Inverness Caley are team in trouble.
Bottom of the Scottish Premier League, the distance between themselves and the teams occupying the safety zone (i.e. 10th place and upwards) is increasing with every passing weekend. Following a run of results started when Caley lost away at Parkhead in November and which looks set to continue when Celtic make the return trip this Saturday, Caley are two points behind Falkirk, with the Bairns themselves six points behind St Mirren, the team in 10th place.
Craig Brewster’s sacking last week came as no surprise. With the season more than half-way through, results on the field showed no sign of improvement. Only one home win this season, itself one of only five games won so far in this campaign is the sort of form that gets you into the mess they’re in now and with the financial boost SPL survival gives clubs like Caley something had to be done before the situation became irretrievable. And so, following the 1-0 defeat to Hamilton Accies the weekend before last, the club stepped in and dismissed Brewster.
The search for a replacement started pretty much soon afterwards. Several names appeared in the papers, including former Caley managers Charlie Christie and John Robertson, as well as Chris Sutton. Ross Tokely, currently player at the Caledonian Stadium was also linked with the job.
The appointment of Terry Butcher, perhaps the most well known of the names in the running for the job (aside from Ossie Ardilles, World Cup winner with Argentina and someone with a particularly poor record in football management) makes sense considering the predicament Caley find themselves in. Despite having a fairly mediocre record as manager, there’s no denying the good record Butcher has in saving stricken clubs from relegation. And it is probably that record that has won him the job.
The image of a bandaged and bleeding Butcher during the Italia ‘90 World Cup qualifying game against Sweden is a lasting homage to a player whose not afraid to get stuck in when the going gets tough and who will battle against the odds to get results.
When Butcher quit Rangers to become manager of English side Coventry (at 32, he was the youngest manager in the Football League) in time for the 1990-91 season, the Sky Blues where struggling in the relegation zone; Butcher was tasked with saving the side from relegation. A managerial baptism of fire against Liverpool (a 1-0 defeat) started his career and despite a very inconsistent season that saw them beat the likes of Aston Villa, Tottenham and Nottingham Forest and lose the last game of the season 6-1 to Arsenal, Butcher did the improbable: Coventry finished 16th and relegation was avoided for another season. A similar Harry Houdini trick followed at Sunderland, where as player-manager he saved the Black Cats from relegation from the Championship end of the 1992-93 season.
Nearly 10 years later, Butcher, this time manager at SPL side Motherwell found himself faced with a similar task. Motherwell where in deep trouble, bottom of the league and heading for relegation. Throughout most of that season, 2001/02, Butcher was assistant manager to Erik Black, finally making the position his own following Blacks’ resignation two games before the end of that season. Through a mixture of good luck and a poor St. Johnstone side, Motherwell remained in the SPL for another season.
Three clubs in relegation trouble, and three times Butcher managed to save the day. Clearly then, Butcher is the man you go to when you need to get your team out of trouble. And there’s no team in more trouble (other than perhaps Stranraer) than Inverness Caley Thistle.
But where his managerial record seems to fall down is what happens the season after relegation is avoided. At Coventry he lasted until January of the following season before being sacked, while at Sunderland a poor start in the 1993/94 season had the club third from bottom of the old First division by the time he was sacked in November of that year. And following Motherwell’s survival in at the end of the 2001/02 season, in his first full season in charge Butcher led his charges to the foot of the table once more, this time staving off relegation by Falkirk’s stadium not meeting SPL criteria.
But there is a little ray of hope. In Butcher’s defence, the following season, 2003/04 he recovered well, Motherwell finishing comfortably in 6th place, while in 2005 his side reached the Scottish League cup Final where they got comprehensively trounced by Rangers, 5-1. In his final season at Firs Park, Motherwell finished in the bottom half of the table, but the club’s fortunes had been turned around: Butcher brought through youngsters like James McFadden and Stephen Pearson into the side from the youth setup, players that where eventually sold on (McFadden’s £1.25m transfer to Everton and Pearson’s £350k move to Celtic) with the money helping Motherwell out of administration.
Butcher is reunited at Inverness Caley with Maurice Malpas, his assistant at Fir Park for several years. Malpas himself took over the reigns from Butcher (who left for his short and disastrous spell at Australian minnows Sydney FC), but his only season in charge had the side finishing only 6 points off the bottom of the table.
While we don’t doubt Butcher’s fighting spirit, we’re not sure that he’s the man to lead the club into safety in the season’s ahead. His record tells us that he suffers from second season blues (ironically like his former side Motherwell this season). Perhaps this fact has not gone unnoticed at the Caledonian – both Butcher and Malpas are on 18 month contracts.
Survival depends largely on being able to bring out the best in the players he has at his disposal, but more than anything else, convincing the Caley supporters he’s the right man for the job. This Saturday, Caley welcome Celtic, Butcher’s old foes from his Rangers days to Inverness. You can’t help but think that, knowing the uncompromising way he played his football, he’ll encourage his teams to get stuck in, have a go, fight for the points and who knows maybe even get a result.
As Butcher himself says, between now and the end of the season, Caley will be playing 15 Cup finals, including some tasty ties against Dundee United (A), Rangers (A) , Aberdeen (A) and his former side Motherwell (H). He’d do well to remember that the teams relegated in previous seasons had anywhere between 28 to 40 points – some 11 to 23 short of where he is now. If he can get results against teams he plays in between those fixtures (Hibs, St Mirren, Falkirk and Kilmarnock) he may well be OK.
Looking back over Butchers’ managerial record, we instinctively regard his first season in charge of his sides as the one with a purpose, namely survival; the instructive parallel however, lies in the season that follows.
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Tags: Inverness Caley Thistle, SPL
Terry Butcher is the Iain Dowie of Scottish football.
Inexplicably given job after job with clubs with little or no success. The records speak for themselves, he works wonders in the first year(though it will be a Herculean task to lift Caley off the arse end of the table) but the in the 2nd year, the arse falls out of his managerial qualities.
Iain Dowie is just poor. Palace, Coventry and A. N. Other club whose name escapes me(Charlton?) were all placed in Dowie’s “capable” hands and sort of…didnt. Didnt do anything.
Both men should stick to punditry. Neither truly has the bouncebackability required.