Livingston Sack Whelan After Nine Games and Turn Back to Martindale

Livingston have sacked head coach Glenn Whelan after just nine matches in charge, with David Martindale returning on an interim basis to steady the club. BBC Sport

Whelan, 42, was appointed in May following Livingston's relegation from the Scottish Premiership — the top flight of Scottish football — and tasked with mounting a promotion push in the Championship, the tier below. Instead, the club sits fifth in the second division with two wins and three defeats, and managed only two wins and two draws in the Premier Sports Cup, Scotland's league-cup competition, under his watch.

The timing was blunt. On Friday night, Livingston lost 1-0 away to Stenhousemuir, a side managed by Marvin Bartley — a former Livingston boss who stepped down after relegation was confirmed last season. By Saturday morning, Whelan was gone.

Martindale's return is the headline for Livingston supporters. He managed the club for six years before stepping into a sporting director role in January, and he knows the place inside out. He will be assisted by Frankie McAvoy, with Grant Murray and Brian Potter rounding out the interim coaching team.

Whelan's brief reign was the latest chapter in a turbulent period for the West Lothian club. After relegation, Bartley departed, and midfielder Scott Arfield served as player-boss — a manager who also picks himself in the team — for the final three matches of the doomed campaign. Whelan was supposed to be the steady hand. Nine games later, the search starts again.

This time, the search will look different. Calvin Ford, Livingston's American owner and chairman, said the next appointment would be cast far wider and would lean on data analytics — the statistical approach to player and coach evaluation that has spread through football from baseball's influence on elite clubs. Ford's signal is clear: the old method of tapping familiar names has run its course.

For now, though, it falls to Martindale. He has been here before, and he has done it well. The question is whether the interim tag stays interim — or whether, once again, Livingston find themselves turning to the man they never quite replaced.