Call time on sacking season with a new rule
judgment. There may be exceptional circumstances the Premier League and EFL could consider before taking disciplinary action. There may be genuine, non-footballing reasons for a coach being unable to continue.
If a club and manager can prove they are in agreement about the reasons for a departure, a sanction could be avoided, but the coach could still be banned from taking a job until the following season and the sacking club disqualified from approaching a candidate currently in work. Just as clubs are allowed to appoint “free agents” outside the transfer window, coaches who do not start the season in a post could still take a job during a year. You could call that the “Allardyce clause”. Alternatively, clubs still adamant they must get rid of a coach may give more consideration to promoting from within so assistants or youth coaches get a chance for a few months if the manager departs. Clubs will never agree to this, of course. They love living in the wild west too much, so will carry on with their hypocrisy, claiming injustice when a manager eyes a better job but reserving the right to sack their fourth in four years if they lose four on the spin.
To get this far into the season without a sacking is an anomaly reflective of the credentials of those currently in the bottom four. Warnock deserves a year with Cardiff regardless of results given the extraordinary job getting them there. Anyone suggesting David Wagner should be under pressure at Huddersfield needs sectioning. He will be a Champions League coach sooner rather than later. Rafa Benitez’s phone would not stop if he left Newcastle, and the goodwill for Jokanovic has surely earned him more than 10 games with a newly assembled squad. There is a P45 in the post for someone. We should be thankful it has not arrived yet. Well, the strangest moment, anyway. Paul Pogba’s penalty run-up puts one in mind of dressage. A more officious referee could have booked him for time-wasting, as he tiptoed towards his spot-kick against Everton.
He luckily scored the rebound, but surely that is the last we will see of the unconventional approach? Eddie Howe
The hot streak continues for Bournemouth, with a thumping win over Fulham. Five years into his second spell, there is no danger of manager Howe going stale at his beloved club, who are on course for their best topflight season. Sean Dyche
Burnley slumped to a heavy home defeat, albeit against title contenders Chelsea.
This always looked like being a tougher season for Dyche’s side after last season’s heroics had secured European football. Burnley should be fine, but this is a tricky period at Turf
Moor.