lassana Diarra, is he?

As far as Scolari is concerned, he was always going to swim against the tide at Chelsea. His ex-team is in fourth position and only remain in contention in two competitions. He was always running the risk of getting compared to Jose Mourinho.

The thing is, that Scolari had a squad that in many ways seems past it. Frank Lampard and John Terry have not performed anywhere near their respective capabilities. Scolari was given only £8 million to sign Deco, who himself looks like a player who is well beyond his peak. 

Compare this to the money given to Jose Mourinho and even Avram Grant, and you can only feel sorry for the charismatic Brazilian.

Football clubs have become businesses. There is very little doubt in that, but you look at the top six teams in the Premier League and excluding Chelsea, who have a benefactor like Abramovich—five teams have lived within their resources and have had managers for at least two and a half seasons. 

This season has been a bad one for Premier League managers as a whole. Seven teams have parted with their managers for one reason or the other, and this can only be described as disgraceful.

What the top brass at Portsmouth thought Tony Adams could achieve in 16 games, in the circumstances he was in, is something which is anybody's guess. What Abramovich thinks of his Chelsea team is equally baffling—because everyone can see that the squad needs an overhaul.

Guus Hiddink might do well at Chelsea, but he's also a human being. Roman Abramovich and Alexandre Gaydamak have to understand that football managers are not puppets. Neither are they androids who can make their team perform at the highest level in every single game.

One can only hope that common sense prevails among clubs and that they follow a sustainable model in terms of transfers of both players and managers.

Hiring and firing is never a good policy for any organization and if football clubs do really aim to run like businesses, the owners of those clubs should understand that it will take time to achieve any sort of success.

Any other form of success is only done for the short term—and Chelsea might well see that soon enough.

As for Portsmouth, their task of staying up this season with a new manager is going to be a very difficult one.

Time is considered to be a healer by many, because even the greatest defeats and the most pain suffered can be healed by time.

Now Scolari and Adams will have to spend that which was not given to them by their clubs through what will without a doubt be a very difficult time for them both.