First PL Manager to be Sacked Odds 2021/22

Watford’s Xisco Munoz is the bookies favourite to be the first manager to be sacked in the upcoming 2021/22 Premier League season.

This comes as no surprise as the Hornets have gone through 16 different managers in the last 10 years, as well as having had four different coaches at the helm in their last season in the top-flight, firstly starting with Javi Gracia, before re-appointing Quique Sanchez Flores who was then replaced with Nigel Pearson who did a tremendous job to give the club a chance of survival but was sacked with three games remaining for current Colchester United manager Hayden Mullins.

Munoz is fairly new to management having only started his managerial career back in August 2020, where he took over Georgian side Dinamo Tbilisi, winning eight of his 11 matches with them, before taking over the Hornets in December last year where oversaw his side finishing as runners-up in the Championship, having won 18 out of 27 games that he managed.

The Spaniard will be aware that the Hornets are trigger happy when it comes to firing managers, as the likes of Gracia was sacked on 7th September 2019, less than a month into the 2018/19 campaign. If Munoz gets off to a bad start then he will know that his future could have a similar fate.

Next up is recently appointed Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira who has recently taken over the reins at the Eagles following Roy Hodgson’s departure upon the expiry of his contract at Selhurst Park.

The 45-year-old Frenchman has had an indifferent start to life in management, due to being sacked by Nice in December last year following a run of five losses in a row in all competitions, which included being knocked out of the Europa League in the Group Stages with his side finishing on just three points, with Israeli outfit Hapoel Be’er Sheva finishing on twice as many points in third place.

Prior to Hodgson taking over his boyhood club in Palace, the Eagles had a bad managerial record, with 14 different managers taking charge since Neil Warnock left the club in 2010, which also includes Frank De Boer’s five-game stint in charge at the club before the former Liverpool and Inter Milan man took over.

Something that may hinder Vieira in his time at Palace is the squad overhaul which the Eagles are undergoing, having released more than 10 first team players, replacing them with players who are inexperienced at this level in Michael Olise from Reading, Marc Guehi and Conor Gallagher of Chelsea and Joachim Andersen who spent last year on loan at Fulham.

Steve Bruce is the third favourite to be the first Premier League manager to be sacked in the upcoming 2021/22 season following a turbulent couple of years at the helm of Newcastle United. Initially, Bruce’s odds were at 7/1, but, following rumours that the former Birmingham City manager is set to be given a new two-year deal, his odds have since taken a slight rise.

The former Manchester United defender was seen as a controversial choice from the moment he arrived at St James’ Park in place of Rafael Benitez at the end of the 2018/19 season, as fans of the Magpies weren’t impressed in the drop of calibre between the two managers CVs or the fact that Bruce used to manage their fierce rivals Sunderland between 2009 and 2011.

Bruce is somewhat of a veteran in terms of managerial experience, as since his days at Birmingham between the years of 2001 and 2007, the 60-year-old has managed six different sides since he left St Andrew’s, with his four-year spell at Hull City from June 2012 until July 2016 being his second-longest in club management, overseeing 201 matches. As it stands, Bruce has managed 11 different clubs since beginning his managerial career in July 1998.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will be coming into this season under a lot of pressure to perform following a very poor season for the Gunners in the 2020/21 season, which saw them finish in eighth place with no trophies or signs of progression. As a consequence, this is the first season since the 1995/96 campaign that Arsenal will not be playing in a European competition.

Arteta will feel that it is a matter of now or never to prove himself fit for the role of Arsenal manager and will be keen for the Gunners not to have a poor run of results like that they had between 28th September and Christmas Day last year, where the Gunners won just two of 12 league matches, leaving them in 15th place on 25th December, just four points above 18th placed Fulham, otherwise the former Everton man knows that he will likely lose his job if the club are in risk of failing to qualify for Europe in back to back seasons.

Realistically, a strong top-six finish would be progression for Arsenal at this moment in time as it would essentially give them a second pathway into the Champions League, although they will be desperate to return to Europe’s top footballing competition for the first time since the 2016/17 season as it would help to accelerate their progress.

New Everton manager Benitez also features in this list at 12/1 following his arrival at Goodison Park receiving mixed receptions due to his ties with city neighbours Liverpool.

The Spaniard has a decent record in England, having won the Champions League at Liverpool in 2005, the Europa League with Chelsea in 2013, as well as steadying the ship at Newcastle between March 2016 and July 2019, although he did actually get relegated with the Magpies, but this was largely put down to how late he took over the Geordie club.

Everton are the Spaniards 14th different club since 1995, and he will have to make a good start with the Toffees, otherwise, he’ll likely face the raff of all of the Everton fans who were uncertain about the 61-year-old’s arrival. Benitez will be wary of their pre-season form which saw them easily beaten 4-0 at Old Trafford earlier this month and with very little money spent on the squad this summer, this could be a season of frustration for the Spaniard.

The Toffees will have had nine managers as both interim and permanent since David Moyes departure from Goodison Park to Manchester United at the end of the 2012/13 season, with Ronald Koeman being the earliest sacking out of all of them on 23rd October 2017. Benitez will be keen to avoid similar fate and knows that a bad start to life at Everton would only further strain his already rocky relationship with the club’s fans.

The last manager on this list is United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Opinions on the former Molde manager have often divided opinions of fans on social media since returning to Old Trafford as a manager back in December 2018, following the sacking of Jose Mourinho, but he did manage their highest league finish since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013.

If omens and history are anything to go by, the last time United finished second, Mourinho was sacked the following Christmas, but what has frustrated the fanbase of the Red Devils so much is the lack of trophies with many citing this down to Solskjaer’s lack of experience at managing at an elite European level. The Old Trafford club have not won a trophy since they won the Europa League back in the 2016/17 season, following last May’s shock loss to a stubborn Villarreal side in Gdansk and a series of semi-finals defeats in the FA Cup to Chelsea in 2020, as well as back-to-back losses to City in the League Cup.

United are seemingly running out of excuses to become challengers for the Premier League title for the first time since 2013, and considering the fact that they have backed the former Cardiff manager once again with the signings of Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho from Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, they are expected to compete with City.

If United fall short of the task in hand with Ole at the wheel and have a poor start, then the Norwegian could lose his job, as the Red Devils will have ultimately not got close to a challenge for the Premier League title for nine years straight.