Skip over video

Most times a club decides to sack its manager it usually opts for a safe replacement from the usual list of suspects of journeymen managers and ex-players. But this week. League One side Stevenage Borough bucked the trend and went for an exciting and ambitious appointment in former Arsenal scout and Colorado Rapids boss Gary Smith. Here the Life’s A Pitch team applauds Stevenage’s bold approach, while also praising Rochdale for prising John Coleman (pictured above) away from Accrington Stanley after 13 years.

Dave Kidd of The People thinks Stevenage have a lot to look forward to after appointing Smith. “I think it’s great to see clubs making an imaginative appointment rather than an ex-pro; it’s a real bugbear of mine. I imagine there must be English [José] Mourinhos out there who didn’t play at a high level but may be tactically excellent and have a great eye for talent. It takes a completely different set of skills to be a successful coach or manager than a player and this is potentially a very exciting appointment.”

Jason Burt of the Daily Telegraph shares Dave’s excitement over Stevenage’s choice of manager . “I think it’s a great appointment,” he says. “I think sometimes clubs only go for big names for box office, just to get people through the turnstiles, whereas actually, if you’re successful [that’s how] you get people through the turnstiles.”

Appointing a young, inexperienced manager can backfire, however, as Rochdale found out to their cost recently with Steve Eyre. They’ve sought to rectify this by giving vastly experienced John Coleman the job. “He did very well at Accrington, he got two promotions with them,” says Duncan White of the Sunday Telegraph. “But then you look at the situation at Rochdale, which is the counter-argument [to Stevenage]. They made an imaginative appointment in Steve Eyre and they’ve not got the results they expected, and now they’ve gone for someone like John Coleman. But Coleman isn’t just an ex-pro who’s going to shake things up; he’s been at Accrington a long time and he’s done really impressive work there, so I think it’s a really good chance for him.”

Related articles:

Mike Calvin: Simon Grayson in nightmare situation at Leeds

Video: Could Neil Warnock take over at Leeds, Forest or Ipswich?

Video: “Powell has really turned it around” at Charlton 

Mike Calvin: Senda’s injury hell puts the beautiful game in perspective

Follow Life’s A Pitch on Twitter @BTLifesapitch

Not got BT Vision? Find out how to get it

More live football fixtures on BT Vision