Another Premier League season is almost upon us so let’s have a quick look at how safe in their jobs we think all 20 managers might be.
Two reasons for this being a bit trickier than it might otherwise be. One, there’s no Watford this year so who the first manager out of a job will be is anyone’s guess. Two, that winter World Cup looms on the horizon, potentially making all managers safer in the short term than they might otherwise be in a normal season. But you’re not going to want to be a struggling manager of a struggling team in November when owners and chairmen will be thinking about how neat and tidy it would be to get rid of this absolute clown (that they hired, but that always seems to be forgotten for some reason) and get someone better without it all having to be a total rush-job.
Still, these factors affect everyone else more or less equally, so let’s crack on. We’re not particularly looking to identify the Sack Race winner here; this isn’t about pin-pointing the first manager to go, but rather a temperature check on what we reckon is each manager’s chances of at least making it to that post-World Cup resumption at Christmas. Rankings go from most imperilled to safest, but you could probably have worked that out for yourselves.
20. Jesse Marsch (Leeds)
DANGER, DANGER! It’s barely July and already you fear for Marsch, you really do. It’s probably very harsh indeed, but Leeds’ survival last season by the skin of their arse never really felt like it had a great deal to do with the amiable American (which whether we like it or not is another factor that counts against him in this country). He now has plenty of new players that are very much his signings – which can absolutely cut both ways depending on how things go – yet right now faces starting the season with a demonstrably weaker squad than that which barely avoided the drop last year. Kalvin Phillips and (in all likelihood) Raphinha are not easily replaced. A kindly start to the season from the fixture computer is potentially helpful, but that can itself work both ways and also means a sting in the tail. Leeds face Liverpool and Spurs (who did for Bielsa in the end) right before the November manager sacking window (there’s also some tournament or other being played in this break, apparently). If Marsch even makes it that far.
19. Ralph Hasenhuttl (Southampton)
Arguably the manager with least credit in the bank of anyone after that shonky end to last season in…
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