Top 100 Key to success – Longevity or Variety?

With season 20 coming to an end and the end of season manager merry go round now complete, a statement was made in the Whatsapp group recently that posed an interesting debate and difference of opinion. – “Are the managers who stay in their clubs the longest more successful?”

Below is a list containing all the managers who have been at their current club continuously for at least 250 games. (‘Continuously’ means that they have not finished in the bottom 3 and have not been automatically sacked). I thought this would add an interesting element to the study.

1. James Mckenzie – Chelsea – Division 1 – 911
2. Andre Guerra – Porto – Division 1 – 872
3. Heath Brown – Arsenal – Division 1- 430
4. Bojan H – Bayern Munich – Division 1- 425
5. Joao Alves – Sporting Lisbon – Division 2 – 415
6. Andre Libras-Boas – Hellas Verona – Division 1 – 402
7. Gav Harmer – Atletico Madrid – Division 1 – 369
8. Dario Saviano – Borussia Dortmund – Division 1 – 348
9. David Marsden – Hamburg – Division 2 – 340
10. Dan Wallace – Barcelona – Division 1 – 338
11. Stephen Beddows – Sampdoria – Division 3 – 301
12. Joao Rocha – West Ham United – Division 3 – 292
13. Regan Thompson – Hertha Berlin – Division 2 – 290
14. Doug Earle – Leicester City – Division 1 – 265
15. Ross Falconer – Lille – Division 4 – 260
16. Scott Mckenzie – Sao Paulo – Division 2 – 253

As we can see from the above list, 100% of the top 4 managers and 80% of the top 10 managers all manage clubs in Division 1. 56% of the total managers currently manage in Division 1. Only 25% in Division 2 and 13% in Division 3. Interestingly only 6% of managers manage a club in Division 4. Not a single manager manages a club in Division 5.

Which leads to the obvious question “Is the key to success…………variety?” A staggering 84% of Top 100 have managed their clubs for less than 250 ‘continuous’ games. Is the only way to be successful to move clubs?