Is there a managerial sack-race in the 2014-15 Premier League season?
At this stage last season as many as five managers had already been sacked, with seven more following suit making it an unbelievable 12 managers sacked last season! You just don’t get your time when you’re in the English Premier League.
But hang on a minute, how many managers have been sacked this season? Zero, that’s right, ZERO! Suddenly, managers seem to be getting all the time in the world to sort out their teams this season.
Alan Pardew
Newcastle’s Alan Pardew came the closest to being sacked, better known as “Pards” in the Toon. The Geordies’ fans were so frustrated with their start to the season that almost all of them were holding up mini posters of “Sack Pardew”, just five games into the season!
Some fans even set up a sackpardew.com website to get him out of the club. But if Pards wants to thank one person for saving his job, that would be Papiss Demba Cissé. Had The Magpies lost their home game to Hull, many would’ve said it was surely over for Pardew. They were 0-2 down, with less than 20 minutes to go, but then on comes Cissé, scoring two job saving goals for his manager.
A couple of games later it was a similar story at the Liberty Stadium. It ended Swansea 2-2 Newcastle with Cissé scoring both. The players ran to Pardew after they equalized which just showed the players wanted the manager to stay and will do whatever it takes to keep him at the club. That was the turning point for Newcastle. They went on to win their next five Premier League games in a row, with four clean sheets soaring from rock bottom to as high as fourth!
Fans were then seen holding banners of “Pardew back from the dead”. A win against a then unbeaten Chelsea came a couple of weeks later and that removed all doubts that Pardew was going to be sacked in the near future.
However, concerns have arisen with Newcastle conceding eight goals against the North London clubs Arsenal and Tottenham in the past week. But it’s safe to say, Pardew’s job isn’t in jeopardy as it was a few months back.
Sean Dyche
Burnley were in a similar position to Newcastle’s until only last month. Burnley were the last team to get their first win of the Premier League this season. There should’ve been panic among the ranks right? But no, the situation at Burnley wasn’t as theatrical as it was up in the Toon. The staff, the fans, the players kept faith in their man who got them to the Premier League and things are starting to look up for The Clarets, having lost just once in their last six Premier League games. The goals have also started to flow, which was a big concern for Burnley, scoring just once in their opening six league games.
From my perspective, this is how things should be. No one panicked and now look how well Burnley are doing. Perfect example in the modern world where people have forgotten about the meaning of the word “patience” and this can be applied outside of football as well.
Nigel Pearson
Mr. Pearson is the latest manager to come under the scanner. Things have got even worse since his altercation with a Leicester fan, telling him to “f*** off and die” during their 3-1 defeat to Liverpool earlier this month. After such an impressive start to their season, The Foxes haven’t won in the last 11 Premier League games leaving them rock bottom, three points worse off than 19th placed Hull City.
Players like Leonardo Ulloa and Jamie Vardy who were so impressive when the season began, have just stopped scoring. It’s clearly going downhill for Leicester and I won’t be surprised if Nigel Pearson is the first managerial casualty of this season.
Well I suppose that’s what you get when you’re sitting in the stands, making calls to your assistant manager to manage the playing XI.