Emery could follow ‘weird’ Amorim, Maresca blueprint with Manager of the Month curse out of control

Unai Emery has foolishly been named Premier League Manager of the Month and then conducted a weird interview hinting at issues behind the Aston Villa scenes.

That might not sound like a potent combination for a prompt sacking but in this particular season it is at least an inadvisable path to go down.

Emery has followed an entirely doomed succession line of Premier League Manager of the Month award winners in 2025/26: Enzo Maresca, Ruben Amorim, Oliver Glasner and Arne Slot. And the two winners at the end of 2024/25 were Vitor Pereira and Nuno Espirito Santo.

In the cases of Maresca, Amorim and the entirely miserable Glasner especially they were crowned against a backdrop of hierarchical and boardroom issues which ultimately helped trigger their departures.

So Emery saying Villa “are not contenders to be in the top five” and venting about “other teams with more potential than us” in a nod to Spurs hijacking their move for Conor Gallagher and Donyell Malen being sold before a replacement was secured, did not sit right with many.

Jamie Redknapp called it “one of the oddest interviews I have ever seen”. Ashley Young thought it was “weird”. Stuart Pearce wondered “whether the frustration going forward will be too much for him that he can’t take this team any further”. Brooklyn Beckham was asked for comment but he’s got a lot going on.

The likelihood of Emery actually leaving this season is infinitesimal; the bloke just wears his heart on his sleeve and was understandably slightly rattled by having to play David Moyes’ Everton.

But in the unlikely event he does leave a post in which he holds an unimaginable amount of power and leeway, Emery would not be the first Premier League Manager of the Month to resign or be sacked in the same season.

He wouldn’t even be the first at Villa Park to be hit by the curse…

Jose Mourinho (129 days in between)

Club: Tottenham
Named Manager of the Month: November 2020
Position when MOTM: 1st
Sacked: April 2021
Position when sacked: 7th

The Mourinho boom and bust cycle was in full flow by November 2020 when Spurs beat Brighton, West Brom and Manchester City, rounding the month off with a draw at Chelsea to consolidate their place atop the Premier League a year after his appointment.

That form soon turned and by the time Mourinho was sacked in April, Spurs were barely clinging to a qualification spot for the same Europa League that Dinamo Zagreb dumped them out of despite their coach being in prison at the time.

Spurs tried to hit Mourinho where it hurts, cutting ties six days before the Carabao Cup final and preferring Ryan Mason to lead them out against Manchester City. But they underestimated the Portuguese, who just counts the trophy among his collection anyway.

Roberto Di Matteo (128 days in between)

Club: West Brom
Named Manager of the Month: September 2010
Position when MOTM: 6th
Sacked: February 2011
Position when sacked: 17th

“Our poor sequence of results stretches back more than three months,” explained West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace, mindful of what came shortly before that.

The newly promoted Baggies felt compelled to act after winning three of 16 Premier League games and slipping into a relegation battle that seemed to be comfortably in the rear-view mirror by September. A home draw with Tottenham, derby spoils in a 3-1 win over Birmingham and a dramatic 3-2 victory at Arsenal, combined with beating Manchester City in the League Cup, had helped dampen the disappointment of a six-goal opening-day thrashing at the hands of Chelsea.

As high as sixth at one stage, West Brom subsequently crashed towards the trap door and only the safety net of Roy Hodgson could rescue them and indeed any of us. But especially and always Crystal Palace.

Mike Phelan (117 days in between)

Club: Hull City
Named Manager of the Month: August 2016
Position when MOTM: 5th
Sacked: January 2017
Position when sacked: 20th

Few neutral, critics and even fans gave Hull City a tiger’s chance in the ocean of surviving as a Premier League team in their most recent top-flight season. Promotion had been secured through the play-offs but Steve Bruce left less than a month before the campaign began, the first team contained 13 senior players at one point and a protracted takeover looked no closer to being completed.

There seemed to be no hope, although the gallows humour among those who remained was strong.

Against all odds, reigning Premier League champions Leicester were vanquished on the opening day and Swansea fell to Hull too. Manchester United only escaped from the KC Stadium with a win at the end of the month through Marcus Rashford’s stoppage-time strike as Phelan orchestrated an excellent start in his unfamiliar role of being anything other than Manchester United assistant.

But one league win in 18 finally forced Hull into action, perhaps a little too late for Marco Silva to get to know the Premier League. By the time they had lost 6-1 to Bournemouth in October the good Phelan had already long worn off.

John Gregory (105 days in between)

Club: Aston Villa
Named Manager of the Month: September 2001
Position when MOTM: 4th
Resigned: January 2002
Position when resigned: 7th

An unbeaten start to the 2001/02 campaign had the minds of Aston Villa supporters wandering once more. Title challenges had come and swiftly gone under John Gregory, while Ron Atkinson could not quite keep Manchester United’s pace in the inaugural Premier League season.

September 2001 was particularly flattering as Liverpool, Southampton and Blackburn were swept aside, sandwiching a goalless draw with Sunderland. A Champions League tilt at least looked possible. But from November 3 to New Year’s Day they beat only Ipswich in 11 games and the damage was done when they surrendered a two-goal FA Cup third-round lead over United.

Three days after beating Derby and Charlton in consecutive fixtures, Gregory resigned in quite hilarious circumstances due to fan disgruntlement and issues behind the scenes with chairman Doug Ellis.

Ruben Amorim (61 days in between)

Club: Manchester United
Named Manager of the Month: October 2025
Position when MOTM: 8th
Sacked: January 2026
Position when sacked: 6th

In only four of his months as Manchester United manager did Amorim win more than a single Premier League game. And to be fair, the effort it took to muster two victories in December of 2024 and 2025, as well as January 2025, made his only October in charge look generational.

It all seemed to click when Sunderland and Brighton were both sent packing from Old Trafford, sandwiching a ransacking of Anfield in a month which mercifully included no participation in the cups and thus no opportunity for Manchester United to embarrass themselves.

That was probably the peak of the entire experiment. Amorim won just three of his next 11 games, but most pertinently challenged the authority of the great Jason Wilcox, to fall on his sword within a couple of months.

Nuno Espirito Santo (53 days in between)

Club: Tottenham
Named Manager of the Month: August 2021
Position when MOTM: 1st
Sacked: November 2021
Position when sacked: 9th

Only seven coaches in Premier League history have been named Manager of the Month more often than Nuno, who has more such awards than Sir Bobby Robson, Carlo Ancelotti, Claudio Ranieri, Unai Emery, Mauricio Pochettino and Mourinho.

How so very Spurs, by the way, to deliver consecutive Manager of the Month sackings.

Never a particularly natural fit in north London as a mid-table manager promoted beyond his station, Nuno started with three straight 1-0 wins over Manchester City, Wolves and Watford while navigating a Harry Kane transfer saga to send Spurs top.

But it was all a facade: Spurs lost five of their next seven and Nuno’s fate was sealed by defeat in El Sackico.

Danny Wilson (49 days in between)

Club: Sheffield Wednesday
Named Manager of the Month: January 2000
Position when MOTM: 19th
Sacked: March 2000
Position when sacked: 19th

Sheffield Wednesday resisted the temptation to simply cite the greatest lyricist of our times when parting ways with Wilson in March 2000.

“We’ve got stars directing our fate, and we’re praying it’s not too late, ’cause we know we’re falling from grace” would have been a fitting way to say goodbye to the millennium’s first Premier League Manager of the Month.

A draw with Arsenal and victories over Bradford and Tottenham offered a glimmer of survival hope at Hillsborough in January. What a month, huh? But of course, captain, it’s Wednesday – they won one of their next seven before Wilson was sacked and Peter Shreeves came in to steer the ship into the First Division.

Wilson never managed in the Premier League again. It didn’t look particularly promising when David Blunkett led four Sheffield MPs in demanding Wednesday take action in mid-January as “this sort of situation would probably have been addressed back in November at most other Premiership clubs”.

Brian McDermott (33 days in between)

Club: Reading
Named Manager of the Month: January 2013
Position when MOTM: 17th
Sacked: March 2013
Position when sacked: 19th

What was the quickest case of the curse striking came in 2013, when McDermott started February as Premier League Manager of the Month and barely made it to mid-March before being rendered unemployed.

Reading went on two separate runs of seven consecutive league defeats that season but January brought brief and beautiful respite with wins over West Brom and Newcastle, as well as a comeback draw with European champions Chelsea. Three more points against Sunderland on February 2 were the last McDermott would collect in his first stint as manager at the Madejski, with defeats to Stoke, Wigan, Everton and Aston Villa plunging them back into the sort of danger even the Nigel Adkins diet could not salvage.

A similar fate befell Adam Le Fondre. The striker was named Player of the Month for January in a Royal double after scoring five times in four games, yet he had to wait until May for his next goal. Le Fondre still set the benchmark that season.

Enzo Maresca (21 days in between)

Club: Chelsea
Named Manager of the Month: November 2025
Position when MOTM: 5th
Sacked: January 2026
Position when sacked: 5th

Maresca wasted almost precisely no time in starting the ball rolling towards his Chelsea demise after winning the Manager of the Month award.

It was one day after being crowned for a month in which the Blues beat Spurs, Wolves and Burnley without conceding before underlining their title credentials with an impressive draw against Arsenal, that Maresca cryptically lamented his “worst 48 hours” in charge.

He probably experienced even tougher times in the intervening period, winning only two of his final nine matches and having to deal with more medical professionals telling him Reece James and Cole Palmer will spontaneously combust if he keeps picking them.

What Maresca clearly didn’t understand is that in English, “manage”, if you split the two words, it’s “man”, “age” – you’re ageing men. Or teenaged South American forwards.