Chelsea and Tottenham lead the Premier League managerial sackings list

Mauricio Pochettino returned to the Premier League after four years last summer to take charge of a downtrodden Chelsea side.

The 51-year-old replaced interim boss Frank Lampard following the club’s worst finish in the 21st century.

Chelsea finished 12th in the Premier League last season, with three different managers failing to galvanise an underperforming squad during Todd Boehly’s maiden year at the helm.

Boehly took advantage of Roman Abramovich’s exile to purchase the Stamford Bridge outfit in May 2022 and has since invested north of €1 billion in new signings.

However, his lavish spending went in vain in 2022/23, while the club’s desperate attempt to get back on track resulted in three managerial changes.

Less than two months into the season, Chelsea sacked Champions League-winning manager Thomas Tuchel and appointed Graham Potter as his replacement.

Despite his impressive results at Brighton & Hove Albion, he was relieved of his duties in April 2023, with Lampard returning as a caretaker manager.

Lampard’s dismissal at the end of 2022/23 marked Chelsea’s 14th sacking in 32 seasons in the Premier League era, a habit unseen in the competition’s history.

With three of those discharges coming during Boehly’s tenure, it’s safe to say Pochettino’s position is anything but secure, regardless of the club’s insistence they’re eyeing a long game.

Pressure has cranked up on the Argentine tactician after a disheartening 4-2 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend, which left the Blues in the bottom half of the standings.

But a 3-1 triumph at Aston Villa in a replay of their FA Cup fourth-round tie may have offered the ex-Tottenham Hotspur manager some respite ahead of Chelsea’s trip to Crystal Palace.

Pochettino’s former employers are no strangers to sacking managers. In fact, he was on the receiving end of Daniel Levy’s disappointment when the Spurs chairman fired him in November 2019.

Little did the English businessman know he would have to walk through a series of underwhelming experiences with various managers before finding the right candidate to continue Poch’s work.

In only four years, Tottenham terminated the contracts of six managers including Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte, before hiring Ange Postecoglou last summer.

While his predecessors struggled to live up to expectations in London, the Australian has been nothing short of outstanding at the start of his tenure.

As Spurs remain firmly embroiled in an intense top-four race in the Premier League, Postecoglou will probably survive his first season in England and avoid becoming the 14th Tottenham manager to get sacked.

Postecoglou’s Everton counterpart, Sean Dyche, may not be so lucky, even though he carries the most negligible blame for the Toffees’ dreaded relegation scrap.

Faced with ominous financial turmoil and a procrastinated takeover saga, the Merseysiders reportedly contemplate adding Dyche to a sizeable club of eight sacked managers.

Lampard, who was in charge before the ex-Burnley boss, suffered the same fate a year ago after failing to steer the club away from the drop zone.

Dyche inspired Everton to a top-flight survival during his first season at Goodison Park, beating Southampton, among others, to maintain their 32-year stay at the top table.

The Saints’ frequent managerial shifts failed to pay dividends, with the southern outfit dispatching two permanent coaches in a fateful 2022/23 campaign.

Ruben Selles, who was in the dugout when Southampton officially suffered relegation, left the South Coast in the summer to become the tenth manager to be shown the door at St Mary’s.

They are one of only three Premier League sides to have sacked 10+ managers, along with Chelsea and Tottenham, but it didn’t save them from switching to the second tier.