European clubs who have been busy sacking their coaches in recent weeks should be aware that patience is not only a virtue, but can also be a proven route to success.
With little more than a month of the European season remaining, the pursuit of silverware and Champions League places continues to raise expectations, while the relegation battles are becoming bloodier by the day. And the directors of many clubs have one eye on the league table and the other on their manager's ejector seat.
Real Sociedad have sacked Gonzalo Arconada, MSV Duisburg made Juergen Kohler the Bundesliga's 10th coaching casualty of the season, Bulgarian champions CSKA Sofia have ditched Miodrag Yesic and Hearts' Lithuanian owners have sent Graham Rix packing from Edinburgh. Particular sympathy, though, has to go to coach Ion Marin, axed this week despite his Dinamo Bucharest team being top of the Romanian league.
Worse still, he is the third man to vacate the Dinamo hot-seat this season - and his predecessors' teams were also top of the table on each occasion.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that a good coach who gets the backing of his club will go on to be successful, while one who lives in fear of the sack from one day to the next is destined to struggle. The correlation is particularly apparent in the English Premiership, where the most successful managers are also its longest lasting.
Towering above the lot is, of course, Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Now in his 20th year in charge and responsible for bringing 22 trophies to the club, Ferguson's spell at Old Trafford could have been very different had United not stuck with him when sections of the crowd were calling for his head in his difficult early days.
Arch rival Arsene Wenger has been Arsenal's manager for 10 years, winning four FA Cups and three Premier League titles. His club chairman Peter Hill-Wood said in 2004 that the Frenchman could stay "as long as he wants to".
Under a different definition of success, plaudits are also due to Alan Curbishley, who has transformed Charlton Athletic in the 15 years of sole and joint-charge, while Sam Allardyce has taken Bolton Wanderers from the second division to the upper reaches of the Premier League over the past seven years.
By the same token, chopping and changing managers can be a recipe for trouble. Southampton, once a byword for stability, are on their 12th manager in 12 years and last season dropped out of the top flight after a 27-year run.
Ironically, there are few cases of meddling as glaring as that of the most trophy-laden club in Europe - Real Madrid. In 1998, Jupp Heynckes ended Real's 32-year search for a seventh European Cup, but was sacked days later because of a poor domestic campaign.
One of the men to follow was Vicente del Bosque, who by any measure of excellence was doing extremely well in charge of the men in white. In three-and-a-half years, they had won the Champions League and the Spanish League twice. However, the day after that second Liga triumph in June 2003, Del Bosque was sacked.
A succession of coaches followed in the hire and fire whirlwind at the Bernabeu - Carlos Queiroz, Jose Antonio Camacho, Mariano Garcia Remon, Wanderlei Luxemburgo and current incumbent Juan Ramon Lopez Caro - and not one has won a trophy.
It is a familiar story in Italy, where Inter Milan have got through nine full-time coaches since 1995 and are showing every sign of soon making Roberto Mancini their 10th.
Sticking by a coach when times are hard may not be an easy thing to do, particularly when fans are baying for change. But those who wield the axe should remember they may be doing more harm than good.
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