SanguinemuirinhoSanguine 'Be our manager. We own you, until we decide that you're not wanted.'
Slight correction "Be our manager. We own you and will pay you for <insert length of contract>. If we decide we don't want to use you, we will still pay you, but we no longer own you"
I don't know why you find this so strange. Yes, it's not like managing a shop, or a factory, or a call-centre. That's because it's not a shop, a factory, or a call-centre.
I don't agree with the concept of employer ownership of employee. Judge an employee on the work that they do. My view is that a football manager's contract doesn't buy a lack of interest or desire in other roles. It's as simple as that. Everyone is of course free to disagree. I'll continue to find the treatment of Clarke a little silly.
Even if one does that, his record was still relatively underwhelming here
What disappointed me was that we gave Clarke a relatively high budget to bring in his own squad. He brought in Al Habsi, Bond, Ferdinand, McShane, Taylor, Quinn, Piazon, John, Hurtado, Vydra, Sa. That's an entire XI of players. Yet at the first major sign of trouble, he looks elsewhere. All this, especially considering Fulham were at best a sideways move at the time, and were considered quite a shambles
When combining his mediocre record at best to that, he was doomed for failure, whichever way you try and paint it