Who Will Be The Next Team To Sack Their Manager

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Published by Chris Jenkins
15th Dec 2021
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Football can be a brutal and unforgiving sport. There are moments of intense romance, such as a victory against your biggest rivals under the lights. In these moments, everyone comes together in joy.

But there is another side, a side in which managers struggle to keep their jobs and fans turn on players. Over the past few years, we have seen managerial appointments become increasingly frequent, with people being hired and fired at a higher rate than previous.

The demands of modern football are influenced heavily by money with the influx of TV rights and the exportation of the game. Due to this, every club finds itself in a sink or swim kind of scenario, and some clubs are desperate to emerge above the water as one of the lucky few with money and success.

This season, we have already seen a few managers sacked. Aston Villa’s Dean Smith and Newcastle’s Steve Bruce have suffered this fate. But the question lingering in everyone's mind is, who will be the next team to sack their manager?

 

Everton

When Everton hired former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez in the summer, many pundits were left scratching their heads. Surely this could never work out?

After the departure of Carlo Ancelotti, the Everton board was thrown into disarray. Chasing their tails for weeks, the media had a field day with reports of various managers being interviewed for the job. Candidates included Graham Potter, Eddie Howe, Nuno Espirito Santos, and more.

However, none of these was given the job. One particular man's name kept cropping up, a name that many Evertonians hate the sight of Rafa Benitez.

It’s clear that Benitez came to the board with extensive plans to improve an Everton side that had underperformed for a number of years. Carlo Ancelotti had this same Everton side sitting at 2nd in the Premier League on boxing day 2020. Rafa Benitez has the team languishing at 14th.

Despite this, it hasn’t been easy for the Spanish manager since his arrival. The team has been plagued by injuries and a tough fixture list. Many fans were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and the majority of the fan base got behind him.

At this point, it’s starting to look as though a complete overhaul is necessary at Everton football club. Director of football Marcel Brands has recently exited due to “differences in vision”. It’s not clear exactly what happened with Brands, but one gets the sense he never truly had a free hand at Everton.

Now, Everton owner Farhad Moshiri has put all of his faith in Benitez and given him full control of the club's proceedings. This could prove to be a foolish decision in the long run. The club has hired and fired several managers since Moshiri took over and it’s becoming clear that he has no idea how to run a football club.

The wise thing to do would be to hire a team of knowledgeable people and give them control of the direction, whilst providing the financial support for success. You can’t completely blame Benitez for the position he has found himself in, but the question remains: can he turn it around, or will he be the next manager to be sacked?

 

Southampton

Ralph Hasenhuttl has been shown incredible loyalty by the Southampton board. Appointed to replace Mark Hughes in December 2018, Hasenhuttl saved the team from relegation and secured their spot in the Premier League for the following season.

Despite this, the next season did not start well. The team suffered a soul-destroying 9-0 loss to Leicester City, and many thought Hassenhuttl might be sacked. This was the joint-worst loss in Premier League history and Southampton’s worst-ever home defeat.

Instead of sacking him, the board gave him their full support. He paid them back by going on a great run of games and leading Southampton to their best league finish in 3 seasons.

But just when things seemed to be improving, it happened again. Starting the season well, they suffered another 9-0 loss (this time to Manchester United away).

It’s quite an incredible record to have 2 separate 9-0 losses within two seasons, and many have questioned Hasenhuttl’s position. Of course, you can’t base his whole run on these results. But right now, Southampton sits dangerously close to the relegation zone, and it doesn’t look as though Hasenhuttl has the answers.

Like Jurgen Klopp, Hasenhuttl employs a “gegenpressing” type of football, a very intense and explosive style of play. Unlike Klopp, this hasn’t had quite the same effect over the years, but we have to be fair when analyzing a club like Southampton.

They often lose their best players to other clubs. For example, Virgil Van Dijk went to the aforementioned Jurgen Klopp’s team. Danny Ings, a naturally talented goalscorer who has been blighted by injury, left Southampton to go to Aston Villa this summer.

Whilst Ings would often be injured, he was still a hugely effective player for the club and managed to score over 40 times in his 3 seasons down south.

With Hasenhuttl under pressure to start getting results, it’s hard to predict whether or not this will happen. He has managed to turn things around before whilst near the relegation zone. Will he improve their fortunes once again, or is his time at the club coming to an end?

 

Final Thoughts

The landscape changes pretty rapidly when it comes to managerial appointments in the modern era, but these managers seem to be in a particularly tough spot right now.

In the past, managers were given time. A famous example of this is Sir Alex Ferguson, who didn’t achieve much with Manchester United in his first few seasons but had a clear and solid plan in place and went on to become the most successful manager in English football.

Could one of the managers mentioned in this article go on to bring success?

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