The allure of being a Premier League manager has never been greater, but the security of the job has never been more precarious.
Despite Mauricio Pochettino's recent improvement in form, his departure from Chelsea on Tuesday highlights the short-term nature of being a Premier League manager. The Argentine player left the club with mutual consent after an internal review.
Running a team in England's top football league is one of the most precarious jobs in team sports, and we have the numbers to prove it.
Seven Premier League managers have left their jobs this season and with the financial rewards and prestige of the competition, there will never be a shortage of talented coaches to fill the vacancies.
But seven is actually down on last season's staggering 17 (which included two who left at the end of the season), with Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp and Brighton's Roberto De Zerbi having both left their clubs of their own accord at the end of the season, resulting in even fewer sackings.
Yet of the 20 managers in charge of Premier League teams in 2022-23, only six are still in their jobs.
The League Managers' Association (LMA), which represents managers and head coaches across the English league pyramid, said just three managers have been sacked from their Premier League jobs after June 2023, the lowest number in a decade.
But the evidence from one season cannot mask an overall trend: the Premier League is becoming a dangerous place to operate.
Jurgen Klopp left Liverpool at the end of the season (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
“I think it's pretty much accepted now that England change managers every few years, like they did in Europe 10 or 12 years ago,” said the veteran, who has managed more than 1,000 games in England's top four divisions. says Tony Pulis. athleticPulis is a former long-time Premier League manager with spells at Stoke City, Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion.
“Apart from the top clubs that have had great success, clubs are always fighting for a scrap to qualify for Europe or to escape from the bottom of the table. If you are able to do so, you can continue to work, but other clubs vary and there is a possibility that your results may deteriorate.
“When you're not doing well, you just hope that the people in charge at the club support you and see you through to the end.”
The evidence suggests that Premier League owners and executives are less likely to follow through than in other sports.
Comparisons with major American sports show that the Premier League has a more volatile culture of hiring and firing than any other league across the Atlantic.
Looking at the average number of manager departures over the past five seasons, the Premier League is slightly ahead of the National Hockey League and even ahead of the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball. As for MLB, he used the other three US league head managers as his closest comparison to his coaches.
This article includes end-of-season or off-season departures in the data from the previous season.
The 17 managerial departures in the 2022-23 Premier League are the most in 25 seasons compared across the five leagues, making the NHL once again the U.S. league that most closely matches the instability of England's top sporting competition.
Further down the English league structure, the situation is no longer stable, especially in the Championship, the league just below the Premier League. According to figures from the LMA, 17 managers have been sacked in the 24-team Championship since June 2023. The average tenure of the sacked managers is less than a year.
The Championship's lower divisions, Leagues One and Two, have seen 12 and 16 players let go respectively from June 2023. The average tenure is longer than in the Championship but shorter than in the Premier League.
“These figures only highlight how the game continues to present an increasingly complex and precarious working environment for all professional practitioners – players, coaches and managers,” LMA chief executive Richard Bevan said.
Mr Bevan said the globalization of the labor market and short-termism, with a “chronic focus” on short-term results, were among the factors adding to the pressure on managers.
“These pressures are difficult to reverse and the environment they create is not only difficult for individual practitioners striving to build successful, stable and meaningful careers, but also poses challenges for the bodies that represent them,” Bevan said.
The current average tenure of a Premier League manager is 787 days. Of the big four US leagues, only the NHL has a shorter tenure.
Pulis blames the growth of social media, and the resulting increase in supporter criticism, for increasing pressure on clubs to knee-jerk react.
“I don't think this is an issue with the club, but rather an issue with the supporters, the internet, social media and the pressure put on the officials,” he says. “The dynamics of the football committee have changed. Supporters now have a lot more say and power than before.”
Keith Wyness, who was CEO of Everton from 2004 to 2009 and then Aston Villa for two years, agrees with Pulis that the internet has changed the game for managers and their employers.
“Fans are organised into social media groups, fans have podcasts, it's all immediate and very well organised,” he says. “The pressure on owners and chief executives is much greater now and as an owner or chief executive who has to stay in touch with your fan base, you can't ignore that.
“You can't just put your fingers in your ears and ignore it. In the past, we might have had fan meetings once a year at the end of the season, but now it's every day.”
“When I was at Aston Villa in 2017-2018, we had an update system that told us hourly what topics were developing. When I was at Everton, we had David Moyes. He was there for a number of years and there were some bad times, but we stuck with him and we were proven right.
“The world has changed. I don't always cave to fan pressure, but I'm always aware of it.”
The Premier League's two longest serving managers have retired, with Moyes ending his second spell at West Ham and Klopp leaving Liverpool.
Guardiola, the longest-serving Premier League manager, has won his fourth straight title (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
However, Manchester City's Pep Guardiola, the league's longest-serving manager, won his fourth consecutive league title last weekend in his eighth year at the club, while Mikel Arteta, the third-longest-serving manager, is at Arsenal. led to runner-up.
Sitting between the two is Thomas Frank, who has brought relative stability to Brentford for five-and-a-half years.
“A hundred million years ago when I first started in management I was told it would take three years to run a successful football club,” Pulis says.
“In your first year you should know the problems at the club, in your second year you should make changes and in your third year you should be successful, otherwise you deserve to be sacked.
“But that was before the internet, social media and 24-hour news. Now it's all part of the job and you have to accept it. I think most managers understand that and are used to it.”
(Pictured above (left to right) — Mike Vrabel, who left the Tennessee Titans in January, former Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino, who left on Tuesday, and Dave Hakstol, who left the Seattle Kraken in April: Getty images)
