Pedigree no guarantee of employment

Listen to the pre-match interviews many managers give, or read their interviews from the press conferences before the game, and questions about their counterpart tend to elicit a response of: "So-and-so has done a great job." Perhaps he has. Perhaps the reply indicates a genuine respect; or perhaps it is merely indicative of a determination not to say anything controversial that might spur the opposition on.

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Boothroyd is now in League One.

Yet it happens so often that the League Managers' Association seem to have an unofficial edict that its members shall praise one another to the hilt. However, such regular and glowing tributes don't appear to convince enough supporters or board members, whose judgments tend to be more critical.

The experiences of several managers suggest as much. All have obvious achievements to their name but have found difficulty in returning to employment. In many cases, they have had to do so at a lower level or with a smaller club.

The most recent example is Aidy Boothroyd. Three years ago, he appeared - worryingly, for those who objected to his direct tactics - the future of English coaching. In his first full season in management, he took unfancied Watford into the Premier League. Last week, following a 10-month search for a new position, he replaced Paul Lambert at Colchester.

The Essex club, despite possessing a new ground, are arguably among the smallest in League One. Yet Boothroyd, when utterly untested in management, was appointed at Watford, in a higher division, in 2005. The conclusion that can be drawn is that his standing is lower now, promotion notwithstanding, than it was four years ago.

Boothroyd had shown an interest on both occasions the Norwich job became vacant after he left Watford; despite spending three years coaching at Carrow Road, he was overlooked firstly for the rookie Bryan Gunn and then for Lambert, who has never worked in the top two divisions in England.

His is not an isolated case. "With my record I don't see any reason why my next job shouldn't be at a Championship club," said Steve Cotterill in December 2008, more than a year after he left Burnley. Nine months on, he has not found one. But for three-quarters of his time at Turf Moor, Cotterill did an outstanding job, inheriting a squad that was relegation fodder and building a squad with limited resources.

Of the side that Owen Coyle took into the Premier League, Stephen Jordan, Steven Caldwell, Clarke Carlisle, Michael Duff, Graham Alexander, Joey Gudjonsson, Wade Elliott and Robbie Blake were signed by Cotterill. Thought to have interested West Brom and Leicester while at Burnley, he only appears to have tempted Minnesota Thunder in the subsequent time.

He is not alone in discovering that, in football as in other walks of life, it is easier to get a job when you already have one. With 20 Premier League and 72 Football League clubs, demand vastly exceeds supply. Yet a record ought to provide the best guarantee of future employment. Increasingly, it does not. While Paul Jewell's time at Derby can be described as disastrous without risk of hyperbole, he has twice won promotion to the Premier League. November will mark the first anniversary of his exit from Pride Park.

Others have endured a longer wait. Billy Davies took the Nottingham Forest post 14 months after leaving Derby. Gary Megson's departure from the City Ground preceded a 17-month wait before Leicester appointed him. In that context, Sam Allardyce's accession at Blackburn, 11 months after Newcastle sacked him, was comparatively quick. Yet Allardyce had already been overlooked for the position at Ewood Park once, when Paul Ince was preferred.

The younger man, a former England captain, may have been the more fashionable choice, just as Gunn was a sentimental option at Norwich. But both were examples of managers with a track record being overlooked, often for the utterly untried. There are others; Watford opted for first Brendan Rodgers and then Malky Mackay, Huddersfield chose Lee Clark, West Ham went for Gianfranco Zola and QPR for Paulo Sousa.

Perhaps it is a question of reputation. Boothroyd's long-ball approach probably deterred some; Cotterill, firstly as Wilko's Little Helper at Sunderland and secondly with an abrasive approach at Burnley, may have antagonised others; Davies is a fully paid-up member of the awkward squad and Megson may well be.

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The tribunal agreed that Alan Curbishley's position had become untenable.

But all were eager to manage. Gordon Strachan, who seems to be content to take a second sabbatical, and Alan Curbishley, who has shown little evidence that he is searching for another job, probably do not belong among the frustrated, but plenty do.

Because those who have remained in virtually constant employment for long period of time - such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Harry Redknapp, Steve Bruce and Neil Warnock - are very much in the minority.

Others have been forced to lower their sights. Three years after reaching the FA Cup final, Alan Pardew, at Southampton, is joining Boothroyd in League One. Micky Adams took over at Port Vale in the summer, Brian Little at Conference North club Gainsborough Trinity last month.

Yet Pardew, Adams and Little, like Davies, Jewell, Megson and Boothroyd, have all taken a side into the Premier League. Each has earned a club what is now a £60m jackpot. That sort of accomplishment, however, has been ignored by some employers.

None of which bodes well for a recent addition to the ranks of the managerial unemployed. Simon Davey kept Barnsley in the Championship for three successive years on a comparative shoestring and defeated Liverpool and Chelsea to reach the FA Cup semi-finals. His is the sort of CV that ought to bring him another post, possibly at a bigger club, soon. The example of many of his counterparts, however, means he may soon be another of the managers who finds a fine pedigree no help. The reasons are numerous, but perhaps too many are guilty of only remembering their most recent experience. And in most cases that is of getting the sack.