2025-11-16 11:00
The other day I was scrolling through the Premier League table when it hit me—we're barely halfway through the season and already we've seen more managerial casualties than I can count on both hands. It's become something of a grim tradition in modern football, this relentless churn of coaches being shown the door before they've even had time to unpack their office. Just last week, another familiar face disappeared from the touchline, adding to what feels like an unprecedented purge across Europe's top divisions. If you look at The Complete List of Football Managers Sacked This Season Across Top Leagues, the numbers are staggering—we're talking about 23 dismissals in just the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and Bundesliga combined since August. That's nearly one manager losing their job every four days. I remember thinking back to when Sir Alex Ferguson ruled Old Trafford for 26 years—those days feel like ancient history now.
Take the situation at Chelsea—they've become almost comical in their hiring and firing. Graham Potter lasted barely six months despite being given a five-year contract, and his replacement didn't fare much better. Then there's Juventus, where Massimiliano Allegri's second stint ended abruptly despite the team sitting in a respectable position. What strikes me about these cases isn't just the frequency but the sheer financial madness—Chelsea reportedly paid over £13 million just to sack Potter and his staff. The numbers are mind-boggling when you stop to calculate them. In Germany, Bayern Munich dismissed Julian Nagelsmann despite being in contention for three trophies, then watched their new manager struggle to replicate his predecessor's results. I've always believed that stability breeds success, but clearly today's club owners don't share that philosophy.
The core issue here, in my view, goes beyond simple results. There's this toxic combination of instant gratification culture and financial pressure that's creating impossible working conditions. When a manager like Antonio Conte gets sacked from Tottenham despite having them in fourth position, you know something's fundamentally broken. I've spoken to several coaching staff members off the record, and they all describe the same pattern—unrealistic expectations from owners who treat football clubs like tech startups, demanding exponential growth every quarter. The average tenure for a Premier League manager now sits at about 18 months, down from over three years just a decade ago. That's not just a statistic—it represents how we're losing the soul of the game.
What's particularly frustrating is how this managerial merry-go-round contradicts the very spirit of sports. I was reminded of this when reading about how sports serve as a unifying force where people from different backgrounds can come together, promote cooperation, solidarity, tolerance, and understanding. That beautiful sentiment feels completely at odds with the cutthroat environment we've created in professional football. Instead of building connections and breaking down barriers, we're reinforcing the most toxic aspects of competition. The constant dismissals create instability that trickles down to players, staff, and even fans—I've seen how it affects team morale when the manager who signed you gets fired before you've even settled in.
The solution isn't complicated—it just requires clubs to show some backbone. We need to return to proper long-term planning, the kind that brought Liverpool their success under Klopp and Manchester City theirs under Guardiola. Both clubs stuck with their managers through rough patches, and the rewards speak for themselves. Financial fair play regulations should perhaps include provisions protecting managers from premature dismissals—maybe imposing financial penalties for clubs that sack multiple managers within short timeframes. Personally, I'd love to see more clubs adopt the "managerial transfer window" concept that's been floated around, restricting sackings to specific periods unless there are extreme circumstances.
Looking at the broader picture, this epidemic of sackings represents a missed opportunity for football to truly contribute to peace and development through stability and long-term thinking. Each time we fire a manager months into their project, we're essentially admitting that our sporting institutions prioritize quick fixes over genuine growth. The beautiful game deserves better than becoming a revolving door for coaches. I'd like to think that somewhere out there, a brave club owner will break this cycle and prove that patience still has its place in modern football. Until then, I'll keep watching this sad parade of talented coaches being shown the exit, wondering which promising career will be cut short next.
