Last week, two Championship football managers were fired on the same day. Nothing unusual about that – at this stage of the season the dismissals come thick and fast as chairmen across England start to panic.

However, there was one thing about this particular story that made it stand out – both Queens Park Rangers’ Chris Ramsey and Huddersfield Town’s Chris Powell happen to be black.

Now most sensible people, and sometimes I like to include myself in that group, realise that these two men lost their jobs for one reason and one reason only: results.

QPR were the pre-season favourites to bounce back to the Premier League at the first attempt, but were down in 13th place when Ramsey was dismissed. Huddersfield, meanwhile, had only won three games all season and were just a couple of points off the relegation places when Powell was relieved of his duties.

In an era when football managers are often lucky to last an entire season, the sacking of these two men is just par for the course. Underachieve and you are out, simple as that.

But of course, the politically correct brigade were quick to hijack the incident and try to give it a racist slant, with one man in particular suggesting there was more to it than bad results.

Troy Townsend, father of Tottenham Hotpur player Andros Townsend and a passionate anti-racism campaigner, was so quick to play the race card he probably even surprised himself.

“To lose both managers sends out a really strong message to those aspiring to get on this journey. I know people will say results are not right but there is a lot more to it than that,” he said.

Personally I am surprised Townsend was able to get out of bed to make that statement, considering the immense size of the chip he is carrying around on his shoulder.

I totally agree that racism has no place in football and I don’t think there are many fans left who believe the colour of a person’s skin has any relevance with their ability to play, coach or manage. Just as it doesn’t outside football.

But to use a coincidence like this as an opportunity to make claims of racism is just ludicrous and, I would suggest, counterproductive to Townsend’s aim of increasing the number of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) coaches and managers in English football.

Even other black people involved in the game suggested the comments were not only wide of the mark, but unhelpful. Former Chelsea defender Frank Sinclair, who is now coaching in non-league, said Townsend was completely wrong.

“Yes of course you want more BME representation in the English pyramid, but results determine how long you are in a job, full stop, not colour.”

Ironically Townsend’s little tantrum comes at a time when the number of black managers in the English game had been on the increase. Around 18 months ago there was a lot of fuss about the fact that Chris Hughton was the only black manager in the professional game.

But up to last week there were actually six BME managers in the top four divisions, which is the highest it has ever been.

The simple truth is it takes time for things to change.

I remember watching football as a kid nearly 40 years ago and in those days having a black player in the team was quite unusual. Not unheard of, but certainly not the norm. Today one in four players in England is from a BME background.

Just as it took time for the number of black players to reach levels that are more representative of society, so it will take time for the number of black managers to become more proportionate.

I am surprised Troy Townsend was able to get out of bed to make that statement, considering the immense size of the chip he is carrying around on his shoulder

After all, most coaches are former players, and logic suggests that as the number of black players has increased over the years so will the number of retired players.

And it is only after someone has hung up their boots that they are likely to think about moving into coaching and management.

Some people, and I am specifically thinking of Townsend here, seem to spend their life looking for discrimination in places it simply doesn’t exist.

Instead of appreciating the simple reality that football management is a cutthroat and unforgiving career where results are all that matters, he tried to add a racist twist to a story in a bid to push his own agenda.

Ironically, by kicking up a fuss over nothing, Townsend has actually given club chairmen and owners more of a reason not to hire black managers.

Thanks to his very public over-reaction, chairmen may now start to think twice when they have the chance to hire a BME manager.

After all, if things aren’t going well on the pitch, owners want to have the freedom to replace a manager without having to face a barrage of nonsensical racism claims.

The number of black managers in the English game will continue to grow over the next couple of decades until it is no longer a subject worth talking about.

But that growth will be down to the natural evolution of football and the people who play the game, and nothing to do with the unnecessary and shambolic interventions of the Troy Townsends of this world.

Jose’s going nowhere

At times over the past couple of months I have sounded like a stuck record.

But just for the sake of clarity I will say it one last time: Chelsea will not be sacking Jose Mourinho any time soon.

Every week you read that the ‘Not-quite-as-special-as-he-used-to-be One’ is about to get fired by Roman Abramovich, that he only has two games to save his job, that he has lost the dressing room and that the players would rather lose than play for him.

Absolute nonsense. All of it.

Of course, I’m not suggesting all is well on Planet Mourinho. It would be ludicrous to claim things were running smoothly at Stamford Bridge when the defending champions are hovering just above the relegation zone.

But Mourinho hasn’t become a bad manager overnight.

He has 22 major trophies behind him, including eight that he has won with Chelsea. Despite his current departure from the plot, he remains one of the top three active managers in the world. Some would argue number one.

His achievements, not only at Stamford Bridge but also at the other major clubs he has managed, have bought him the right to have a crisis and to get through it without being sacked.

Of course, with Abramovich being one of those owners who hires and fires managers on a whim, none of that is probably enough to protect Mourinho. But there are two points which I believe are.

Firstly, the lack of decent replacements. Chelsea would need to find someone special to fill Mourinho’s boots and there just aren’t many managers around like that these days.

Pep Guardiola is a possibility, of course, but would you leave a club that is desperate for you to stay to move to one where you could get fired on a whim?

Even more important than the lack of candidates for the role, however, is the fans.

Right now the Chelsea faithful are acting as football’s equivalent of a human shield.

I’ve been watching football a long time but I don’t think I have ever seen fans put on such a public show of support for a manager as they did against Dynamo Kiev. I doubt even Abramovich, with all his dictatorial tendencies, would have the courage to dismiss a manager of such immense popularity.

The bottom line is that Mourinho is going nowhere, at least not for now. You can never say never, of course, and if the team were sucked into a genuine relegation battle then maybe Abramovich would feel compelled to act.

But as it stands, and with Chelsea still likely to finish near the top of the table, why get rid of a man the fans love, who has delivered before and is almost a certainty to deliver again.

It simply wouldn’t make sense. Even in the weird world of a billionaire…

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade