It’s time to dust off the box of decorations. Get the bunting out, light a candle every weekend, and make sure the figurines of those three wise men – Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and David Moyes – take pride of place.
For sacking season is upon us. Sure, there is no fixed date and it changes each year like Easter, but there is something in the air to suggest it is just around the corner. You can smell it.
As the clocks go back, we arrive at the least wonderful time of the year for a handful of Premier League managers.
In six of the past 10 seasons, the first top-tier sacking has taken place by the end of October, and by this point in a wild 2022-23, four managers had already been dismissed, including Scott Parker by Bournemouth on – checks notes, drops jaw – 30 August.
Meanwhile, November is the most prolific mid-season month for Premier League departures – 41 to December’s 40 – and it feels as though that could ring true, so too the possibility of at least one manager not even making it past October.
That will depend on this weekend’s results. Southampton will be getting twitchy. One point from eight games puts Russell Martin in a precarious position, with a trip to Manchester City on Saturday unlikely doing him any favours.
Basement club Wolves have got off to the same start, with Gary O’Neil’s credit starting to drain. Make it through the visit to Brighton on Saturday though and he will be hoping a home double against Crystal Palace and Southampton can boost his survival prospects.
First Premier League sackings – last 10 seasons
- 2023: 5 December – Sheffield Untied sack Paul Heckingbottom
- 2022: 30 August – Bournemouth sack Scott Parker
- 2021: 3 October – Watford sack Xisco Munoz
- 2020: 16 December – West Brom sack Slaven Bilic
- 2019: 7 September – Watford sack Javi Gracia
- 2018: 14 November – Fulham sack Slavisa Jokanovic
- 2017: 11 September – Crystal Palace sack Frank de Boer
- 2016: 3 October – Swansea sack Francesco Guidolin
- 2015: 4 October – Sunderland sack Dick Advocaat, Liverpool sack Brendan Rodgers
- 2014: 27 December – Crystal Palace sack Neil Warnock
Palace are also winless, losing five and drawing with Leicester, Manchester United and Chelsea to leave Oliver Glasner in peril, that end to last season now forgotten ahead of their home game against Tottenham on Sunday.
Then that brings us to the final two, who meet on Sunday when West Ham’s under-siege boss Julen Lopetegui greets Erik ten Hag at London Stadium for a fixture that falls so seamlessly into Must Not Lose territory that a draw feels almost inevitable.
Ten Hag and Manchester United are getting used to this feeling of being stuck in purgatory, while the same could be said for West Ham, only they are suffering from the confusing sense of déjà vu, albeit under a new manager, left wondering whether replacing David Moyes with Lopetegui was a change worth making after all.
West Ham were undeniably stagnating under Moyes, but it is no better under Lopetegui, and while fans preached patience when talking to i last month, that is a long time in football.
Their “Rome wasn’t built in a day” hope is starting to wear thin amid talk of unrest at board level, where fingers are also being pointed at Tim Steidten, the sporting director who wanted Lopetegui and oversaw a £132.5m summer spend that has merely served to dissolve the cohesion.
“There is most definitely a concern with Lopetegui as we have seen zero evidence of a side improving or shifting towards a playing style under him,” Mark Carlaw from The West Ham Way tells i.
“The big worry now too is the relationship he has with Steidten, with a clear breakdown and blame game appearing. My feeling is that one of them will be gone come the summer.”
As we know, changing managers is easier than replacing an entire squad or indeed structure, but this start has left West Ham questioning their direction after veering off the Moyes track.
Eight points from eight games is not the worst return, and is certainly one Southampton or Ipswich would have taken, but for West Ham it is a far cry from where they want to be given the taste of European football – and silverware – still lingers in east London.
There is no barometer for expected performance – something that would certainly make the xG haters froth – but West Ham’s “xP” is far below their standards of recent campaigns. It is this gulf that puts Lopetegui near the front of the firing line.
Southampton are 19th and where many expected them to be, meaning their board must consider whether sacking Russell could have the desired effect, but West Ham are among the other four clubs all performing well below expectations.
Manchester United, West Ham and Palace finished eighth to 10th respectively last season, with Wolves 14th, meaning all have gone backwards with little indication so far that any are capable of making a turnaround that would better their previous campaigns.
The pressure to stick or twist will therefore heighten over the weekend, where defeat could push clubs into a decision early next week.
After just three mid-season managerial changes last season, it looks as though we could get as many in the next month alone. For West Ham in particular, it could make for a tricky decision having chosen this path in the summer.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/sxdguBa
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