This season has been brutal for Premier League managers; a record-breaking eight managers who started with a job in August are no longer with their original club. It does beg the question: are managers being given the appropriate time to turn things around?
We aim to answer this question and plenty of others in this blog. Make sure to visit our LV BET Sports Blog for more information about the Premier League and other major leagues around the world. Make sure to follow us on Twitter, where we will be posting bet builders and the latest news and upcoming fixtures.
Are results key to success?
Getting three points every week is the desired outcome from any manager or board member, but this is near on impossible to achieve. So let’s see what the driving force behind the high turnover of managers is. Success is very subjective. For example, a manager could secure safety in the Premier League by a couple of points with a minimal transfer budget, which would be regarded as a success. Other clubs might not give the manager the chance to continue the season, like what happened to Patrick Vieria with Crystal Palace. After a run of very tough games, he was sacked as the results weren’t good. On the other hand, take a club like Chelsea, whose budget was endless for the previous transfer markets—languishing in the bottom half of the table is all but success, whatever way you slice it.
Although it’s the points on the board that matter the most, there are other factors that contribute to a manager being sacked. Some are the way that he talks to the media before and after matches, his reaction pitchside to various scenarios and ultimately, the tactical setup and style of football. Now earlier in the season, after Bournemouth got promoted to the Premier League, Scott Parker only lasted three games in charge. The results were a 3-0 loss to Arsenal, a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City, who are the reigning champions and a trashing 9-0 against Liverpool. Those three games in a row, would be difficult for any club, let alone a newly promoted team, who barely improved on their squad during the summer. In the end, it was his open criticism of the board for not splashing the cash, and just before the game against City, he remarked that he and his staff wrote off the game against City, which did not go down well with the hierarchy at the club.
Other factors could affect a decision to sack a current manager, for example, if a long-time managerial target is suddenly open to the role. So for Chelsea, they reeled in Graham Potter from Brighton to lead them back to the top of the Premier League. After 31 matches, he was fired as results weren’t good enough, even with very expensive players coming into the squad. In fairness, it’s a tall order for a manager to integrate all the talent bought over the summer and winter transfer windows.
Exception to the rule
The same sentiment can be seen in our every day life, no one is willing to wait for results, if work is being put on something, people want to see results and quick. Is this a healthy way to run a football club? Not particularly but that is another argument that we will get to in a separate blog. Let’s look at Liverpool for example, this season hasn’t gone to plan, currently sitting in eight place, seven points behind top four. Last season they lost the title race to Man City by just one point, winning 28 games and losing just two games all campaign. Liverpool knows that Jurgen Klopp is one of the best in the business and that he is well equipped to weather the storm and push them back up again. After a very long time, Klopp managed to win the Premier League for Liverpool and in addition, he won the Champions League, and the owners don’t forget what he is capable of. It’s about being logical, is the manager really the person to blame? Are external factors outside his control affecting results, for example, injuries to key players?
The 2015-16 season is remembered as the miracle season for Leicester City, as they lifted the Premier League title. The very next season, after a run of bad results, Claudio Ranieri was sacked. For many fans, they did not believe that a manager who made the impossible possible should be sacked just a few games into the following season. This cycle of blaming the manager has been brewing for some time, but it has lately gotten even worse.
After Tottenham’s latest draw against Southampton, Antonio Conte had a meltdown. He criticised his players of not having the desire to win something and also threw mud at Daniel Levy as he never won anything with the club so the mentality was never competitive. He also hinted at the issues managers face where players don’t want to go the extra mile and the manager are blamed for it. Should managers be more cautious before taking a job at a club that has a reputation of firing them before they could settle in and actually make some notable changes?