People shouldn’t be surprised about Prem sackings but it is shocking how much chairmen panic with no Plan B lined up
MANAGERS getting sacked should not come as a surprise — it is just part of the game.
Yes, a record 12 have been let go in the Premier League this season but guys in these roles know the score inside and out.
If you lose five or six games in the Prem, you’re probably looking like your feet are close to the fire.
That’s just the reality of playing in the big-boy league.
I think we are being slightly overdramatic with all the shock and awe around the numbers.
The Prem is becoming like the NFL — it is unbelievably big, so if you don’t cut it, you will get sacked.
Graham Potter got the chop at Chelsea who are in the Champions League quarter finals, and his drop-down job that he was offered was Leicester in the bottom three, who are still a huge club. That’s how competitive it is.
Any young manager should still be keen to take on these sorts of jobs, knowing the risks are there but the rewards are huge.
If you go from a Brighton to a Chelsea and succeed, your profile blows up massively.
I have heard people talk about creating a designated and restricted window during a season purely for sacking Prem managers to help control things. It made me laugh.
Who is going to tell these billionaire owners they can only get rid of an unwanted manager in one or two months of a season?
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Also, in what other line of work could you say: ‘Let’s have a month where we review the managers and sack them?’ It’s absolutely mental.
As I said, these sackings aren’t a surprise, but what I will accept is that the timings of some of them are definitely surprising, as well as the choice of replacement, if any.
There have been a few where you’ve thought: ‘Why now?’, especially when it is this deep into a season and clubs don’t have someone already lined up, for example Chelsea.
Despite Frank Lampard’s caretaker role, you don’t really know where they want to go on a permanent basis after that. It looks knee-jerk.
With Tottenham, Antonio Conte leaves in a mad couple of days but no one is in and it is no clearer.
At Leicester, they have just got rid of Brendan Rodgers but no one is even being seriously linked with that job.
Crystal Palace is another good example. They changed the style, then sacked that manager and went back to how they used to play that apparently was not good enough a few years ago?
Chelsea sack Potter and go back to where they were with Lampard.
It feels panicky from the owners at the moment and, to be honest, I don’t blame them with the amount of money flying around — but there has to at least be some method to the thinking.
I fear sometimes some of these clubs and owners need a bit more backbone.
Stick to your plan if you haven’t got a better option or someone of the same ilk.
If you are saying it has not worked out and you’re admitting you were wrong, don’t just go backwards to make a point.
At the start of every season everyone wants this new, fluid type of football, managers coming in who want to make pass after pass with high energy pressing.
At the first sign of trouble, owners then revert back to a solid, experienced manager that goes against everything the club has been working on for months in pre-season.
The likes of Neil Warnock, Sean Dyche, Roy Hodgson come in because they are tried and tested.
But take it from a player, you can’t just change the whole style of play in one week and expect to see massive upturns in form.
If you have a team designed to play out from the back from August, that’s what their mindset will still be come April.
The sudden change in style also accounts for injuries, especially when you go from a fluid to a rigid type of game overnight.
The only one that has worked has been Unai Emery replacing Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa, who are now challenging for European places, but even that was not a dramatic change in tactics.
I know it is easy to do on Fifa or Football Manager but that is not real life.
We are also in an era where everyone is just copying one another, hoping for instant success.
Everyone wants a manager right now who is like Pep Guardiola or Mikel Arteta, rather than a manager that fits their squad.
I hope with the number of jobs up for grabs now, we see more young managers given a chance who are attack-minded and play a certain way.
But ultimately, the old guard will still be called upon to get clubs out of a mess, as this year has proven.