The Sack Race
Which Premier League manager will be first to go?
Are things finally looking up for Manchester United’s Jose Mourinho? They are if the odds for the next Premier League manager to be sacked are to be believed with the Portuguese is no longer the favorite to be fired.
That honor falls instead to Fulham’s Slavisa Jokanovic. The Cottagers are struggling to adapt to the rigors of the top flight after coming up from the Championship in the summer. The Serb has not yet found the right system and that is failing players such as the highly rated Ryan Sessegnon, who has played as fullback, wingback and as an old-fashioned winger this season. His side are the lowest of the newly promoted sides and sit 18th on the table in the final relegation spot. Fulham play one of the teams below them this weekend and a loss away to Huddersfield might force owner Sadiq Khan’s hand.
Southampton’s Mark Hughes follows second-favorite Mourinho. The Welshman’s Saints are much like the teams put out by his predecessors – lacking identity and short on goals. Only Huddersfield have scored fewer than Southampton’s six this season, a total goals for that they share with Newcastle United. Those six-gunning sides met last season and it was no surprise that it was a drab goalless draw.
Southampton had 22 shots against the visiting Geordies but only four were on target, which is an indication that something is not gelling on the training ground. Perhaps that is to be expected when Hughes had his team in a back three throughout preseason and swiftly reverted to a back four during their Premier League opener. Will the inevitable hammering away to champions Manchester City make the Saints board think that Hughes is not the man to impose an identity on the south coast strugglers?
Wembley woes
Oddly, the next man in the firing line according to the bookmakers is the boss of the fifth-best team in the country on current form. Spurs are only five points off the summit and that could have been just two if they had had bested Pep Guardiola’s current leaders on an NFL-ravaged Wembley pitch on Monday night.
As early as September Pochettino put himself in the sack race when he said could be fired if he could not get the team winning. Rumors of his removal have not receded and they have also been joined by those linking him with the now vacant Real Madrid hot seat. Spurs travel to Wolves this weekend and anything other than a win against the highflying Molineux side would fire up the gossip column.
Rafael Benitez was previously untouchable on Tyneside but the Newcastle United manager has seen the odds of him facing the sack increase in recent weeks, despite the Spaniard saying that he will not be sacked from his role at the turbulent club. The problems above him are well known and it is not a surprise that the side are undergoing their worst start to a top-flight season for over a century. They have lost five games in a row at home this season and the visit of Watford to St James’ Park this weekend is no guarantee that the unwanted run will end.
Off-field focus
Claude Puel at Leicester City is a manager that divides opinion and often ends up as the target for irate fans calling for change on soccer phone-ins regardless of results. His position at Leicester City is unlikely to change given the recent tragedy that saw club chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others lose their lives in a helicopter crash hours after the draw with West Ham United last weekend. After postponing their midweek Carabao Cup tie against Southampton, the club have decided to go ahead with their Premier League away trip to Cardiff City this Saturday. The result in south Wales is of little importance as the club focuses on its future off the field.
That game might be of more importance for the man in the home dugout. Neil Warnock took the Bluebirds to the top flight by finishing second in the Championship last season but it has been a steep learning curve adapting to the Premier League. They may be out of the relegation places after 10 games but a point every other match is relegation form. Warnock has admitted as much, and said in early October that he faces the sack if results do not improve. The 66-year-old is not worried by that prospect and told reporters that he would take his wife away for a Christmas holiday if he was sent packing.
An alternative
There is the alternative that the axeman won’t cometh at all. That would be a first in Premier League history but there is a first time for everything.
While the other managers in the league are seemingly safe, things change quickly in soccer. Look at poor Julen Lopetegui who’s been sacked from the two biggest jobs in Spanish soccer inside four months. From being the manager of a Spain team that was fancied to do well at the World Cup in Russia to being relieved of the Real Madrid role after being humiliated by great rivals Barcelona in the Clasico, it’s been a rapid descent and somewhat farcical. Real Madrid sacked Lopetegui just 10 games into the La Liga season, after they poached him from the national team in the summer, forcing the Spanish federation to sack him on the eve of the World Cup.
A reminder for everyone that when it comes to soccer, be careful what you wish for.