Want your Manager Sacked ? Think again !!

After last nights Premier League football results things are not looking too rosy for four top flight managers. Gerard Houllier of Aston Villa, Roy Hodgson of Liverpool, Avram Grant of West Ham Utd and Carlo Ancelotti of Chelsea will all be dreading a phone call asking them to visit the Board Room. Whether sacking the manager is the right decision or not can be debated on a club by club basis and each supporter will have a different opinion on when the man in charge has had his chips or not but the sacking of the manager is only half the story, the vacancy has to be filled and again this is a matter fans will have differing opinions on. Some will dream of a new man like a Mourinho coming in and leading their club to glory but that isn’t always the way the Boards and Chairman who run our clubs think. Here are some of the less successful appointments in Premier League history – If you see one of these guys sitting in the Press Conference putting pen to paper on a 3 year deal it’s best to start looking up Scunthorpe and Barnsley on the map !!

Steve Wigley – Southampton (August to December 2004)
After the sudden departure of Paul Sturrock, Steve Wigley was a surprise choice to take over at Southampton, despite being one of the most respected coaches in the game Wigley was out of his depth managing in the Premiership. His tenure yielded just a single victory in 14 matches and he was sacked on 8th December.

Les Reed – Charlton Athletic (November to December 2006)
After the long and successful reign of Alan Curbishley, Charlton had appointed Iain Dowie (who is almost worthy of a section on here himself) who spent Millions of pounds over the summer and promptly found himself out of a job with Charlton fighting relegation, Who was the man to lead them out of trouble ? Step forward Les Reed ! Immediately impressing the media by showing the personality of a slug Reed masterminded one victory in six weeks and a cup exit at the hands of Wycombe before he resigned in favour of Alan Pardew on Christmas Eve. So sometimes Christmases DO come early!!

Tony Adams – Portsmouth (October 2008 to January 2009)
Replacing Harry Redknapp was never going to be easy and Portsmouth’s decision to promote his No.2 Tony Adams showed continuity but little common sense, Adams had managed to relegate Wycombe and then resign in his only other foray into management and he promptly set about working his magic on Pompey earning a miserly 10 points from 16 games before being sacked.

Steve Claridge – Millwall (June to July 2005)
OK I know this one isn’t Premiership but I just couldn’t leave it out!
Steve Claridge is appointed manager of Millwall in June 2005 and is sacked after just 36 days in charge without presiding over a single match with his Chairman saying that they had a strong chance of being relegated under him – one can only guess what he was doing in training!!