New Manager Syndrome

Jimmy Calderwood didn't get off to the best of starts as he tries to rekindle his managerial career - his Kilmarnock side went down 3-0 at home to Motherwell.

We often hear about the effect that a change of manager has on a side. For many trigger-happy chairmen, it's the main reason why they sack their current gaffer. The theory is that a new manager supposedly propels a side to new heights of motivation and victory. So, did you ever wonder if there really is such a thing as "New Manager Syndrome"? How did the current crop of SPL managers fare in their first games in charge?

Well, wonder no more.

Tony Mowbray (Celtic)
Tony Mowbray is the another example of a former player returning to his former club as manager. Between 1991 and 1995, Mowbray made over 70 appearances for the club, scoring 6 times. He left Celtic to return south to England where he played for Ipswich (and coached them for a short period) before hanging up his boots and returning north to manage Hibernian, where he finished in the top four in both of his seasons there. He returned to England to manage West Brom long enough to get them relegated, before he was poached by Celtic to succeed the successful but unpopular Gordon Strachan in June of 2009.

Like most of the managers in this list, Mowbray got off to a losing start. In his first competitive game, Celtic where sunk at Parkhead by Russian side Dinamo Moscow in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League - incidentally, a similar start made by his predecessor, who lost 5-0 to Slovakian champions Artmedia Bratislava. Honour would be restored in the second leg, when they beat the Russians 2-0 in Moscow. His SPL debut was a little better thankfully: a 3-1 win away at Aberdeen saw season 2009/10 get off to a good start.

Walter Smith (Rangers)
Walter Smith has had 2 bites at the Rangers cherry, or orange. His debut at Ibrox came on the 20th April 1991 when they beat St Mirren 1-0. His second stint at Ibrox, starting in January 2007 was a little more emphatic - a 5-0 win a home to Dundee United. Rangers would lose only two more games in season 2007/08 both coming at the end of the competition - a 1-0 defeat at home to Killie and a 2-0 defeat away at Aberdeen. No matter though, the league was theirs again!

Dundee United (managerless, but Craig Levein for the sake of the piece)
United are currently managerless, but former incumbent Craig Levein (your current Scotland boss) got off to a baptism of fire back in October of 2006: a home tie against Rangers. Luck was on United's side on the day, as they won 2-1 with Gary Kenneth and Lee Mair getting on the scoresheet. Levein would win only 8 more games that season as his side would finish in 9th place.

Hibernian (John Hughes)
John Hughes got off to a cracking start to his managerial career. Two back-to-back wins against St Mirren and Falkirk would send the Easter Road faithful into a frenzy. It was quickly followed by back-to-back defeats to Celtic and Hamilton, but it's been pretty much full steam ahead since then. Spare a thought for his predecessor, Mixu Paateleinen - he lost 1-0 away at rivals Hearts on his first day in the job back in January 2008. A draw against United the next week saw the Hibees win four-in-a-row, but a disastrous European campaign and a tepid league performance saw the affable Fin on his way by the end of the following season.

Hearts (Csaba Laszlo)
Csaba Laszlo is the latest manager at the Edinburgh club, a club that has developed a well-earned reputation for not suffering fools gladly. Tynecastle probably has the most over-used revolving door in the business. The Hungarian got his tenure off to a winning start with a 3-2 home win against Motherwell back in August 2008.

Motherwell (Craig Brown)
Craig Brown was perhaps a surprising choice as manager of Motherwell. He had a short playing career at Dundee and Clyde back in the late 60's and early 70's, making only 31 appearances in total. He waited six years before becoming manager of Clyde, where he spent ten seasons and winning the Second Division championship in 1982. He then became Scotland manager, lasting 70 games, more than any other Scotland manager, and has the unique honour of being the last manager to beat England. A short spell at Preston was cut short by "mutual consent", before he surfaced at Motherwell as their new caretaker manager. His debut came at the end of December, when a Michael Stewart goal saw Hearts win at Tynecastle. Oops!

Aberdeen (Mark McGhee)
Funny how Aberdeen follow Motherwell on this list, as it was from Motherwell that Mark McGhee was headhunted to return to the club he made his name. His debut as the man in charge at Pittodrie is best forgotten, as the Dons where handed their arseholes on a plate in an 8-1 aggregate defeat to Czech side Sigma Olomouc. His league debut didn't go much better: a home game against Celtic, one of his former clubs, resulted in a 3-1 defeat. Order was restored the following week when the Dons beat Accies 3-0 in Hamilton, but the Red Army had to wait a month for the first home win of the season, a 1-0 win against St Mirren. And speaking of ...

St Mirren (Gus McPherson)
With Jim Jefferies gone, Gus McPherson is now the longest serving manager in the SPL. Since November 2003, Gus has been the man who has seen a lot of the First Division as manager. His debut game, on the 25th November 2003, was a home game against Ayr United. They won 1-0 on the day, but it would the one of the few they'd win that season. The Buddies finished 7th that season, only getting back to the SPL as First Division champions in 2006.

St Johnstone (Derek McInnes)
Derek McInnes joined St Johnstone at a point where the club was on a major high. They'd just won the Scottish Challenge Cup, beating Dunfermline 3-2 in the final. But only a few days before that day, things where looking a lot less fun. Manager Owen Coyle had left the club to move to Burnley, leaving his assistant manager Sammy Stewart in charge of the final. Stewart briefly flirted with succeeding Coyle, but decided to move south to Burnley after all. Derek McInnes, then a senior player at the club took over the management reigns on the 27th November 2007, and got to work straight-away with a 2-2 draw away at Partick Thistle. That season they'd finish 3rd behind Dundee at Hamilton Accies, but McInnes led the Saints to promotion the year after, finishing 10 points ahead of Thistle.

Hamilton Accies (Billy Reid)
Billy Reid made his managerial bones with Clyde, one of his former clubs. When he took over at Accies in June 2005, the move came as something of a surprise, as Reid had taken Clyde to two second-placed finished and, in his last season, a third placed finish. Accies, by comparison finished 7th in the First Division the year Reid switched sides.

His debut game came against Ross County - the long journey must have made a difference as the Accies went down 3-1. They'd finish the season in third spot - four points ahead of Clyde. The next season Reid got Hamilton promoted to the SPL, where they remain to this day.

Spare a thought for Clyde; they are currently bottom of Division Two and in constant danger of closure.

Kilmarnock (Jimmy Calderwood)
A case of two Jimmy's.

Jimmy Calderwood took over at 'troubled' Kilmarnock earlier this week, after a few months in the football wilderness. The former Aberdeen gaffer has the unenviable task of keeping Killie in the SPL, using only his wit and a seemingly inexhaustible array of formations and tactics. Today he didn't get off to a good start, losing 3-0 at home to another club with a caretaker manager until the end of this season, Motherwell.

It was all a little different to the time Calderwood took over at Aberdeen back in 2004, it took him two games to get into the swing of things: he began with two nil-nil draws against Rangers and Hearts before finally winning his first games against his former club Dunfermline and Livingston.

Calderwood's predecessor in the Killie hotseat was Jim Jefferies of course; he took over at Rugby Park in February of 2002, with his first game being a 3-2 win at home to Dundee.

Falkirk (Eddie May)
Falkirk are another of the sides in the SPL that changed managers in recent years. The current gaffer is Eddie May, a former player at Falkirk. Along with lengthy spells as Motherwell and Hibernian, May is also a movie star, appearing in the film "A Shot At Glory", along with Ally McCoist and Owen Coyle. The Falkirk gig is his first as manager, having previously been in charge of the youth setup at the club, where he is credited with bringing current club captain Darren Barr, Thomas Scobbie and Scott Arfield through the ranks.

His debut as Falkirk manager was not only a low point for Falkirk, but for Scottish football in general. The Bairns went out on aggregate in the qualifying round against Lichtenstein side FC Vaduz. His SPL debut was not much better either: a 4-1 defeat at Ibrox set off a chain of results that see the club still at the bottom of the league, with their first league win coming in November of last year, with a 2-0 win over Hamilton.