Latest QPR manager gone in a Hart beat

Everyone knows that a new manager needs time right? To bring in his own players and try out different formations. As the Dutch would say these things can’t be rushed. Everyone seems to agree with this logic, everyone apart from those trigger happy chairmen who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a football ground, that is.

If anything has ever been proved in football then having stability, over the long-term, brings success. Try telling that to Flavio Briatore, owner of Championship side QPR, who has got through an incredible 9 managers in 2½ years at the West London club.

Paul Hart became the latest Loftus Road managerial casualty this week when he left the club after just 28 days in charge. What the club expected from the former Portsmouth boss in 28 days is anyones guess, but Harty can console himself in the knowledge that he wasn’t the shortest serving manager in the history of the game. Nope, he wasn’t even close.

The top 5 shortest managerial reigns in the history of the game -

5. Kevin Cullis SWANSEA 7 days in 1996
Cullis got the job at the Vetch on a growing reputation as one of the country’s up and ccoming PE teachers. His career at the Vetch lasted two games, with the Swans conceding 5 in the process.

4. Jorg Berger ARMENIA BIELEFLED 5 days in 2009
Berger was given a clear and concise plan when he took over the Bundesliga club. To save Armenia from relegation. He lost his only game in charge and he was promptly fired.

3. Dave Bassett – CRYSTAL PALACE 4 days in 1984
Bassett worked for Palace for 4 days before realising that life at Selhurst Park wasn’t for him and returned to former club Wimbledon.

2. Bill Lambton – SCUNTHORPE 3 days in 1959
Although it has been claimed that his appointment was only verbal, Lambton lasted a pitiful 3 days in charge of Scunny.

1 . Leroy Rosenior – TORQUAY UNITED 10 minutes in 2007
You could have boiled 3 eggs consecutively in the time that Rosenior lasted at Torquay. The former Fulham and QPR striker was appointed manager of the club in the middle of the outfit being taken over by a local consortium. As the deal went through they decided that Rosenior’s face didn’t fit and he was gone!

Other notable short stints include:

Steve Coppell – Manchester City (33 days, 1996)
Les Reed – Charlton (41 days, 2006)
Brian Clough – Leeds United (44 days – 1974)
Colin Todd – Derby (98 days, 2001/02)