Gordon Strachan believes being sacked from a major English club no longer carries a lasting sting because of the certainty of massive financial compensation and swift re-employment somewhere else.
The Scotland manager was at pains to avoid commenting directly about David Moyes' dismissal from Manchester United as he yesterday announced Neil Lennon, Derek McInnes, Stuart McCall and Tommy Wright as PFA Scotland's shortlist for manager of the year.
But inevitably his observations about managers being able to repair their careers will be interpreted as evidence of a belief that his fellow Scot, Moyes, will recover from losing the United job to resurface at another club. Moyes is understood to be eligible for up to £5m in compensation, effectively one year's salary, after being dismissed within the first year of his six-year contract.
"The good thing about managing in England, and it's something that's come about in the last five or six years, is that it's not that bad if you are sacked anymore. Years ago it was a real blemish and you felt really bad. There are that many sackings now that nobody bothers. Tony Pulis got the sack at Stoke and now he could possibly be the manager of the year. There isn't that stigma that used to go with being sacked anymore. The good thing is, you get paid a lot if you get sacked." Strachan was dismissed by Coventry City in 2001 and left Middlesbrough "by mutual consent" in 2010.
"The Premier League is stressful but you get paid lots of money for that. I remember speaking to one manager who was telling me about the stress of it and I said: "Aye, but you get paid a fortune, don't you?' He said, 'Aye.' I said: 'That's why you get paid a fortune.' It's easy to pick great players. It's dealing with the nonsense that comes along with that job that's hard.
"It's different if you're somebody in this league [the SPFL] where you don't get so much money and that has to keep the family going. You just can't get sacked here and go 'great, that's us for life now.' That's real pressure."
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