The writing was probably on the wall when East Stirling’s Brian Graham speculative effort on goal curled in over Pierre-Antoine Martini’s head. Livingston, without a win in four games and deep in financial trouble have been sliding down the table after a good start to the season which, ironically included a 2-1 win over East Stirling in the League Cup back in August. Now, a similar scoreline to the same team saw the Almondvale side get knocked out of the Scottish Cup.
Following the defeat, the club have decided to relieve manager Roberto Landi, his assistant Valter Berlini and Massimo Pilon of their duties with immediate effect, making Landi the fourth manager this year after Alex Rae, Allan McGonical and Jim Weir to be sacked following disappointing league performances.
Since Meadowbank Thistle changed its name to Livingston at the end of the 1994/95 season, the club rose through the ranks of the lower leagues in much the same way that Gretna, another club that succumbed to financial pressure (some say mismanagement) did. Third Division champions in its first year, Division Two champions at the end of the 2001/02 season and promotion to the SPL two years later. A creditable third spot was reached in their first season in the top flight, giving the club a taste of European football where they eventually lost out to Austrian side Sturm Graz in an exciting 8-6 aggregate scoreline. A League Cup was added in 2004 when goals by Derek Lilley and Jamie McAllister defeated Hibernian in front of 45,000 at Hampden.
Things seemed to be going well for Livi, until the club was – rather surprisingly – placed into administration. In February 2004, as the club was in their third season in the SPL, the clubs main creditor, Halifax Bank of Scotland, called time on debts of over £3.5m. A boardroom coup in May 2005 put control of the club into the hands of Pearse Flynn’s Lionheart Consortium but while the financial health of the club was secure, its league status was not. At the end of season 2005/06, following a string of defeats that included a 7-0 thrashing by Hibernian, the Lions finished bottom of the league on 18 points, some 15 points behind Dunfermline Athletic, and a massive 73 points behind champions Celtic.
Relegation to the First Division followed, but the club continued to struggle, winning only 11 games out of 36 and finishing the season in mid-table. New management was brought in an effort to turn things around. John Robertson lasted just over a year, his successor Mark Proctor likewise but results failed to improve. Last season the club finish one place lower, in seventh place.
Following much speculation over the summer, Pearse Flynn sold his holdings in the club to an Italian consortium that removed Proctor from his role and replaced him with a relatively unknown but experienced coach, Roberto Landi. Landi had played for a series of mid-table Italian sides before ending his playing career with the New York Cosmos. As a manager, he’d managed several national U-21 sides, the Romanian side National Bucharest and FS Sopron, a team relegated from the top division in Hungary last season. Given the Italian link at the Almondvale, it was no surprise that Landi landed at the Almondvale, bringing with him former Celtic and Dunfermline manager (and part-owner Tomasso Angelini son-on-law) Davie Hay to assist in management duties.
Landi wasted no time in strengthening the squad. In came Anthony McParland from Wycombe, Jason Talbot from Port Vale, Gretna’s Chris Innes and Roddy McKenzie from Dunfermline. Out went veteran defender Steven Tweed, Graeme Dorrans, while income was raised with the £100,000 sale of striker Robert Snodgrass to Leeds United (another club knocked out of the Cup this week to lower league opposition). The season started well with progression into the Challenge Cup after a 4-0 win over Stranraer. An opening day defeat to St. Johnstone lead to a revival that saw them five games on the trot – by the end of August, Livi where flying high at the top of the First Division. A 2-0 defeat at home to Partick Thistle saw them out of the Challenge Cup, a defeat which precipitated Livi’s fall from grace. A 3-0 win away to a troubled Dundee aside, the club embarked on a run of form that saw them win 2 games in 10 (including a League Cup exit to Celtic and a 6-1 drubbing by Queen of the South.
Going into the Scottish Cup game against Third Division East Stirling, the pressure had already been mounting on Landi and the club. With news of unpaid players, a growing list of creditors (that include the Inland Revenu as well as former owner Pearse Flynn who is claiming over £300k as a result of a complicated deal involving the sale of a former nightclub at the ground) and plummeting form, the last thing the Lions needed was to be eliminated by lower league opposition. The 2-1 away defeat was this rounds ‘cup shocker’ and patience had run out for Landi and his management team.
The club’s website reports that the search for a manager has started and that the club hope to appoint a manager in time for next weeks fixture against Dundee. The question though is which manager would want to go to a club that appears to be in such serious peril. With creditors demanding large sums of money, whoever takes over at the Almondvale will be severely restricted in strengthening the squad. Like most clubs with debts, players may well need to be sold in order to keep the club from failing.
A second period of administration, coupled with points deduction could well relegate the club back to the Second division – a sad end to a club that once finished third in the SPL and which represented Scotland on the European stage.
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- East Stirlingshire v Livingston
- Livingston – The Neverending Story
Tags: Livingston
As a football supporter whose team has been through more than its fair share of managers in the last few years, I know how crucial stability and continuity can be, but its even more important to have the right person at the helm.
Nonetheless, I’m surprised that they’ve taken this decision at this point in the season when despite a string of less than ideal results, they’re still sitting only 6 points behind the league leaders and 2 behind the second placed team. That gap is far from being insurmountable and one win would be enough to hoist them back up the table.
I can only assume that relations have soured to such an extent that the owners and Landi can no longer work together, or that the owners’ expectations are a 1st place finish by a considerable margin. But I’m not sure how they expect to survive or compete in the SPL with their current financial issues. If this is their plan, it sounds alarmingly short sighted.
How is the public opinion in Scotland about Livingston? A few years they weren’t so popular because of the franchise thing. Is that still the case?