No room for failure in ruthless EPL
Ruthless hardly seems to cut it anymore when it comes to describing the attitude towards English Premier League managers. With more and more money on offer, club owners are simply not prepared to risk getting sucked into a relegation battle and that’s been borne out by the fact the season’s fixture schedule has not reached double figures and already three managers have been fired.
The latest has been Everton manager Ronald Koeman who follows Crystal Palace’s Frank de Boer and Leicester City’s Craig Shakespeare .
The 54-year-old Dutchman, who guided Everton to seventh place in his first season in charge last term and left a decent stint at Southampton to head to Goodison Park, got little or no value out of the $266m he spent in the offseason on players.
Given the board freed up those funds, and it’s unusual to see Everton spend so much, you would think they might have allowed Koeman a bit more time to try and turn things around.
However, it appeared obvious Everton’s fans were putting a huge amount of pressure on the club to act given their reaction to the 5-2 loss to Arsenal last round.
One thing about Everton’s fans, they are equally passionate in support as they are in frustration and it will be interesting to see where the club turns.
A name being touted as a possible contender is Burnley’s Sean Dyche, who has done a decent job keeping the club in the league and has started the season brightly, but Everton fans and former players believe they need someone more like former Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti.
However, Ancelotti, 58, is supposedly in talks to join Chinese Super League team Guangzhou Evergrande, according to the Chinese press.
Whatever happens, expect the men in charge at West Ham, Stoke City and Swansea City to be feeling more and more nervous about the next couple of weeks.
❚ In what could only be described as a win for the clubs already battling to foot it with the resources of the usual suspects, the proposal to end the equal distribution of overseas television money have been abandoned by the big clubs after they failed to reach an agreement.
The six richest clubs Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea - wanted their appeal reflected in their income.
Their collective play was to make sure 35 per cent of revenue from the sale of global TV rights should be divided based on league position.
However, the idea has now been ditched by those clubs as they concentrate on reaping the benefits of playing in Europe.
Battling Crystal Palace are so desperate to get some men capable of performing in front of goal they have shown a strong interest in signing Liverpool outcast Danny Ings on loan.
Unfortunately for the bottom Premier League club, Newcastle, Southampton and Watford are also keen on taking the striker on loan in January.
Ings has been plagued by serious injuries since joining Liverpool from Burnley in 2015.
Weekend fixtures (UK time):
Saturday, Manchester United v Tottenham, Arsenal v Swansea, Crystal Palace v West Ham, Liverpool v Huddersfield, Watford v Stoke, West Brom v Manchester City, Bournemouth v Chelsea; Sunday, Leicester City v Everton, Brighton and Hove Albion v Southampton.