It is that time of year again: sacking season. No surprises that a quarter of the Premier League have potted their managers already and another reminder that football, cut-throat as ever, has no room for emotion.
Mark Hughes was the last man I saw given the boot and, unfortunately, all of us in the Stoke squad basically had a front row seat. We had been at League Two Coventry that day and lost, an FA Cup upset to go with our terrible run of form.
We were on the bus heading into Clayton Wood, the training ground, and noticed that there were only two vehicles in the car park. Whose were they? Chief executive Tony Scholes and owner Peter Coates. Ah, this doesn’t look good.
Antonio Conte was in charge of Spurs as he returned to the Premier League on Sunday
His opening game at Everton saw Tottenham look solid defensively but limited in attack
The lads were glancing at each other on the coach. It was getting on for eight o’clock at night and you just knew.
They might as well have hung a big sign at the entrance saying, ‘you’re sacked’. The club announced Mark’s dismissal that night and we suffered relegation a few months later.
Although you have sympathy for any manager, it’s amazing how used to it players get. It’s part of that life now — a few bad results and they are gone.
What did always annoy me was the drastic change in attitudes around the place when everyone has a clean slate.
Aston Villa sacked Dean Smith two days after a defeat at Southampton left them 16th
Villa’s defeat at St Mary’s proved to be the final straw for Smith at the Midlands club
It switches overnight. Things could have become quite stale and then everything instantly perks up. Training is cranked up a level or two. Those who have probably not had the greatest attitude and suddenly they are doing all the right things.
Some players you had never seen arrive in the building early are the first through the door or doing extra work.
It’s incredible how that happens, isn’t it? You should have certain standards the whole time — you can’t just turn it off and on. Every training session should be competitive, players giving everything.
I’ve been at plenty of clubs where attitudes have always been fantastic but there are some people who, when not in the team, just phone it in.
I was at Stoke City when the club fired Mark Hughes in 2018 after a five-year spell
But this is why you see performances go up and that is what Tottenham, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Norwich are hoping for.
Watford too, who pulled the trigger first. I feel for Dean Smith, who did a good job at Villa and on the surface that feels harsh. Daniel Farke at Norwich is slightly different — they have been miserable.
All of those clubs stuck in a rut will believe there is that opportunity for a little bounce now. People don’t last long any more no matter what and it’s very hard to get attached to someone.
Norwich City sacked Daniel Farke after they picked up their first win of the season on Saturday
Steve Bruce (left) and Xisco Munoz both lost their job, at Newcastle and Watford respectively
You want good relationships but why do you think so many clubs install revolving doors at their training grounds? They need them for the managers. Look at Watford — keeping up with their managers is a full-time job.
I did find it quite sad as a player. The worst one was Graham Taylor, who had signed me at Villa in 2002 and gave me my break in the Premier League. I never really did it for him and the move just came too early for me when I went there.
I wasn’t ready for that level really. I was gutted that I didn’t properly produce for Graham, because he had a lot of faith in me at a young age. I remember texting the great man, thanking him for everything.
A lot of players don’t bother and I do think there is a genuine, unfixable problem with long player contracts.
They are on deals for three or four years and know they are going to outstay the manager.
They might be on the bench every week, being asked to do this and that, and looking at the boss thinking, ‘well, you’re not going to be here much longer anyway. I’ll just ride this one out if he doesn’t fancy me and wait for the next one’. It does undermine the manager.
Antonio Conte won’t allow himself to be undermined, even if he has a massive job on his hands at Tottenham.
Nuno Espirito Santo was sacked by Tottenham after losing against Manchester United
Conte has to be the one for Daniel Levy now. Here is a top manager, winner of five league titles in England and Italy, who still has that fire inside him.
If this doesn’t work out yet again then the players have to seriously look at themselves. It boils down to asking whether the squad is good enough and if the attitude is right. We will find out.
Although they didn’t register a shot on target, it was a good start defensively at Everton.
Although Conte seems like a hard manager, he kept the dressing room tight at Chelsea
His opening game against Vitesse was carnage and showed what a big job he has to do
I was at the Vitesse Arnhem game on Thursday night and, my word, he has things to correct. Carnage. You could see the tempo go up — they flew out of the blocks — but took their foot off the gas and it becomes the same old Tottenham again.
Poor defensively, no energy. They reverted to type. It will take time for him to implement his style and he needs fit players to carry that off.
All the talk is that Conte is a grafter, the famous double sessions, but I feel he has an empathetic side to him that brings players in.
He isn’t as hard as we think and that is a massive thing, because that Chelsea dressing room he had looked like a strong one to me.
The trick is to keep it like that for as long as possible.
BACKING ARTETA PAYS OFF
Speaking of the precarious nature of football management, credit to Arsenal for sticking with Mikel Arteta.
We forget how difficult that period was for him at the beginning of the season. Everybody was saying he needed to go but he seems to have turned it round.
Something has changed which you can see in their patterns of play. Now they are unbeaten since August, have won their last three and are heading in the right direction.
After a rough start Arsenal are unbeaten since August under Mikel Arteta’s stewardship
It feels like something has clicked there. Take Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. I see him leading from the front with his energy. He’s performing like a captain, which had not been there. That sort of thing inspires the rest.
They all had a high energy against Watford, something we have not always seen. The goal, playing on when they should have returned possession, was certainly old school.
That made me think back to the Nwankwo Kanu moment against Sheffield United in the 1990s, when he assisted Marc Overmars instead of easing the ball back to the goalkeeper after an injury. Arsenal offered to replay that FA Cup tie through embarrassment. There’s no chance that will be happening this time!
PREMIER LEAGUE’S NEW BALLS
Did you see the Premier League’s new yellow ball, given its first run out over the weekend? Maybe it’s my age but I am not having it. There’s too much going on.
Paddy Power tweeted a picture of it in the week and you never know with them, so I asked if it was a wind-up. Someone replied to me, ‘no you pump it up’.
Fair play, loved that.
The new Premier League ball has too much going on with its multi-coloured design