Alan Pardew watch

Middlesbrough have dispensed with the services of Tony Mowbray (not long after Carlisle did with their manager of five years) and that means as Mowbray was appointed almost exactly three years ago, Alan Pardew rises in the length of tenure ranks to 8^th out of 92 clubs.  This is according to the League Managers Association website, which has to be taken with a pinch of salt as it doe not include José Mourinho in joint 79^th place with the likes of Manuel Pellegrini, Roberto Martinez, Owen Coyle and Steve Lomas.  In fact, Chelsea isn’t included full stop in this part of the website (maybe because of the long interim status of Rafael Benítez it just dropped off the radar).  I did find out though Arsène Wenger, Gianfranco Zola and Mark Hughes all have OBEs to their name, the only league managers with honorifics, even though two of them are foreign-born (would Wenger be given an honorary knighthood if he won the treble, in imitation of Sir Alex Ferguson?)There are 87 teams listed, instead of the full 92 because, Chelsea apart, some clubs are managerless at the moment: Sheffield United are about to agree terms with Nigel Clough to takeover but as yet it’s not official; Gillingham are under the caretaker management of Peter Taylor; and, of course, Middlesbrough.

In a note as to how little time managers get these days, Gary Johnson of Yeovil Town is the longest serving manager not to serve a full two years in the job and he is at number 24 (appointed January 2012).  The average over the past five years is 1.91 years.  Alan Pardew is coming up for his third anniversary (kind of amazing given Newcastle United’s recent history) though whether he’ll make it to December or not is another matter.  He is already the Premier League’s second longest-serving manager, a position likely to continue with the upturn in Arsenal’s fortunes making Wenger unlikely to fall on his sword (despite his sabre-rattling over his contract which expires at the end of the season).  That means for Pardew to rise up the league rankings is for Shrewsbury Town, MK Dons, Leyton Orient, Cheltenham Town, Oxford United, Exeter City to have a collective rush of blood to the head and sack, respectively, Graham Turner, Karl Robinson, Russell Slade (though his team are doing very well at the moment), Mark Yates, Chris Wilder and Paul Tisdale, the last of whom has served an incredible seven seasons.  This may come across like the genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew but it shows that people have enjoyed lists for thousands of years.