Could we see a new Premier League record for sackings?
The 2021/22 Premier League season could be on course for an unprecedented spate of sackings following Sean Dyche’s departure from Burnley last week.
Dyche became the tenth top-flight manager to lose his job this season, a double-figure tally which has equalled the record for the most in-season departures in the Premier League era, ranking alongside the trigger-happy 2013/14 and 2017/18 seasons (also 10 a piece).
If one more manager has his contract ripped to shreds from now until the end of the season - Sunday 22nd May - then the current campaign will set a new outright record of 11 casualties.
Which managers have been sacked this season?
It now seems an age since Watford - who else - got the ball rolling in early October when they sacked Xisco Munoz, just seven league games into the season. Newcastle and Steve Bruce split ways before the month was out, then Tottenham lost patience with Nuno Santo on 1st November after 10 league games.
Within a week Norwich and Aston Villa had followed suit, sacking Daniel Farke and Dean Smith respectively.
There was a two-week respite before Man Utd parted ways with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
A couple of weeks into the New Year we saw Everton sack Rafa Benitez. Feeling left out, Watford then returned to the fold to end the stint of Claudio Ranieri after only four months.
In late February Leeds made the difficult decision to cut ties with beloved boss Marcelo Bielsa in a bid to boost their survival hopes, then last Friday Burnley shocked us all by sacking Sean Dyche…without having a back-up option.
How does this compare to last season?
Last season we only saw four Premier League managers catapulted from their hot seats: Slaven Bilic (West Brom), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Chris Wilder (Sheffield United), and Jose Mourinho (Tottenham).
Three of those clubs have changed direction multiple times since then. West Brom have been through Sam Allardyce and Valerien Ismael, before settling on Steve Bruce. Sheffield United went from Paul Heckingbottom to Slavisa Jokanovic then back to Heckingbottom, while Spurs handed the interim job to Ryan Mason, appointed Nuno Santo in the summer then swiftly replaced him with the manager they should have appointed to start with: Antonio Conte.
With just over a month remaining of the current campaign, we've seen last season's tally doubled. In fact, it's nearly tripled! Six of the managers we lost earlier this term had gone before December, in contrast the 2020/21 season didn't witness its first exit until mid-December.
Will we see a new outright record?
At the time of writing, there's still four-and-a-half-weeks to go until the curtains are closed on the 2021/22 Premier League season.
Managerial departures in the closing stages of a Premier League season are surprisingly more common than you think.
Since 1992/93 a total of 20 managers have left their jobs in April (12) and May (7) - this includes Nigel Pearson's exit in July at the backend of the delayed 2020/21 season - for a combination of reasons: leaving after a club's relegation has been confirmed, missing out on targets, and moving into another role within the club.
There are occasionally exits that come as a shock, such as Dyche last week, while others have been simply disastrous: Watford sacked Nigel Pearson in July 2020 when they were above the relegation zone, they then lost their final two games and were relegated.
Speaking of Watford, could we see the club do something similar to Roy Hodgson should they be relegated in the next few weeks? The struggling Hornets definitely seem the most likely of the 20 Premier League clubs to make a change before the season ends.
Next Premier League Manager To Leave Odds, via Sky Bet
- No Manager To Leave: 1/2
- Roy Hodgson: 9/4
- Ralf Rangnick: 8/1
- Frank Lampard: 10/1
- Dean Smith: 16/1
- Brendan Rodgers: 20/1
- Ralph Hasenhuttl: 33/1
- Thomas Tuchel: 33/1
- Eddie Howe: 66/1
- Graham Potter: 66/1
- Jesse Marsch: 66/1
- Antonio Conte: 80/1
- Bruno Lage: 80/1
- Mikel Arteta: 100/1
- Patrick Vieira: 100/1
- Steven Gerrard: 100/1
- Thomas Frank: 100/1
- David Moyes: 150/1
- Pep Guardiola: 150/1
- Jurgen Klopp: 200/1
