Stuart Kettlewell brands Premiership sack rate a 'sad state of affairs' and Motherwell boss has hiring and firing worry

He's only been in the job eight months. Yet Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell looks around the Scottish Premiership and counts just FOUR managers who have been in position longer than he has.

In his own words, it’s an incredible stat. But, more than that, Kettlewell believes the manager churn in Scotland that has seen trigger-happy club chiefs fire his counterparts in 12 months or less on five occasions recently is a “sad state of affairs”. The 39-year-old points to Arsenal where Gunners chiefs kept their powder dry during the rocky early stages of Mikel Arteta’s reign as proof of what can be gained from showing faith in the man the bigwigs themselves chose to lead their dressing room.

Michael Beale’s departure from Rangers last week after 10 months was already the second managerial casualty of the Scottish Premiership season. His predecessor Gio van Bronckhorst fared slightly better - spending two days over a year in post before getting the bullet despite leading the Ibrox club to the Europa League Final. At Dundee United last season Jack Ross lasted two months and his successor Liam Fox five months before being binned and the third man to take the reigns, Jim Goodwin, had been just bagged by Aberdeen after 11 months.

Kettlewell accepts managers know the risks. But he reckons clubs are guilty of not giving those bosses a proper chance to build the model which convinced them to hand them the job in the first place.

He said: “If we strip it back to the job and what I need to do as a football manager and how to get the best out of this club then there’s another layer which is having the ability to try and build something in a way where a club can gain success. So taking myself away from being a manager, that is concerning.