On the Premiership: The pheasant shooting season began last month but, in the Premiership, the start of the managerial manhunt has been postponed, perhaps indefinitely. Chairmen who blazed away with wild abandon in the past have stayed their trigger-fingers, with the end result that this is the most bloodless season in the top flight since 1995-96, when it took 137 days for Bolton to fire Roy McFarland.

It is too early to claim that the stalkers have laid down their arms entirely, but there is no doubting the extent of the ceasefire. Last season, seven Premiership managers had been dispatched by the New Year, with two clearing their desks before the end of August.

Now, the bookmakers William Hill are offering odds of 15 to 1 that no manager loses his job throughout the season. Alain Perrin may be testing the patience of Milan Mandaric, his chairman at Portsmouth, but at that price it could be worth a flutter.

Football's dwindling band of romantics may point to the absence of bloodletting as proof that the Premiership has not been entirely sucked dry of compassion, but there are more practical reasons for clubs deciding to stick with their chosen men.

Sacking is an expensive business. Finance-savvy managers now routinely ask for exceptionally long contracts, secure in the knowledge that their dismissal will lead to a hefty pay-off.

The figures are enough to make even the most hardened boardroom deal-broker wince. In the summer of 2004, the sacked Claudio Ranieri was awarded £1.75 million by Chelsea. Shortly afterwards, Newcastle agreed to pay Bobby Robson £2.5 million to leave his post at St James's Park.

The size of his severance package is one of the reasons that, for all his recent travails, Graeme Souness, Robson's replacement, is relatively secure in his post. With their participation in Europe next season already in major doubt, Newcastle simply cannot afford to sack him.

"The financial climate is not as flexible as it was two or three years ago," admitted the chairman of the League Managers' Association, John Barnwell. "Then, the thinking was, 'Let's give him a month and see how it goes'. Now it's a couple of months, even three."

The shift in the balance of power may be good news for the 20 Premiership managers, but it leaves their chairmen sweating. Pay-offs are costly, but they are nothing compared to the implications of slipping out of the top flight. The drop in television revenue and season ticket sales leaves an £18 million shortfall, which explains why so many relegated clubs - Derby, Leicester, Ipswich, Bradford, Leeds - have been forced into administration.

Perversely, the skewed nature of football's finances means that clubs which suffer relegation are less likely to axe their manager than those which retain their place at the money trough. Birmingham's managing director Karren Brady has already reassured Steve Bruce that he will remain in his post, regardless of whether the club avoids the drop.

Brady claims that her decision is based on a belief in "longevity", but Bruce's penning of a new five-year contract in September has effectively taken the decision out of her hands.

Dismissing the former Manchester United defender would be financial suicide, especially with the spectre of relegation hovering over St Andrews.

Perhaps there is karma at work here. Chairmen have long been accused of reaching for the P45s too hastily, but managers no longer need to fear their postmen.

The days when grizzled gunslingers such as Doug Ellis or Ken Bates could sack on a whim are over, and on one level, this is to be welcomed.

Stability has an uncanny knack of reaping rewards, as proved by Alan Curbishley and Alex Ferguson, but there is a danger that football has swung from one extreme to the other, and that managers are now effectively being rewarded for failure.

Bruce is a pointed example. The Birmingham manager made six high-profile summer signings, while also decreeing that the Republic of Ireland striker Clinton Morrison was surplus to requirements.

Morrison has since scored seven times in 12 games for his new club Crystal Palace, while City's new-look strikeforce of Mikael Forssell and Walter Pandiani - who cost a combined £6 million - has registered just one Premiership goal between them.

Birmingham have paid the penalty for Bruce's misjudgment and currently languish in the bottom two, yet the manager's cast-iron contract places him in a position of such dominance that the club cannot even entertain the thought of sacking him.

Whether Bruce deserves such loyalty is another matter. He has shown scarcely a shred of it during his own managerial career - witness his abrupt departures from Sheffield United, Huddersfield, Wigan and Palace, all in the space of two years - but he, along with most of his Premiership peers, now seems virtually untouchable.

It is no consolation to the pheasants nor, one suspects, to Birmingham's miserable fans.