OF COURSE IT’S OK TO CALL FOR THE SACK

OMany in the football bubble fail to grasp what the game is about

N the weekend of a match popularly referred to as ‘El Sackico’ and with now ex-Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin talking of the negative effect speculation on his future had on his wife and children, it seems an apposite time to bring comments made recently by David Moyes to a wider audience.

The West Ham boss appeared recently on a podcast called Lobster Brain. In a wide-ranging interview, he spoke of his distaste for media platforms — and the members of the public who contribute to them — discussing whether underperforming football bosses should get the sack or not.

Indeed, he even has a problem with the very word ‘sack’ being used. It has connotations, apparently. Although he didn’t mention what they were.

The podcast is hosted by Dan Donachie, former head of medical science for Everton and son of ex-Scotland player Willie, who now describes himself as an ‘executive coach’ who works ‘on a deep, spiritual level to quickly discover what’s holding you back’.

If that happens to be the fact your team is being run into the ground by some dumpling who can’t buy a win, though, you may wish to think about going to see someone else.

The whole thing, in truth, sounds a bit healing crystals and money for old rope and, it must be said, the chat with Moyes did carry a strong whiff of the melodrama of the self-help industry about it.

Moyes was told, in the most sombre tones, that having people talk about how you are doing your job on radio programmes must be ‘debilitating’.

‘Mental health’ got a strong mention. As you might expect, given the fact ‘mental health’ colours any arena now in which individuals might happen to conclude that ‘being kind’ and living life by the positive mantras you might find on kitchen wall plaques in Home Bargains might not always be the best method of getting results.

Listen to Livingston head coach Davie Martindale screaming at his players during the half-time interval the other week or consider how our ‘elite’ clubs are still allowed to sign 15-year-old children on restrictive 30-month contracts before packing them off to the scrapheap and you’ll see that pro football, on the whole, is very definitely one of them.

For all that, though, Lobster Brain was an interesting look into how some people inside the sport view its place in wider culture.

And it posed a question worth considering as Goodwin (right) and Hibs head coach

Lee Johnson prepared themselves for the torch-and-pitchfork brigade gathering outside their respective grounds: Are we wrong to call so blithely for bosses to get the bullet?

‘I think for anybody, in any walk of life, to say: “You might be out of work in two or three weeks’ time, we’ve got somebody else we think is better than you and it is going to be discussed openly”, I don’t know if that is even allowed,’ said Moyes.

‘We’ve got a society where we encourage phone calls into radio stations for people to say why David Moyes should lose his job. ‘That’s the world we live in as football managers, but, if you are talking about a lot of the mental health issues that are going on in life just now, that would be something you would have to consider not being a great thing for anybody. ‘Being a football manager, you are on all the platforms. You’re talked (about) in newspapers. They discuss it. I am not sure. Maybe in years to come it might be brought up and talked about more seriously. ‘I’ve got another thing. I am not particularly sure the word “sacking” — being sacked — is a great word for someone. If you’re not particularly good at the job, sometimes the word sacking implicates more things.’

Moyes added: ‘If you go into football management, you know there is a good chance you are more than likely going to be sacked some time. You need to be very special to go through it and not be sacked. I also think it doesn’t need the whole world to debate the reasons why you are not.’

That’s as may be. From this perspective, though, it simply comes across as further evidence that many of those employed within the professional football bubble fail to grasp what the game is really all about.

It is about tribalism. And release. And irrationality. And talking points. It’s the entertainment industry. Part circus, part panto — with all the requisite heroes and villains. Something to amuse, to talk about in homes, pubs and workplaces.

Football is a brutal, knockabout industry. One that shapes and guides the lives of millions. It’s not for the faint-hearted. And if you want to get involved in top-level management, you’ve got to accept that. Otherwise, work further down the chain or take a steady job doing something else.

Moyes talks about how other people not knowing if their work is secure for the next two or three weeks is anathema. Has he never heard of zero hour contracts? Fire and re-hire? Casual work?

True, normal procedures aren’t followed when managers are called in out-of-the-blue and given the tin-tack. Then, again, normal employees are rarely given the likes of the £5.2million pay-off Moyes and his staff received when being shown the door at Manchester United.

Of course, Goodwin and Johnson, whose sides faced off at Easter Road yesterday, don’t earn at that level. But they are still extremely well-paid. With those rewards come stresses and unwelcome attention. These, though, are just occupational hazards managers must accept.

Ask nurses or teachers or barstaff or rail workers or anyone, really, in any kind of front-facing industry. They all have pressure to deal with. They all have awful things said and done to them. The difference is that they are having to take to picket lines to get paid properly.

As for the white noise that comes from Twitter and journalists, it has always been a source of amazement that managers and chairmen take it so deeply to heart.

I mean, Aberdeen lost to Darvel. Captain Anthony Stewart admitted he and others ‘didn’t give their all’. Chairman Dave Cormack rambled on about a ‘football monitoring board’ no one had heard of deciding Goodwin should be allowed to oversee another humiliation at Hibs and made his failing regime look ever more ludicrous.

Can punters, ploughing in huge chunks of their monthly wages, genuinely be expected not to pass comment on this? How else are they to have a say on how their club is run? By writing a nice letter to the marketing department?

And are the media really expected to turn a blind eye because it might cause a little discomfort?

It’s fantasy stuff. Ridiculous, really.

So, don’t feel guilty over calling for Goodwin’s removal and the fact that he finally departed last night. He deserved it. Moyes is heading that way too.

This is the life they chose. And if football descends to fans being ordered to fork out, sit on their hands and say nothing about anyone no matter how bad their team may be, it’s finished.