Football Special Report - the shortest lived managerial tenures (Part 2)
Hector Cuper
After losing, two consecutive Champions league finals, Hector Cuper managed to bottle up in the Italian Serie A. To add to the insult, he saw his team of Inter Milan defeated by their arch rivals, AC Milan in their home stadium. He was sacked soon after by Inter the next season.
Cuper managed to then take over as Real Betis’s manager. However, he was allowed to leave the team by December after winning only two of his opening fourteen games. According to the club’s officials, "Cuper has proven himself to be a gentleman throughout his time at the head of the team. It is the results that have been the reason for his departure."
The manager then returned to Italy where he took over as in charge of Parma. Things, however, didn’t go according to Cuper’s plan once again. He lost five games, drew three and managed to win only two games. He was allowed to leave the club before the final game of the season was even played.
Marcello Lippi
Apart from the terrible run in the FIFA 2010 World Cup, Lippi previously had one bad stint with Inter Milan. The manager was appointed to take Inter to levels of success that were never seen before, by the team. However, the manager barely lasted over a season at San Siro. The manager got rid of Roberto Bagio and decided to sign Robbie Keane instead. This transfer ended in disaster for the manager and the team. Inter were eliminated in the qualifying round of the Champions League and following an opening day defeat to Reggina, Lippi was asked to leave the club.
Jose Mourinho
For Jose Mourinho winning every domestic trophy in three seasons wasn’t enough to satisfy the demands of the Chelsea management and overly ambitious owner, Roman Abramovich. The Russian owner of the team wanted to see his team lift the European trophy. After zero success in the European competition, the manager was allowed to leave the club on mutual consent.
Jose Antonio Camacho
Having already played as a player for Real Madrid, it seemed almost inevitable that, Jose Antonio Camacho would return to coach the club in the future. He did that on two occasions, both of those lasted less than a rainy day in the sunny Spain.
In 1998 he was appointed to replace Jupp Heynckes but lasted only twenty three days and was fired after a row with the club president.
His second spell came in 2004; he managed to last over a hundred days this time. However, when he asked the club to sign Patrick Viera, he bought in Michael Owen instead. He didn’t like the fancy style of play that the Madrid players were used to and after dropping Beckham and Raul for a game, he ended up losing a derby to Espanyol. This was the final straw in his reign as Madrid coach.
Brian Clough
Brian Clough was in charge of Leeds United for only forty four days; however his short-lived reign earned him a book deal and a movie which was based on his stay at Elland Road.
He tried to introduce a brutal style of management to the players. After his first training session with the players he asked them all to chuck away their medals, since he felt none of them deserved the royals. He even went as far as to telling Eddie Gray that if he was a race horse, he would have had him shot.
The Leeds players never grew accustomed to his management style. After just six days of being in-charge of the team he was fired. In his defence Clough was reported to have said, "It’s a sad day for football."
Tags: