Which Premier League clubs sack the most managers and does it work?
We are due our first managerial sacking of the Premier League season any minute now, sowe are looking back over the past 10 years to see which clubs are the most trigger-happy.
To set some ground rules, we have gone back to the summer of 2016 and only included clubs that were in the Premier League for that whole period, with one minor exception. We have also mostly excluded caretaker managers except in one particular case.
With those parameters in mind, here are the 10 permanent Premier League clubs who have changed manager in the last 10 years.
8=) Arsenal – Two changes
Unai Emery – 78 games at 1.85 PPG
Mikel Arteta – 369 games at 2.04 PPG
If we wind the clock back 10 years, we still somehow had three more seasons of Arsene Wenger.
He finally retired at the start of the 2018/19 season and Arsenal’s pick for his replacement was Unai Emery. But despite his success bookending that spell, he never really made it work during his Arsenal tenure.
He was not helped by the squad he inherited – which had a lot of big egos – but he was either unable or did not have the credit in the bank to make wholesale changes.
He left with 1.85 points per game (PPG) – not that bad, but Arteta has taken them to a new level.
The Spaniard was a risky appointment and had big ‘always the bridesmaid’ vibes, but he has delivered a Premier League title and looks odds-on to do so again this year.
8=) Manchester City – Two changes
Pep Guardiola – 593 games at 2.27 PPG
Enzo Maresca – 17 games at 2.12 PPG
After designing their whole club around him, hiring Pep Guardiola unsurprisingly worked out quite well for City.
With suspiciously deep pockets, Guardiola managed a 2.27 PPG ratio over 593 matches, which is the best in Premier League history of any manager with over 10 games on their CV.
Guardiola won the lot – although it may soon mean very little – and left in the summer to be replaced by Enzo Maresca, who has so far managed 2.12 PPG from his 17 matches.
8=) Liverpool – Two changes
Arne Slot – 113 games at 1.91 PPG
Andoni Iraola – 16 games at 2.06 PPG
Jurgen Klopp’s tenure came to an end ahead of the 2024/25 season and Liverpool appeared to have done their homework when they hired Arne Slot.
He won the title in his first season and while suggesting that it was purely down to the squad left to him is a little harsh, he did have the benefits of massive collapses by both Arsenal and City while Mo Salah produced one of the best seasons of his career.
Slot’s time came to an end in the summer with Andoni Iraola taking over. It has been a little slow going with Liverpool yet to hit their free-scoring best, but it’s a decent start.
6=) Brighton and Hove Albion – Three changes
Graham Potter – 134 games at 1.28 PPG
Roberto De Zerbi – 89 games at 1.51 PPG
Fabian Hurzeler – 105 games at 1.66 PPG
Given the brilliance of their player recruitment, it is unsurprising that every new manager Brighton hires improves on the old one.
Graham Potter improved on what Chris Hughton was able to do. Fears that Brighton would collapse following Potter’s move to Chelsea proved unfounded as Roberto De Zerbi again reached new heights.
But their greatest appointment was Fabian Hurzeler, who perfectly fits the Brighton mould. Brighton had a lot to lose appointing a 31-year-old with no experience in England, but it has worked out excellently.
The Seagulls are one of the best-coached teams in the league this year and not an unrealistic bet for a title challenge.
To make Brighton’s recruitment even more impressive…none of their last three hires had even managed in the Premier League before taking over.
6=) Newcastle United – Three changes
Steve Bruce – 97 games at 1.69 PPG
Eddie Howe – 231 games at 1.38 PPG
Matthias Jaissle – 13 games at 1.38 PPG
Pedants amongst you may point out that Newcastle were not actually in the Premier League for the 2016/17 season but they only missed out one year and we made the rules so shut it.
After Rafa Benitez brought them back to the Premier League, all Geordie hopes disappeared when he left and was replaced by Steve Bruce. Unsurprisingly, it went terribly.
Mike Ashley refused to spend and Bruce could not manage his way out of it.
Bruce, and Newcastle’s future, changed in 2021 when the Saudis took over and Ashley was gone. Unsurprisingly, the manager was soon for the chop. Not like that.
The club were rock bottom when he left and Howe saved them before making them Champions League contenders.
A trophy makes him one of the most successful managers of all time and even if the project ran out of steam, his replacement has shown Newcastle fans what they lost.
Matthias Jaissle has 1.38 PPG from his first 13 games and could soon be out of the job unless he improves.
5) Manchester United – Six changes
Jose Mourinho – 144 games at 1.97 PPG
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – 149 games at 1.79 PPG
Ralf Rangnick – 29 games at 1.45 PPG
Erik ten Hag – 128 games at 1.84 PPG
Ruben Amorim – 63 games at 1.43 PPG
Michael Carrick – 32 games at 1.66 PPG
After a period of incredible managerial stability, it has been anything but for United in the past 10 seasons.
They have had six different men in the dugout with Jose Mourinho taking over in the summer of 2016. He was the best both in terms of trophies and points per game.
He won the Community Shield, the League Cup and Europa League in the 2016/17 season, which he took to calling a treble, and took them to second in the 2017/18 season, something he claimed as one of his great managerial achievements. He’s won the Champions League twice by the way.
Vibes man Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over and managed just five games more than Mourinho to mixed success. Next, United tried to claim Ralf Rangnick was an interim but if you are in charge for 29 games, we are not having it. He, after declaring the club needed open-heart surgery, managed just 1.45 points per game.
Erik Ten Hag improved to make it 1.84 PPG but they still sacked him and brought in Ruben Amorim, who was an unarguable disaster. His tally of 1.43 PPG is the worst of the last 10 years and one of the worst in the club’s history.
Replacement Carrick has now managed exactly the same number of games as a full-time boss as he did as caretaker and he has averaged a 1.66 PPG in that time. Unfortunately, it is at 1.06 for this season.
Overall, United’s managerial appointments follow a similar story. Appoint an experienced coach, sack him, replace him with a club legend as caretaker, watch results improve, give the caretaker the full-time job, results collapse, sack the club legend, appoint an experienced coach.
Good luck Poch.
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3=) Tottenham Hotspur – Seven changes
Jose Mourinho – 86 games at 1.77 PPG
Nuno Espirito Santo – 17 games at 1.65 PPG
Antonio Conte – 76 games at 1.78 PPG
Ange Postecoglou – 101 games at 1.53 PPG
Thomas Frank – 38 games at 1.29 PPG
Igor Tudor – 7 games at 0.57 PPG
Roberto De Zerbi – 19 games at 1.37 PPG
Spurs have always had a curious past when it comes to managers. Good hires like Harry Redknapp and Mauricio Pochettino were interspersed with the likes of Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood.
That was true in late-era Levy as well. Spurs sacked Pochettino rather than backing him and brought in Jose Mourinho, a man hired simply to win trophies.
But they dropped him on the eve of the League Cup final to then replace him with Nuno Espirito Santo, who was hopeless.
Next they brought in another serial winner in Conte but the Italian looked more likely to suffer an aneurysm than lift trophies whilst at Tottenham.
Then they went for Ange Postecoglou, who is the Schrödinger’s cat of Spurs managers. Some will say he was good for bringing European silverware, others will point at the 17th-place finish.
He had to go, realistically, and the last appointment under Levy was Thomas Frank, who failed.
The first hire of the Vinai Venkatesham era was one of the worst in Premier League history with Igor Tudor looking woefully out of his depth and with Spurs facing the very realistic prospect of the drop, they had to hand over a king’s ransom to get in De Zerbi.
After surviving on the final day and having a rubbish start to the year, Spurs have improved somewhat under the Italian.
3=) Crystal Palace – Seven changes
Sam Allardyce – 24 games at 1.25 PPG
Frank de Boer – 5 games at 0.60 PPG
Roy Hodgson – 162 games at 1.22 PPG
Patrick Vieira – 74 games at 1.22 PPG
Roy Hodgson – 38 games at 1.21 PPG
Oliver Glasner – 121 games at 1.59 PPG
Pierre Sage – 10 games at 0.7 PPG
At the start of the decade, Palace were very trigger-happy with three different men in charge in under a year.
The first of those was Sam Allardyce, who was brought in to arrest the Pardew slide. He did that but left in the summer of 2017 to move into semi-retirement.
Palace’s succession plan was an absolute mess with a reported 37 managers on the shortlist, suggesting the club had no idea what style of football they would like to play.
They plumped for Frank de Boer, who was one of the worst Premier League managers of all time, before hiring Roy Hodgson, a man who was originally part of the 37-man shortlist.
Hodgson staunched any fear of relegation but stepped down as he too moved into retirement.
Next was Patrick Vieira who, while not as bad as De Boer, was another failure.
Hodgson then agreed to return to the Eagles only to step down once again due to illness.
Palace finally struck gold when they appointed Oliver Glasner, who oversaw the most successful period in the club’s history. Maybe they should have done everything to make him stay, with Pierre Sage failing to reach similar standards.
2) Everton – Eight changes
Ronald Koeman – 58 games at 1.48 PPG
Sam Allardyce – 26 games at 1.42 PPG
Marco Silva – 60 games at 1.38 PPG
Carlo Ancelotti – 67 games at 1.60 PPG
Rafael Benitez – 22 games at 1.14 PPG
Frank Lampard – 44 games at 1.00 PPG
Sean Dyche – 83 games at 1.23 PPG
David Moyes – 74 games at 1.46 PPG
Everton are the second most trigger-happy club of the last decade having changed managers eight times. It’s a bit of a mad list.
For a start, they’ve got two former Champions League winners and Carlo Ancelotti being there feels like a weird fever dream that can’t possibly be true.
He has the best points per game, obviously, but in general, the managers average around 1.4 PPG, though Lampard could only manage a point per his 44 games while Dyche was also below par at 1.23.
David Moyes, on his second stint, is on 1.46 PPG.
1) Chelsea – Nine changes
Antonio Conte – 106 games at 2.12 PPG
Maurizio Sarri – 63 games at 2.08 PPG
Frank Lampard – 84 games at 1.75 PPG
Thomas Tuchel – 100 games at 2.08 PPG
Graham Potter – 31 games at 1.42 PPG
Mauricio Pochettino – 51 games at 1.78 PPG
Enzo Maresca – 92 games at 1.97 PPG
Liam Rosenior – 23 games at 1.52 PPG
Xabi Alonso – 13 games at 1.69 PPG
Roman Abramovich may be gone but Chelsea are still the leaders when it comes to sacking managers.
Eight men have come and gone from the Chelsea dugout over the last 10 years with Xabi Alonso now the ninth different person in charge.
Early on, the sackings got results. Chelsea brought in Antonio Conte in the summer of 2016 and immediately won the league. The final appointment of the Abramovich era was Thomas Tuchel, who delivered the Champions League.
Even Maurizio Sarri, who is not exactly remembered as one of the most popular Chelsea managers of all time, won the Europa League.
But since BlueCo, the number of trophies has dropped massively. B-rate tournaments such as the Club World Cup and the Conference League are the kind of trophies Abramovich would have looked down upon, and yet they are the only thing that comes close to success under the new owners.
Since firing Tuchel, no manager has achieved a PPG above 2, which used to be the required minimum. Mauricio Pochettino struggled at first but managed to make some sense of the inflated Chelsea team before leaving the club after just one season.
Enzo Maresca was at 1.97 but got the boot after making kissy faces at City. Graham Potter and Liam Rosenior are the biggest failures, managing 1.42 and 1.52 PPG respectively.
Chelsea appeared to have appointed a grown-up in the summer and the highest calibre manager so far under BlueCo in Xabi Alonso but he has struggled too. A lack of backup to Joao Pedro has seen them drop from title potential to hoping for Europe.
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