A quarter of our Premier League managers have now been sacked since the start of the season which is crazy.
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Two of them lost their jobs at the weekend and I wonder if their chairman have not acted a bit too hastily?
Tottenham’s Andre Villas-Boas was dismissed after the 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool whereas Steve Clarke departed West Brom following their 1-0 reverse at Cardiff.
The AVB sacking does seem a little strange. The guy is handed £100 million to spend on seven new players and is then given five months to make them gel as a team.
Spurs are only five points off a top four spot and have qualified for the knock-out stages of the Europa League with a 100 per cent record.
Daniel Levy, the chairman, obviously wanted results a little bit quicker than he was seeing.
The 6-0 battering at Manchester City didn’t help AVB’s cause and that heavy defeat to Liverpool, a team considered to be one of their promotion rivals, was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
That Liverpool performance was embarrassing for Spurs. At two-nil down I was expecting to see a little more fight from their players but I didn’t see it.
At that point I thought “Do these players really want to play for their manager?” and I didn’t see a great deal of passion from them to get back into the game.
All the noises I’m hearing say that Tim Sherwood has every chance of landing the Spurs job if the team performs well in the next two or three games.
Well, losing to West Ham in the Capital One Cup is not the best way to start a job application.
It’s a big call by Tottenham but he’s been at the club for a while and obviously knows the workings behind the scenes and, by all accounts, has a good relationship with Levy.
Personally, it would be nice to see an English manager take charge of one of the Premier League big clubs as we don’t see that too often these days.
Former England manager Glenn Hoddle is another name that has been mentioned and I understand he has expressed an interest to return to White Hart Lane.
We didn’t exactly see eye to eye a few years ago when I was at Southampton. He left me out of England’s 1998 World Cup squad without a call or anything.
And, yet, I’ve got to say football is worse off without having him involved.
His knowledge of the game is very good and is a very astute coach, technically.
But Glenn’s already had one shot of managing Spurs and I doubt they will go back in for him if I’m being honest.
Steve Clarke’s sacking was a bit harsh after he finished eighth in the Premier League last term in his first season as a number one.
He did an exceptional job and I thought it would have brought him a bit more time than five months into the season.
The board obviously looked at the table after four successive defeats and started to panic as they obviously do.
Managers are not given enough time which is why five of them have already lost their jobs in the top flight since the start of the campaign.
What sums it up for me is that I read that Mauricio Pochettino, who has only been in charge at Southampton for 11 months, is now the seventh longest serving manager in the Premier League.
That’s incredible – it makes a mockery of the sport really.
Unfortunately the game is all about money; surviving in the Premier League and qualifying for the Champions League.
Chairmen can’t see any farther than their nose and just panic at the first sight that they might be a few quid short of their budget at the end of the year.
*Play Matt’s goal-prediction game for free now by logging on to www.goaldengoals.co.uk and win £200 in January.
This photograph was provided by Goalden Goals.
