Being in a near-perpetual state of trouble and turmoil is, now more than ever, part and parcel of life as a League Two football club.
But even by those often-shambolic standards of the Fourth Division, Northampton Town have endured more than their fair share of turbulence over the past seven years.
Relegation flirtation, financial jitters, takeover tribulations and unfinished infrastructure have conspired to blight the Cobblers’ existence during recent seasons – and though Chris Wilder’s title-winning campaign punctuated the pandemonium, misery and mayhem of one form or another have always lurked threateningly in the wings.
It is perhaps a surprise, therefore, that Northampton remain largely unscathed from their years of adversity – although the same can’t be said of Sixfields’ still-unfinished East Stand.
When Keith Curle first drove down Walter Tull Way and opened the door to the manager’s office in October 2018, the club’s situation had reached a very low ebb indeed. Ten games into the 2018/19 League Two season, Northampton sat 21st in the division with just a solitary win to their name – having been relegated from League One five months earlier.
Curle’s predecessor Dean Austin, the club’s fourth sacked boss in three years, had already uttered scathing remarks about the players Curle would have at his disposal, including the suggestion that “they haven’t got the balls to go and play in League Two”. Another comment made in Austin’s extraordinary final interview as manager seemed almost a snarling challenge to Curle:
“You’re telling me that a new manager will come in and get something different out of that lot in there? Good luck with that one.”
After Austin’s brash and gung-ho approach had failed to produce results, Curle, a manager of reliable experience, seemed a good fit for the job. Brought in on an 18-month deal, his steady four-year spell as boss of Carlisle United had earmarked him as the requisite ‘safe pair of hands’ for a club in crisis.
With less than a quarter of the season completed, Curle’s task wasn’t in ‘rescue mission’ territory quite yet, but the scale of the required revitalisation was not to be underestimated.
A lack of January transfer funds added to the challenge, as the new manager tried to marshal a bloated squad disillusioned by the chaos and wasted potential of the post-Wilder years.
Yet Curle’s no-nonsense approach of necessary ruthlessness and experienced tactical nous, coupled with his knack for effective man-management, secured a comfortable (if unremarkable) mid-table finish.
The summer of 2019 saw Curle rewarded with the opportunity to build a squad of his own liking, with his transfer selections less hindered by the budgetary constraints which had so far hampered his ambitions. A whopping fourteen departures and fifteen acquisitions later, the club’s roster was more to his liking.
Despite taking, to use the cardinal sin of football clichés, ‘some time to gel’ in the ensuing campaign, Curle’s Cobblers had got into gear by the middle of October.
As the season was halted with nine games left to play, Northampton sit inside the playoff positions – a remarkable turn of fortunes under the manager’s short stewardship.
Yet, as Curle’s initial short-term contract reaches its conclusion, and club chairman Kelvin Thomas mulls over whether to stick or twist, some Cobblers supporters remain ambivalent about the Bristolian keeping his post.
They point to the glaring lack of a promotion-winning season in his 18-year managerial career. Those four years in which he trod water at Carlisle are seen as a red flag.
Above all, they criticise the lack of distinctive playing style – aside from the “roughhouse tactics” furiously decried by Crewe boss David Artell after his high-flying side were humbled at Sixfields.
But the very fact that Northampton have done the double over the league leaders this season, along with chalking up wins against thriving sides like Plymouth, Exeter and Swindon, is evidence aplenty that Curle has succeeded where his four predecessors failed. Only eleven of Northampton’s 35 managers had won above 40% of their matches in charge, but Curle has now joined their hallowed ranks to make it an even dozen. He has built a team with a winning habit.
The mere notion of stability is usually derided in League Two. Few clubs desire to be consistently mid-table in the basement division. This binary “promotion or failure” mentality helps to fuel the ceaseless, feverish churn of managerial hirings and firings which seems more prevalent in the Fourth Division than any other.
Keith Curle may have only been Northampton boss for 18 months, but there are only eight managers in League Two who have been in post longer than him. The continuous belief of some of the league’s chairmen and supporters alike that ‘the next man’ will lead their club to undiluted triumph has prematurely brought down the axe on many coaching careers. Like Las Vegas high-rollers hunched over roulette tables, these trigger-happy glory-hunters remain transfixed by the notion that their next spin of the wheel will yield that elusive success.
And so the merry-go-round goes on. Let it not be forgotten that, after a mid-table finish of his own in 2014/15, some Cobblers supporters called for the dismissal of Chris Wilder – nine months before the team romped to record-breaking title-winning success. “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone” could be the club motto.
The chance for clubs like Northampton to break their managerial vicious cycle now presents itself. In the aftermath of the devastating coronavirus crisis, many cash-strapped clubs will now envy those who can maintain a period of stability as football gets itself back up and running.
The Cobblers are fortunate enough to be in a relatively advantageous financial position in League Two – a blessing that is not to be underestimated in such fraught economic times.
With a high number of players out of contract in June, and the possibility of other clubs folding as financial pressures take their toll, almost every club will have revised their short-term goal to one of solidity over the next two years as they try to ride out the oncoming storm.
Theresa May discovered a few years ago that the promise of ‘strong and stable leadership’ isn’t a concept that excites much of the public – but Northampton Town could sure use a good spell of it now.
What better opportunity to ensure such stability than by tying Keith Curle to his job with the long-term contract he deserves?
The foundations for success at Northampton have been laid. Risking it all for another throw of the managerial dice is one gamble not worth taking.
words Toby Foster, Northampton Town fan