If you look back at the last decade of managers in the Premier League there have not been many who kept their jobs for longer than two years.
The longest-serving manager (apart from Wenger) right now is Pochettino who has been in his job at Spurs for just 34 months. In the 2015/16 season, Aston Villa and Chelsea each had four different managers. One season on, only seven of the managers from last season are managing the same team; that’s less than half!
The eye-catching thing about Villa and Chelsea is that they were at opposite ends of the table, showing that the revolving door for managers isn’t just a problem at the bottom or top of the league, it affects the whole competition. So what’s going wrong? This is where the “Catch 22” comes in.
Realistically, looking at the league, there should be two clubs at the top in terms of squad depth and quality; Chelsea and Manchester City. Next there should be four or five teams competing for the top four, then a mixed bunch and I would argue a minimum of seven to eight teams fighting to avoid the drop. What does that say about the league? It says the difference between the top and the bottom is enormous yet we complain about La Liga being one-sided.
Managers for top clubs such as Manchester United are sacked because they don’t come close enough to the title but should they be competing for the title at all given the quality of their squad? Absolutely not. The fans believe they should compete therefore managers such as David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal were sacked despite having identical records to Jose Mourinho in their first 30 games.
At the bottom of the league, no club believes it should be going down. Under Aitor Karanka, Middlesborough finished fourth in the Championship in 2015 before losing in the play-offs for promotion. The next year he guided them to runners-up and they were promoted. After less than six months in the Premier League he was sacked.
So what should he have done? I would argue that Aitor would have been better off losing in the play-offs for a second time in 2016. That way he would still be in his job today. That is the Catch 22 of managing. Unless you actually win the title, earning the honour of a managerial job in the top flight of the English game is the most dangerous thing a manager can do.
Look at Sean Dyche and Burnley. Having won the Championship last year they are now over-achieving in the Premier League and will not be relegated at the end of the season. But if they get relegated next season will Dyche keep his job? No. Whether you manage a Premier League superpower or a club like Burnley which has a record signing of just £7 million your job is always waiting to be taken from you.
And who will the club turn to next when there seem to be no more managers left? Sam Allardyce has recently gone from West Ham to Sunderland to England to Crystal Palace in just 19 months, a recycling act which proves that the revolving door of managers does at least spin both ways.
If they keep sacking managers what else can the clubs do? That’s a discussion for another day…
Nubaid Haroon – Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCtMg-fWm7awR41vM1GhVOkA Twitter: twitter.com/rambofyi
The post English Premier League: The Managerial Catch 22 appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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