Sack race history tells us that Stoke City could be in line for a promotion push. If not, they will at least finish higher than fourth-bottom.
The Potters are this season’s ‘winners’ in the Championship, parting company with Michael O’Neil after five games with the club 21st in the league.
Now with one of the Football League’s best in Alex Neil, the Potters look to be on the up. But topping last season’s victors will take some doing…
2021/22: Chris Hughton (Nottingham Forest)
Replaced by: Steve Cooper
Games into the season: Seven (24th in the table)
Final league position: 4th (promotion via play-offs)
After previously doing an impressive if dull job at Brighton, Hughton was tasked with guiding Forest to promotion last season.
But a run of one draw and six losses – their worst start to a campaign since 1913 – led to his dismissal on September 16.
Ex-Swansea City boss Steve Cooper was the man trusted to replace Hughton. Given their start, Forest fans would have snapped your hand off if they were offered a mid-table finish.
But what the club achieved under Cooper was beyond their wildest dreams. They went on a run of losing just six games in 39 in the league under the respected coach.
This form left them comfortably in the play-offs, and they even came close to automatic promotion.
That disappointment was amended at Wembley as Forest beat Huddersfield Town in the play-off final to return to the Premier League for the first time since 1999.
The newly-promoted side are doing all they can to stay in the top flight, signing 23 players in the process. But one win in six is not the best of starts.
Nottingham Forest find that signing a whole new team is a gamble after all
2020/21: Sabri Lamouchi (Nottingham Forest)
Replaced by: Chris Hughton
Games into the season: Four (22nd in the table)
Final league position: 17th
Forest have gone through managers like a knife through butter.
Lamouchi fell foul of the club’s ruthless regime at the start of the 2020/21 season; ill feeling had remained at Forest after they narrowly missed out on the play-offs the year before.
Four straight losses at the start of a new campaign are not going to be treated lightly, and as a result, Lamouchi lost his job.
Hughton’s story at Forest did not end too well, but he did a relatively good job in 2020/21. He was able to stabilise Forest by making them solid defensively en route to finishing 17th.
That season could well have been a disastrous one for the club;…
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