The latest sackings in a Premier League season give Slot, Tudor and Parker records to break

If Arne Slot, Scott Parker, Igor Tudor or whoever replaces him as Spurs manager could be sacked at half-time on the final day, that’d be great.

That is the only way the bar for the latest sacking in a Premier League season will be lowered, with two managers having been shown the door ahead of a campaign’s final game.

There have been a fair few sackings heading into the final stretch of a season, with Slot and Tudor among the under-pressure managers who might make way similarly late in 2025/26.

Do it with four games or fewer remaining and they will rank among Your Olsens and The Pearsons Of This World.

David Moyes sacked by Man Utd in April 2014 (4 games left)

Ten months into a contract infamously intended to last slightly longer, and having summarily failed to improve Man Utd in a number of areas, including passing, creating chances and defending, Moyes was removed from the big chair at Carrington.

The Chosen One fell on his sword as soon as Champions League qualification was rendered mathematically impossible by a narrative-laden defeat at Goodison Park, with whoever inserted a break clause into a six-year deal which entitled the Scot to only 12 months’ severance pay earning a particularly hefty pat on the back.

Ryan Giggs was installed for the final four games of the season and managed to permanently tank his ultimate managerial ambitions at Old Trafford by losing at home to Gus Poyet’s Sunderland.

Javi Gracia sacked by Leeds in May 2023 (4 games left)

No Premier League team has or will ever panic to the absurd extent of Leeds a few years ago. Not enough is made of the fact that they let a flippant comment on the actual No Tippy Tappy Football Podcast lead their decision-making when trying to literally avoid Premier League relegation.

“I’d have thought by now if they were interested in me they know where I am, so call me,” Allardyce said in February 2023, adding: “I wouldn’t see any problem sorting them out, from my point of view with my experience.”

Leeds picked Gracia instead at first, the Spaniard placing 14th in a table of results during his brief tenure, taking over a team in 19th and being axed with them in 17th.

Quite how Allardyce was asked to finish the job by May is a genuine mystery. It will forever remain one of the great and most baffling failed firefighter stints.

Egil Olsen sacked by Wimbledon in May 2000 (2 games left)

“I thought I would see out the season,” said Olsen, “but there has been disloyalty from players. The comments from Joe Kinnear didn’t help my case. I would never do what he did and criticise a manager before a crucial game.”

Olsen hardly faced the Simon Bird treatment from Kinnear, who simply said that his predecessor had “either left out or sold too many experienced players” in trying to implement a new culture and his rigid tactics.

The Norwegian probably had a point on the players, mind.

John Hartson, their record signing, openly described it as “well publicised that not everyone gets on with the manager” due to “the way he works and some of the things he does, his attitude at times and his laid-back approach,” and that “there will be big changes in the summer in terms of a manager” – while Olsen was still in employment.

Wimbledon parted with him after a 3-0 defeat to Bradford left them in the relegation zone. Terry Burton was appointed in a bid to channel the Crazy Gang spirit once again but a draw and a defeat in their final two games was not enough to save an entirely doomed club from themselves.

Roberto Mancini sacked by Manchester City in May 2013 (2 games left)

Manchester City had planned to hold an end-of-season review with Mancini in Abu Dhabi but defeat to relegated Wigan in the FA Cup final expedited that process.

Being the good guys that they are, the club decided to basically make their findings public anyway, saying they ‘failed to achieve any’ of the season’s targets besides Champions League qualification, and that they wished to take a more ‘holistic approach’ going forward.

The rough translation was that Mancini had fallen out with basically everyone and Manchester City quite liked the idea of a manager who might not do that. So once Brian Kidd saw out the final two games (a win and a defeat) the open secret of Manuel Pellegrini’s appointment was confirmed.

READ MORE: Ranking the five post-title managerial sackings from fair to harsh

Nigel Pearson sacked by Watford in July 2020 (2 games left)

It does still seem an incredibly harsh decision, considering Pearson inherited a Watford side seven points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League table in December, beat Manchester United, ended Liverpool’s unbeaten run five games short of the Invincibles and led them through the uncertainty of a pandemic lockdown before being sacked three points above the drop zone with two games remaining.

But then you remember it was Nigel Pearson and he had probably throttled someone in training, called them an ostrich or told them to f*** off and die, all while scrapping with a pack of wild dogs.

In that context, getting relegated with Hayden Mullins is preferable.

Avram Grant sacked by West Ham in May 2011 (1 game left)

Within minutes of a defeat at Wigan which confirmed West Ham would be condemned to the second tier for the first time in six years, Grant had been shuffled into a spare room at the DW Stadium and informed of his fate.

It was a decision the squad only learned of when Grant boarded the team bus to collect his belongings, with a taxi waiting to escort him from the premises before captain Scott Parker suggested to the owners that the former manager should probably at least get to sit at the front next to Mark Noble one last time.

Kevin Keen was given the Hammers’ final game and the most chastening of top-flight farewells: a 3-0 loss at home to a team managed by Steve Bruce.

Roberto Martinez sacked by Everton in May 2016 (1 game left)

Very possibly on the advice of Jamie Carragher, Everton decided that the kindest thing to do with Martinez was to put the Spaniard out of his misery rather than subjecting him to what promised to be a toxic Goodison Park atmosphere on the final day in 2016.

Heading into that game, the Toffees had won one of their last ten Premier League matches and the fans had started to turn; empty seats and anti-Martinez banners and chants were a regular feature of their many defeats.

A 90-minute end-of-season lap of honour against Norwich instead called for someone somehow of the genuine belief that managing Everton was “one of the top jobs in the world”. They don’t make them like David Unsworth anymore.