Premier League Manager Sackings!
18/12/2024 17:00:17
Two managers lost their jobs over the weekend in the Premier League with Wolverhampton Wanderers parting ways with Gary O’Neill following a 2-1 defeat at home to fellow relegation rivals Ipswich Town and Southampton parting ways with Russell Martin after a 0-5 defeat at home to Spurs that saw them training 0-5 at half time. This brings the managerial casualties this season up to four, with Manchester United sacking Erik Ten Hag earlier in the season and Leicester City sacking Steve Cooper a few weeks ago.
It means that 3 of the current relegation threatened clubs, Southampton, Wolves and Leicester have all changed their managers in the hope of changing their fortunes and help them beat the drop. Not counting this season, there have been 91 times when a team have parted company with their manager while in the relegation zone of the Premier League and on 36 of these occasions the teams have avoided relegation. This is a success rate of 40%. Wolves and Southampton are both currently in the relegation zone with Wolves in 19th place on 9 points and Southampton in 20th place on 5 points.
What Next for Wolves?
Wolves find themselves in deep trouble, in the relegation zone, which has led to them sacking manager Gary O’Neill following a string of bad performances and bad results. Wolves have accumulated just 9 points this season in 16 games, which is a points per game tally of 0.56. If this form continues over 38 games they will accumulate just 21 points, which will most likely guarantee relegation. They have just 2 wins and 3 draws this season and have lost on 11 occasions. Their big problem has been keeping the ball out of their net, conceding 40 goals in the league this season, conceding an average of 2.5 goals per game.
O’Neill’s tenure started with promise with wins over top teams last season including Manchester City and a league double over Chelsea. They also had a run to the FA Cup quarter final, but this season has been a struggle for the club and fans have become restless with O’Neill. Wolves have reportedly reached an agreement to appoint Portuguese coach Vitor Pereira, who is currently managing in Saudi Arabia with Al-Shabab and has experience managing Porto, Olympiacos and Fenerbahce. Wolves next few fixtures see away trips to Leicester and Spurs either side of a home game with Man United.
What Next for Southampton?
Southampton are fresh off a 5-0 hammering at home to Spurs, which has resulted in them parting company with Russell Martin. Southampton have played a nice brand of football this season but this has come at the cost of results. They have played out from the back which has resulted in defensive mistakes, and defeats. Southampton have just 1 win in 16 games, with 2 draws and 13 defeats.
Their points per game tally is 0.31, with this resulting in them getting just 12 points over a 38 game season, which would be the second least amount of points accumulated in a season. They need to improve dramatically and like Wolves have struggled to keep the ball out of the net, conceding 36 goals, an average of 2.25 goals per game.
"It means that 3 of the current relegation threatened clubs, Southampton, Wolves and Leicester have all changed their managers in the hope that this will change their fortunes and help them beat the drop."
Plenty of managers have already been linked with the St Mary's hotseat in recent days, with former Denmark boss Kasper Hjulmand reportedly among those under consideration for the role. Carlos Corberan is another that has been mentioned as in contention, but Sky have reported that there is another “unnamed foreign coach that Southampton are interested in.”
Southampton will need to make a decision on a new manager quickly as they need to drastically change their fortunes if they are to avoid relegation. Southampton have games coming up away at Fulham, at home to West Ham, away to Crystal Palace and at home to Brentford, with any potential new manager needing to get off to a fast start.
It remains to be seen whether changing their managers will change the fortunes of Wolves or Southampton, but something needed to be done as both clubs look set for the drop and will need to vastly turnaround their fortunes if they are to remain in the Premier League.
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✒️ Jack Guing – Football and GAA Sports Expert
Jack Guing has a strong knowledge of the sport of GAA through the lens of performance analysis with multiple GAA teams. He holds a master's degree in sports performance. He has a huge love of all things sports, especially golf, soccer and GAA. He uses statistics and performance analysis in order to predict the outcome of matches and events.
