Time is something not many in the footballing world are afforded – as many managers have found out to their cost in the month of October.
Rob Edwards, who did such a great job with Exeter City's under-21 side last season, was sacked 12 games and five months into his reign as Tranmere Rovers boss on October 13.
Blackpool's manager José Riga lasted a little bit longer but had to endure constant speculation about his future before he was sacked on Monday, and let's not forget Darko Milanic, who lasted just 32 days – and six games – at Leeds United before he got the boot.
So why do managers get so little time in their jobs? Well, in Edwards' case I think it was more to do with expectation levels of fans not matching the reality.
I'm not going to argue for a second that Tranmere shouldn't be aiming higher than their current position of 23rd in the table, but having just been relegated from League One the previous season they are a club with plenty of problems.
We have seen how that losing mentality can carry over into the next campaign with sides like Portsmouth, Hartlepool United and Bury in 2013/14.
Supporters of the Birkenhead club expected that Edwards should have had them battling for the play-offs and that just wasn't realistic.
That brings me nicely onto the subject of Exeter City and the online petition to try and get Paul Tisdale removed as manager eight weeks ago. Were the fans who signed that form being unrealistic at the time?
The petition followed City's 2-1 defeat to Mansfield Town on September 6, which left the club bottom of the table with just three points to their name.
I expected City to be doing slightly better at that time, but not a great deal more.
I think two points from six games was a poor start, but had they got five points – which would have been enough to lift them six places further up the table – then that is about where I envisaged them being.
There were of course mitigating circumstances as well, with injuries and a transfer embargo to deal with in August, as well as tough away trips to Plymouth Argyle, Burton Albion and Northampton Town.
At the time when Tisdale mentioned this and said that the season had perhaps started a month too early for them, some fans dismissed his statements as poor excuses.
However, they seem justifiable now as players have come back into the side and form has lifted as a result.
City have managed to collect six wins from the last eight games to move to within a point of the play-offs, and the manager has to take a lot of credit for that.
His decision to switch Matt Oakley to centre-back has proved fruitful, as have many of his in-game change in tactics, and the new 3-5-2 or 3-4-1-2 set-up he has adopted this season.
Tisdale has also been criticised in the past for some of his signings, such as Sam Parkin and Guillem Bauza, but the two players he has brought in this season – Christian Ribeiro and Graham Cummins – so far look like being excellent value for money.
City have little cash and so have to take a risk on injury-prone or out-of-form players, but those are two gambles that have paid off massively so far.
So are City exceeding expectations by getting to 10th in the table?
I would argue yes. I sometimes get accused of being slightly pessimistic but, at the start of the season, I and many other Grecians would not have predicted a play-off charge.
A position somewhere in the bottom half of the table was more realistic.
Tisdale said in the wake of the Morecambe match that this season could be a bit of a rollercoaster. He is perhaps doing that to allude to troubles he sees ahead, or maybe just to keep expectation levels at where they should be.
