Ange Postegoglou shared his thoughts on the sacking of the Dundee United manager after a 9-0 thrashing at the hands of his Celtic side on Sunday, which of course followed a run of bad results for the Tannadice club since their 1-0 home leg European win over AZ Alkmaar.
After Sunday’s Scottish record-breaking away win for Celtic, there were calls for the Dundee United manager, Jack Ross, to be sacked despite having only been in the position for 10 weeks. United have been struggling since the beginning of the season and has so far failed to register a league win in five attempts.
It seems that the Dundee United Board crumbled to the wave of discontent with the manager after getting Sunday’s result, and having consulted unnamed parties (presumably the playing staff) there was no appetite to allow Ross to bounce back and get his squad in order. While all of that was going on up the road in Dundee, the Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou outlined his own thoughts on the first managerial sacking of the season in the cinch Premiership.
“It’s not that I’m not sympathetic,” Ange 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,” the Celtic manager observed. “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.”
It hasn’t always been that way for football managers as Ange noted. “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.
Think this is bang on. AZ and Celtic on their day could do that to anyone in Scotland. I think to lose your job in august is so harsh especially for a guy that’s just in the door https://t.co/vEMAhThnJS
— Jonathan Burns (@twistandturns_J) August 30, 2022
“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.”
Overall, it seems Ange believes times may be changing, and that managers are held to a standard that is simply unfair. He believes that achieving success takes time and that losing a few games shouldn’t necessarily cost a manager just in the door his job. But the fact that is exactly what happened to Jack Ross yesterday is an indication of the unrealistic expectations that are being put on managers these days.
Unfortunately, if success isn’t achieved straight away, support from the board and fans appears to fade very quickly. And that’s without considering the role the ‘consulted’ players at Tannadice may have played in this shambles.
I now have no sympathy for Dundee Utd or their fans today. However, I have plenty of sympathy for Jack Ross, who demonstrated what a decent person he is. He did not throw players under the bus and he clearly explained that he was looking for solutions. In spite of this, the cowardly Utd board bent to the wishes of those who have no patience. For God’s sake, the man was only 10 weeks into the job, yet they failed in their duty to support him. I am convinced he would have turned it round.
Another thing that must be said is that the cursing and swearing and booing from a certain section of the Utd fans was absolutely disgusting as our goalkeeper was being treated for a nasty head knock which needed stitches whilst he was still on the pitch. This demonstrated that Utd have a section of disgusting morons as well. Probably these people and others like them helped to put severe strain of their own club manager who was desperately trying to cajole something from the ordinary Utd players in the face of being up against a team of professional and skilfull players who utterly played them off the park. It may be done to others this season as well. Will they sack their managers?