Life begins at 40? Not if you’re an English football manager…

Paul Simpson’s appointment as Shrewsbury Town’s new manager got me thinking about young English managers this afternoon. No disrespect to Shrewsbury, but despite the broad grin on the face of Simpson as he held up a replica shirt at his unveiling, I would imagine he would rather be managing at a higher level. Simpson guided Carlisle to successive promotions despite numerous off the field problems and was building a burgeoning reputation. The Carlisle-born man was only recently named manager of the year, achieving a better points average over the season than Sir Alex Ferguson.

He then made a jump to a bigger club in the form of Preston, where after an initial honeymoon period in which his side topped the Championship, they finished one place off the play-offs. The club were forced to sell David Nugent and didn’t spend much in rebuilding the squad. Only 3 early season wins meant he was sacked in November.

So, after one poor start to a season, a 41 year old English manager is sacked and forced to rebuild his career at the bottom Read more