The managerial merry-go-round after six Premier League manager sackings in less than four months
The managerial merry-go-round following six Premier League manager sackings in less than four months
Since the beginning of the 2020/2021 season on August 14, 2021, there have been six different managers who have been given the boot in this football seasons topflight. The obituary of managers goes as follows:
Xisco Munoz from Watford on October 3, 2021
Steve Bruce from Newcastle on October 20, 2021
Nuno Espirito Santo Tottenham on November 1, 2021
Daniel Farke Norwich City on November 6, 2021
Dean Smith from Aston Villa on November 7, 2021
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from Manchester United on November 21, 2021
Now, in my view, some of these are explainable and have led to positives for the clubs.
Steve Bruce had a win record of just 27.4 per cent at Newcastle and played arguably some of the worst football in the league despite astonishingly finishing thirteenth last season and this season, despite fielding some quality players with Wilson and Saint-Maximin as of writing they still sit bottom of the league and are six points from safety.
With PIF and Amanda Staveley expected to extend a financial lifeline to the Magpies Bruce’s sacking was inevitable and brought delight to the now hopeful Geordies (who remain stuck at the foot of the table) who see positive signs with Howe coming in and a predicted spending spree in the January window.
The Watford sacking is explainable – not because of logic as Munoz took his newly promoted Watford to fourteenth with seven points from seven games – but because Watford are a club with a habitual sacking record with 17 sackings in just the last decade – Nigel Pearson was even sacked two games before the end of the season despite his team winning seven matches including beating champions Liverpool.
Watford have lost 5 of 7 under Claudio Ranieri but have look good in spells and at points have been unlucky to not take at least a point in games. They need to improve defensively but the signs are there that they could stay up as the Hornets now sit sixteenth and are four points off the relegation zone having enjoyed good wins against Everton 5-2 and Manchester United 4-1.
Dean Smith took Villa to seventeenth in the league, two points above the relegation zone – some may say it’s due to the loss of their best player and hometown hero Jack Grealish, but this ignores the £230,445,000 he spent on transfers into the club according to Transfermarkt.
Fresh from his successes at Rangers as the man who ruined Celtics decade of dominance, Steven Gerrard took over from Smith and gained maximum points from his opening two fixtures.
Daniel Farke brought in talented players such as Rashica and Gilmour but despite this, the club only won one game in the league this season and ironically, after they beat Brentford, he was dismissed – leading to many fans jokingly stating winning isn’t what happens at Norwich.
Dean Smith took over and may be a better fit for Norwich as he restored quality players Farke dropped in Gilmour and Cantwell and his team took four points from six in his first two games (Farke only took five points from 33) and if they do go down Smith is good at getting teams promoted.
Some clubs are ruthless in their quest for success.
Espirito Santo at Tottenham won manager of the month in his first month in charge and yet only lasted 17 games – all this coming with Harry Kane’s future being uncertain with tumultuous consequences for the club – Santo made way for serial winner Antonio Conte, a manager with a proven track record, so the move makes sense.
Yet some sackings this season make sense in the long term with Howe and Smith having a good promotion record so if relegation does happen to them there can be some hope and Gerrard makes sense as he will want to impress as a young manager and maybe to improve his standing for the Liverpool job. However, their positive starts may be due to the new manager bounce teams often gain.
Clubs demand immediate success – the days of managers being able to build clubs with Wenger revolutionizing Arsenal, Ferguson dominating an era or Moyes building Everton are long gone.
Everton now sit fourteenth despite their wage bill going up by £100m since 2013 and since 2014, the cost of Everton’s squad has gone from £74m to £498m and have had many managers come in since Moyes.
Arsenal have gone from sitting in Europe to Mikel Arteta guiding them to an eighth-place finish meaning the club’s record of 25 years in European competition was over but their upturn in form shows sacking a manager isn’t always the right choice as Arteta is starting to build a good young squad there.
Manchester United have spent £1 billion since Ferguson’s retirement and haven’t won the Premier or Champions League and have changed managers numerous times.
At West Ham Moyes was sacked the first time in favor of a better name value in Manuel Pellegrini who nearly took West Ham down whereas now in Moyes’ second stint at the club they are challenging for Champions League.
Furthermore, in the last decade the record of sackings in a season is 11, this season is already at six and in the last decade sackings have hit double figures five times.
For teams like West Ham, Arsenal and Liverpool giving a manager time has resulted in form improving over a longer period whereas, other teams like Chelsea and Watford sacking managers ruthlessly have brought success with Chelsea winning a multitude of silverware and for a while Watford did stay in the Premier League and are now back in it.
Other clubs now are struggling with United and Everton, going through a list of respected managerial names with limited success but lots of money spent.
The overall answer to the question of sacking managers is a tough one to answer but the one objective truth is that these sackings are increasing and don’t seem to show signs of slowing down.
By Sam Rhodes
Feature credit: Unsplash
