Bad Management

Longevity is something that is very hard to sustain in football these days, particularly in football management. And even if you can sustain that longevity it is hard to stay consistently successful, I’m looking at you Arsene Wenger. But while I’m sure the column about Arsene Wenger will be written one day (and hopefully in the near future for Arsenal fans sake) lets switch gears and talk about the shortest managerial reign of all time. No its not presumably the short reign of Paul Lambert at Stoke or the De Boer debacle at Crystal Palace but rather a tenure that lasted just ten minutes. Yes seriously.

Leroy Rosenior faced many challenges in his career. As a black player in the 1980s he had to face the horrors of racism all too often, but the way he carried himself definitely makes him a role model for everybody to look up to. He was a decent striker too scoring plenty of goals for the likes of Fulham and West Ham. Leroy is a good pundit too (as is his son Brighton right back Liam Rosenior) so it will come as no surprise that he has had a career as a manager too.

Rosenior’s main spell in management came at League Two club Torquay United, who he managed between 2002-06. Leroy guided the team into League One although this brief sojourn into the third tier lasted only a season. A disappointing 20th placed finish following the club’s return to League Two saw Rosenior lose his job. Leroy then had a brief spell at Brentford as Torquay continued to struggle and the end of the 2006/07 season was a bit of a disaster for The Gulls. The club was in dire financial straits and to make matters worse had just been relegated to the Conference for the first time in 73 years. The club needed a safe pair of hands so Rosenior was brought back on May 17th 2007.

So how long did Rosenior last? Did he heroically lead the seaside club back to the promised land? Well no. Rosenior then proceeded to have the shortest managerial reign of all time lasting around 10 minutes (600 seconds if you prefer.) Almost as soon as he signed his contract the club was sold and the new owners told Rosenior that his services were no longer required. Yes, Leroy lost his job without even managing a game. Torquay would make the play offs that season and be promoted the year after while Rosenior would briefly manage the Sierra Leone national team. So while managerial tenures may be getting shorter and shorter, it will take some doing to top Leroy Rosenior’s 10 minutes spell at Torquay.