In the NFL, they call it ’Black Monday’. It’s the day after the last league season game when all the failing Head Coaches and bad-drafting General Managers get the boot.
That day this year was two days ago and despite a modern trend to start firing coaches mid-season, there was still plenty of Lord Sugar style ‘You’re Fired’ messages around the league.
After last night’s results, today could be Wednesday Bloody Wednesday in the Premier League, as several managers must surely now be close to the end and seeing the Chairman saying ‘You’re Fired’ to them.
1) Roy Hodgson (Liverpool)
Whatever any Scouser tries to tell you, the famous Anfield club are in a relegation dogfight now. They are only 5 points off the bottom and we are over the halfway point. If anything, with Blackburn being the laughing stock of the League right now, that result could be worse than the Wolves one. I have always rated ‘Woy’ as a manager, I still do. However, the guy seems completely overwhelmed by being in charge of a club with Liverpool’s tradition and history, which is amazing considering we are talking about a former Inter Milan boss. As a result, the players see him as out of his depth and don’t respect him, sometimes it is a case of a good manager and a good club not being suited to one another. This is the situation here. However, in Baseball, the do still not fire managers until the end of the season, with the Red Sox guys in charge, which could be the case here.
2) Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea)
This is the worst run that Chelsea have ever had since it became ‘Chelski’ and surely Mr Abramovich will send the Italian packing for home. It is not really his fault though, there is no question of the influence that the Russian has put on every manager at Stamford Bridge and with the coaching staff changes in recent weeks, it is more evident than ever. On top of that, Ancelotti has walked in at a time when Roman has decided, like he always said he wanted to, the time has come for the club to be self-sufficient and dried the money up. Chelsea are not in a position to do that and challange, Kakuta and McEachran are good young players, but hardly the type of impact subs to win titles.
3) Avram Grant (West Ham)
To be fair to Avram, he has improved the side’s results after the ‘three-game ultimatum’ and they are playing in the Carling Cup semi-Final next week. The Premier League rules all though and after last night’s completely shambolic performance against Newcastle, they find themselves embarrassed and back at rock-bottom. The timing of the Semi-Final might save him, but last night’s shambles might make them pull the trigger to stop an embarrassing score over the two legs.
4) Gerard Houllier (Aston Villa)
Yes, they have had more injuries than the local infirmary and yes, they got a point at Chelsea (although Wolves proved that isn’t hard at the minute), but they are dropping like a stone. They never looked like getting into the game last night and having just had Eric Mangini fired as coach of the Cleveland Browns, Randy Lerner may well be in the mood for some more firing.
About the Author
