Premier League 2022/23 season have seen a lot of managers lose their jobs, from poor performance, players’ attitude to owners’ conflicts.
When the season started, no one would have thought Unai Emery and the previously retired Roy Hodgson will be in the list for Premier League managers of the month award after few weeks of campaign.
This season has been ruthless for many managers with a Premier League record of 13 sacks and one of those – Graham Potter leaving Brighton to join Chelsea.
Steve Cooper who is yet to be fired has been told that “results and performances must improve immediately” by Nottingham Forest’s owner Evangelos Marinakis.
David Moyes of West Ham United also, is one manager that is under pressure whenever his struggling side loses a game.
Currently, there are 5 caretaker managers that are filling in at Tottenham, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Leicester and Southampton and Javi Garcia who is on a “flexible contract” at Leeds.”
This particular season has been an extraordinarily challenging to be a Premier League manager or even a caretaker coach.
On that note, Futballnews will take a data run down on the woes of the Premier League managers in the 2022-2023 season using the assertions of Richard Bevan, the chief executive of the League Managers Association (LMA).
Below are the Five Reasons Why 2022/23 Has Been Brutal For Premier League Managers
Failures of the Big Six
Richard Bevan, the chief executive of the League Managers Association (LMA), characterized this season as “unpredictability.”
Chelsea and Liverpool – who are traditional members of the ‘big six’ – have struggled this season, with the former at 11th position and the latter at 8th position.
Chelsea are also not likely to qualify for the Champions League next season and are currently closer to the relegation zone.
Newcastle United under Eddie Howe and Saudi Money are eyeing top-four finish while Brighton, Brentford and Aston Villa – who replaced Steven Gerrard with Emery in October – are also looking forward to play in Europe next season.
Richard Bevan confirmed that; “The established Premier League ‘big-six’ teams’ performances have been more variable than recent years, which has created opportunity for some of the mid-table teams to emerge, causing employment instability within the league.”
“Two clubs which have historically achieved Champions League qualification through finishing in the top four are currently out of these positions and high-performing disruptor teams have shown an excellent level of consistency, perhaps above pre-season expectations.”
Tough Relegation Fight
This particular season has seen one of the toughest relegation fights in a long while in the Premier League and West Ham and Nottingham are the only teams yet to fire their coaches.
Former Bournemouth manager Scott Parker, was the first manager to be fired back in 30th August 2022 after just 25 days into the season.
Liverpool thrashed his team 9-0 then and Gary O’Neil took over as a caretaker manager and is now permanent manager of the team.
Southampton is currently bottom of the Premier League, and have change manager for the third time this season after they sacked Ralph Hasenhuttl and Nathan Jones then hired Ruben Selles until the end of the season.
Bevan went on to say; “European qualification and relegation remains a high possibility for a high number of teams, which adds to the significant pressure for managers to succeed.”
Short Term Duration
Currently in the Premier League, half of it’s managers have been in their roles for less than 6-months with Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp being the longest serving manager.
“The average tenure of dismissed Premier League managers this season is 1.57 years. Ten out of 13 managers who have been dismissed were in post for less than two years,” Bevan continued.
“This short-term approach does a disservice to the quality and talent of the managers and coaches in our game.”
“One of the most important prerequisites for success is stability, a core component in the elite performance environment, which managers and coaches are responsible for developing.”
| Top 10 current longest-serving Premier League managers | |
|---|---|
| Manager | Duration |
| Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool) | 7 years 6 months |
| Pep Guardiola (Man City) | 6 years 9 months |
| Thomas Frank (Brentford) | 4 years 6 months |
| Mikel Arteta (Arsenal) | 3 years 3 months |
| David Moyes (West Ham) | 3 years 3 months |
| Marco Silva (Fulham) | 1 year 9 months |
| Steve Cooper (Nottingham Forest) | 1 year 6 months |
| Eddie Howe (Newcastle) | 1 year 5 months |
| Erik ten Hag (Man Utd) | 9 months |
| Roberto de Zerbi (Brighton) | 7 months |
In the Premier League’s inaugural campaign in 1992-93, there was much patience then as it was just one coach that was sacked – Ian Porterfield leaving Chelsea that year.
Balanced Competition
Bevan also confirmed that “the Premier League’s global reach and the revenue that it generates has enabled all clubs across the league to acquire high-quality playing talent, narrowing the performance gaps across the league and increasing competitive balance.”
“This is a significant contributor to the unpredictability we see in the league this season.”
Nottingham Forest signed a record 29 players since last summer with a record of £160m, while Southampton on the other hand spent £126m and West Ham splashed out £171m.
The Highest Level Of Inspection Possible
Premier League dominated in the transfer windows this season as they spent a record £2.8bn across the 2022-23 campaign, dwarfing the rest of Europe.
Bevan continued: “The intense scrutiny on teams and managers in the Premier League continues to increase.”
“It is clear that continued, vociferous external pressure forces club decision-makers to take short-term decisions in an effort to find improvement in results and performances.”
“Notwithstanding a small number of exceptions, short-termism is not a proven strategy for performance improvement. It may appease the critics, but it rarely delivers results.”
“It is important for clubs to appreciate that sport creates variability, and therefore to build their business models to withstand variations in performance.”
Graham Potter suffered mental health challenges before he was fired by Chelsea, he confirmed that he and his family received anonymous abuse during the club’s poor run of form.
Bevan continued; “While the managers understand and appreciate the context in which they work in, and are well remunerated, the personal and vitriolic abuse they often have to deal with can have a significant personal impact on them and their families.”
“This season we have witnessed well-documented cases of abuse going beyond the context of football,” Richard Bevan, the chief executive of the League Managers Association (LMA) concluded.
