It's been dubbed El Sackico but Billy Brown reckons it’s the phrase that should be binned, not the loser of tomorrow’s Hibs-Aberdeen clash.
The former Hearts, Hibs, Falkirk and Bradford City assistant boss is now chairman of Scotland’s Managers and Coaches Association and doesn’t care much for the pressure he has seen heaped on Dons gaffer Jim Goodwin and his Easter Road counterpart Lee Johnson this week. Brown, now 72 and out of the game after decades of success working alongside Jim Jefferies, gets that football is a results business and when Goodwin suffers a reverse like Monday’s Scottish Cup defeat at Darvel then his job is up for debate.
But he doesn’t like the way Aberdeen’s visit to Leith is being billed as a shootout that will leave only Goodwin or Johnston still standing at the end of it. Nor is he entirely pleased with the statement issued by the Pittodrie that appears to have given their manager only the flimsiest stay of execution.
“I’m glad to see the club has, in some ways, stuck by him,” Brown said. “After the result the other night, with the feeling of the supporters being so clear, and the stick the chairman in particular is going to get, it’s good to see that he is sticking by him.
“On the other hand, it puts Saturday’s game on a completely different level and one that I think is very difficult for Jim to handle. The Aberdeen statement doesn’t quite say it, but there’s a clear inference that if they don’t win on Saturday Jim will be sacked.
“They used the words ‘immediate improvements’, so I’d like to think that if they put on a really good show on Saturday but still lose the game by the odd goal, it is seen as an ‘immediate improvement’ and he is given more time. I know things haven’t worked out well this season, but Jim Goodwin’s a good manager and he had Aberdeen going really well, playing exciting, attacking football before the break.
“I am sure that in time he will get them back to that and turn the club around. But I accept that supporters have a say in it. They pay their money and are entitled to their opinion. It’s going to be difficult. Jim is going to find it hard to win them over, but if he can get a result on Saturday, it could give him an opportunity to get time to sort it out.”
Hibs boss Johnson is under fire from his team’s fans as well - with back to back 3-0 defeats to Hearts not helping his cause.
“Of course, if Aberdeen win, Lee Johnson might be under pressure as well,” Brown added. “That’s brought about the situation that people are saying the loser gets sacked, and I don’t like that. What is giving Lee more of a chance is that Hibs just can’t keep changing managers. If they keep doing there is absolutely no stability and they’ll have about 100 players in there.
“Every manager brings an influx of players and the ones brought in by the previous managers are still there, sticking to their contracts. Hibs are one of the most prominent clubs in Scotland, so those players won’t leave to go somewhere on less money, so the club is stuck with them until their contracts expire.
“That situation can’t go on. Hibs need to give Lee some time and space to build his own team and over time, those players he inherited will be out of contract and will leave. But if they sack him, the new manager will want his own players and all of those brought in by Lee, Shaun Maloney, Jack Ross and the rest will still be there.
“Another thing that might buy him some time, funnily enough, is if he goes into the game without Ryan Porteous and Kevin Nisbet because if they leave before Saturday, he won’t have time to bring in replacements and surely that would be taken into consideration if Hibs lose the game.
“The Porteous situation has been rumbling on for a while, but if Nisbet goes it leaves them in a really bad position because he is the goalscorer and they are not going to fill his jersey easily.”
Brown admits that he’s pleased to be out of the pressure cooker of management, even if football will always be in his blood.
He said: “I wonder how Jim Jefferies and I lasted so long. When you’re outside of it and see the pressure that managers are under, I’m glad I’m out walking the dog this morning instead of preparing a team for a game that might be my last.
“It took Jim and I three years to build a team at Hearts that was capable of winning a cup and competing with the Old Firm at the top end of the table. We were given time to do it, but I don’t see a lot of managers getting the same backing these days.
“Let’s be honest about it, the pressure these two guys are going to be under on Saturday is immense and it is going to be very difficult for them. It’s the only job where everybody who is not in it knows how to do it better than you.
“It’s not like a heart surgeon - you wouldn’t be telling a heart surgeon how to perform an operation, yet thousands of people are telling managers how to coach and pick a team.
“But football’s in the blood. That’s why we do it. Since I was a wee boy at school, I’ve not been interested in anything else bar football. I always wanted to get to where I got to and you take all the bad stuff that goes with it.
“But it is becoming more and more difficult. The modern day version of a manager has a director of football who gets the players - but the manager gets the blame if they are no good.
“Jim and I wouldn’t have put up with it. Alex Ferguson or Walter Smith wouldn’t have either, but the job’s changed. I know that Lee and Jim are good football men. They want their teams to play the right way and I just hope that they serve up a cracker that ends in an honourable draw and that might just buy them the time they need.”
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