2015/16 sets new managerial dismissals record

Matt Stead

Fifty-six football managers were sacked after an average service of 15 months this season, statistics published by the League Managers’ Association on Thursday showed.

The LMA released its end-of-season report, which detailed that there were 70 managerial changes across the Premier League and Football League during the 2015-16 campaign.

The 56 dismissals – there were 14 resignations – was earlier this month described as the “worst ever” by LMA chief executive Richard Bevan. The next highest in the past 11 seasons was 47 last term and then 46 in 2006-07.

Bevan will also be alarmed by the average length of service at a club.

The average tenure for the 56 dismissed managers this season was one year 113 days, or little more than 15 months.

The 11 Premier League bosses sacked had an average of two years seven days in the job, but in League One, where 14 managers lost their jobs, the average tenure was less than a year, at 354 days.

Brendan Rodgers became the first Premier League managerial casualty of the season when Liverpool sacked him in October, while Louis van Gaal was sacked earlier this week after leading Manchester United to the FA Cup.

Jose Mourinho, fired by Chelsea for a second time last December, is expected to replace Van Gaal at Old Trafford.

Figures showed the greatest number of dismissals in Leagues One and Two for the last six seasons, while only once in that time had the Premier League and Championship seen more managerial sackings.

In 2013-14, 12 Premier League bosses were sacked, while last season 20 Championship bosses were relieved of their duties, two more than this term.

The average tenure of managers currently in office is below two years across all four leagues.

It is one year 332 days in the Premier League, but that figure is skewed as Arsene Wenger has been Arsenal boss for approaching 20 years since his appointment in October 1996.

Paul Tisdale of Exeter is the next longest-serving boss, with approaching 10 years of service, while Eddie Howe’s second spell at Bournemouth, which stands at less than four years, makes the top 10.