Scottish Championship 23/24 Sack Race

[Central Belt Caley]

Seen a similar thread in the Premiership forum and thought I’d do the same for the Championship. Sacked or mutual consent only, doesn’t count if poached by another club. 

[bobbydazzler]

Dick Out early doors

[Richey Edwards]

2 minutes ago, bobbydazzler said:

Dick Out early doors

[jagsfan57]

Don’t think there is any possibility that Doolan will get the heave ho, irrespective of results.

[Nightmare]

8 minutes ago, jagsfan57 said:

Don’t think there is any possibility that Doolan will get the heave ho, irrespective of results.

You can probably add Dick Campbell and Rhys McCabe to the "no chance" list. I can't see either being punted, unless it's a '2 points in the first half the season' type of situation. And nobody will be that bad in this year's Championship.

Billy Dodds seems untouchable as well, for some reason.

 

I'll go with Lee Bullen as first to go. Ayr have looked good in the League Cup, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll carry over this form into the league season, and it feels like Bullen is on a shorter leash than just about anyone else in the division right now, maybe aside from Jim Goodwin. If Ayr start slowly, which isn't an unrealistic shout, pressure could mount on him pretty quickly.

[Glenmavis Diamond]

Youd expect Dundee Utd to have too much money and squad strength to cancel out Goodwin's shitness for a while at least. Dods though, maybe not so much. Plenty ICT fans calling for his head already. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

9 minutes ago, Glenmavis Diamond said:

Youd expect Dundee Utd to have too much money and squad strength to cancel out Goodwin's shitness for a while at least. Dods though, maybe not so much. Plenty ICT fans calling for his head already. 

Aye, but they’ve been calling for his head en masse for almost a season now, and the board just gave him a 2 year deal. It’s pretty clear they have no intention of sacking him.

I can’t see any of Doolan, Campbell, McCabe or Imrie being sacked basically regardless of results. I’d add Veldman in there too providing that QP are at least fairly steady I don’t think he’ll go. McPake probably has enough credit, and I also think anything other than a relegation scrap will be seen as good enough by Dunfermline’s board, and I don’t think they’ll be in one. 

So it’s between Bullen, Murray and Goodwin for me. Murray is the one that wasn’t brought in by the guys now running it, so I guess he could be the one who’d be moved on the quickest - I get the sense that both Bullen and Goodwin are seen as ‘their man’ by their respective boards. 

[Central Belt Caley]

Dodds won’t get sacked, unless something off the park happens, past 2 seasons we’ve had separate long winless spells and he’s not gone so wouldn’t expect us to pay to sack him after giving him another 2 year deal 

[Zanetti]

I think it would take a very, very rough season for Veldman to lose his job - we'd need to pretty much be rooted to the bottom two. He was hand picked by Marijn Beuker, has a 3 year contract, and the only real expectation of him (at least initially) seems to be to develop an incredibly young squad.

 

[Diamonds are Forever]

1 hour ago, Nightmare said:

You can probably add Dick Campbell and Rhys McCabe to the "no chance" list. I can't see either being punted, unless it's a '2 points in the first half the season' type of situation. And nobody will be that bad in this year's Championship.

Billy Dodds seems untouchable as well, for some reason.

 

I'll go with Lee Bullen as first to go. Ayr have looked good in the League Cup, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll carry over this form into the league season, and it feels like Bullen is on a shorter leash than just about anyone else in the division right now, maybe aside from Jim Goodwin. If Ayr start slowly, which isn't an unrealistic shout, pressure could mount on him pretty quickly.

 

Yeah I think they are safe, even if we get relegated we'd keep him as he's shown he can get us back up. McPake has the same situation at Dunfermline although obviously I think they'd be harsher if they are sitting around the bottom at Christmas.

I'd go Bullen or Murray. Never got the impression that Bullen was a long term appointment and he seems to have decent employment prospects down south if management doesn't work out, so if it's not going great I can see them parting ways. With Murray, there's a lot more expectation around Raith this season so there will be more scrutiny, a repeat of last season's performance would likely result in the sack. Not saying that will happen, just that he will have less leeway this season.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Diamonds are Forever

[Tattie36]

46 minutes ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

… I can’t see any of Doolan, Campbell, McCabe or Imrie being sacked basically regardless of results…

On the contrary, Campbell is probably most likely to go first at the moment anyway imo. Not only is he drinking in the last chance saloon (and has been for a while) but they may be about to call last orders soon.

Big positive changes were needed after last season but so far it’s been a bit of a shambles. Our pre-season was poor and the league cup a disaster. Recruitment has been so so - Bird, Steele, Stowe and McIntosh look decent and we’ve definitely strengthened up front. However, the squad is threadbare, massively unbalanced and lacking quality in most positions. We were brushed aside by Forfar last night, had 1 defender in the match day squad and only 5 on the bench. We have 4 defenders on the books, 1 of whom, our left back Colin Hamilton, has been out injured for 5 months (and won’t be back for another 6-8 weeks) yet no replacement has been found in that time. 2 others are injured, not sure of the extent as the club have clammed up on communications.

Hoping for another signing or two and some decent loans but time is running out and with Dundee United at home in 10 days, followed by QP, it could be a humbling start to the league campaign.

Yes Campbell has worked wonders and deserved a bit more leeway due to that but there’s only so much good will available.

[Dunning1874]

You can put Campbell, Doolan, Dodds, Imrie and McCabe in the extremely safe category. It's going to take a properly catastrophic run for any of them to get sacked, something the magnitude of 10 consecutive defeats, only one win by Christmas or similar.  Whether any of them are actually bad enough to do that is another matter, but Arbroath do seem to have the ingredients for an implosion.

McPake and Bullen (whether Ayr fans like it or not) have credit in the bank and also aren't going to go for a wobble. They'd need to be consistently terrible and in the relegation battle to go.

Veldman is just in the door and will likely get time - again a relegation battle would see him under pressure but even if they do start terribly he'd likely get the chance to turn it around and be here until Christmas at least.

That leaves Goodwin and Murray. It's easy to see how Goodwin gets sacked, if they wobble at any point in the first quarter the pressure could build very quickly and he could be gone very early. Murray obviously has the expectation to progress on last season but he's hardly going to get sacked for just a slow start, so Goodwin is only one who has any serious chance of being punted by October. I still expect Dundee United to be fine though.

[eez-eh]

There’s no use in conflating the fan opinion on here with the opinion of the board. For all the stick Bullen gets on here I can’t see Smith and Mathie making the decision to sack him lightly.

Same goes for Dodds. I can’t see Gardiner sacking the good rangers man who he’s just given a 2 year deal unless Inverness have a truly horrendous first half of the season.

Goodwin is the runaway contender for me, probably followed by Murray.

[callum-ayr]

Bullen, unless we are flirting religiously with relegation for a sustained period will be fine.  As Dunning1874 says has credit in the bank and has Smith and Mathies backing.  Him choosing to leave is a different conversation.  Surprised how no one has chosen McPake, Dunfermline always have high expectations and if they were to get off to a rocky start could be a shout.  For all Dodds has his love in with Gardiner, I think him and Campbell are the 2 obvious choices.

[itzdrk]

Dick Campbell. 

That second place finish was a long time ago (in football terms anyway) now and IMO it doesn't look great this year.  

[Chippyminton]

I think Dunning1874 nailed it.

[Shandon Par]

If Murray is struggling he can always turn to his Technical Director for advice on how to finish 7th or 8th in League One.

[D'Jaffo]

9 hours ago, callum-ayr said:

Bullen, unless we are flirting religiously with relegation for a sustained period will be fine.  As Dunning1874 says has credit in the bank and has Smith and Mathies backing.  Him choosing to leave is a different conversation.  Surprised how no one has chosen McPake, Dunfermline always have high expectations and if they were to get off to a rocky start could be a shout.  For all Dodds has his love in with Gardiner, I think him and Campbell are the 2 obvious choices.

Yeah I don’t think they’d ever sack him unless we were rooted to the bottom or at risk of getting cut adrift but him walking is something that wouldn’t surprise me. 
 

I agree that I don’t believe his appointment was fully long term although what is long term in football these days? I think regardless of what happens this will be his last season. Unless we do something daft and actually go up. 

[ClydeTon]

Quite a lot of "safe" managers and ones who are unlikely to be punted, so I'm just going to go for a Dundee Utd struggle in Autumn and through to Christmas and Goodwin gets punted.

No objectivity, just an absolutely wild guess.

[Rhys McCabe Hype Train]

As well as being our manager, Rhys McCabe still also fits into our best XI and is our first choice free-kick & penalty taker. His cousin and assistant manager, Callum Fordyce, was also club captain until two weeks ago and remains our best centre back. Sacking McCabe would also hacen Fordyce’s departure, thereby weakening the squad and most likely leading to a dismal relegation. As far as I know both are contracted until the end of the season and therefore neither will be going anywhere. 

Bit of a duff situation to be in if things do go to shit, but there we go.