LONG-SERVING Sunderland boss Peter Reid last night reflected on the current managerial merry-go-round and admitted he might have been sacked after relegation from the Premiership four years ago.

Andy Kilner became the 20th casualty of the season when he was dismissed by First Division Stockport - and Reid believes that some clubs are being too hasty in showing their managers the door.

Reid, now the third longest serving manager in the Premiership behind Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and George Burley at Ipswich, said: "At this football club I got promotion then got relegated and I suppose the chairman could have sacked me then.

"But he knew we were on the right lines and now, two or three years later, I would like to think we are an established Premier League club and after two seventh place finishes we are in a healthy position.

"We haven't got to sell our best players to spend - we have money to spend.

"I'm not saying it's a great deal of money, but the club is being run right and that's through the chairman doing it right in a position where he could have taken the easy way out.

"But for 20 managers to go by this stage of the season is too many - it's nearly a quarter of everyone in the game and that can't be right." Reid points to the success enjoyed by Howard Kendall at Everton and Sir Alex Ferguson after sticky patches.

"I can understand chairmen's points of view and I can understand their way of thinking. But I can think of two really high profile managers - Howard Kendall when he was at Everton and the best of them all, Sir Alex Ferguson, at Manchester United - who have been through bad spells.

"We all go through them. I have had two or three tough spells here in six years.

"But it's up to everyone to keep their nerve and patience because if you look at certain teams who have had a lot of managers in a short space of time they haven't won things and that's a fact.

"A football club which has only had a couple of managers don't always win things but they are a solid football club and have a solid base. "Sometimes the trigger is pulled too early."

Reid pointed out that sacked Barnsley manager Nigel Spackman, who had been in negotiations with Sunderland to buy loan players John Oster and Chris Lumsdon, had only been in the job at Oakwell for nine months before his departure last week.

He said: "You don't know how clubs are run and you don't like commenting on individual cases but the facts of life are that successful clubs and the solid clubs only have a few managers.

"If you look at clubs which are struggling and have slid down the leagues they have had a lot of managers. You have to have some stability somewhere."

Reid, however, admits: "Sometimes managers need to be sacked - but not as regularly as it is happening at the moment.

"We are all in the same boat and it is a funny industry where one manager goes from one club and gets a job at another - it is a merry-go-round and there is a question whether that is right or wrong.

"Certainly contracts have got to be paid up and it costs money."

Reid added: "I know it is difficult for chairmen because the game is so high profile now and under the media spotlight - and rightly so because it is the best game.

"I'm not knocking that because I think football has got to be like that because it is the best sport and it has to be publicised. But it certainly adds pressure.