Of the teams in the bottom half of the Premier League who weren’t promoted last season, only Southampton and Bournemouth have kept the same manager that they started this campaign with. Mauricio Pellegrino and Eddie Howe are the last two men standing, while Ronald Koeman, Paul Clement, Slaven Bilic, Frank de Boer, Mark Hughes and Tony Pulis have all been relieved of their duties over the course of this season.
Ironically, Tony Pulis is one manager who’s been labelled as a firefighter. A man whose track record of having never been relegated is revered by his peers. However, with West Bromwich Albion rooted to the bottom of the table and in such poor form while he was in charge, it’s clear to see that it was a blessing in disguise for him when he left.
Sam Allardyce
Allardyce was something of a panic appointment after a disastrous start to the season and some odd investment in the summer. Supporters were promised some form of “Hollywood football” when Farhad Moshiri took over and Allardyce is the complete opposite of that. The fans haven’t taken to him and even though he was given an 18-month contract, it looks likely that the union between the two won’t last that long and there could be someone else in by the start of next season. He’s fortunate that he got an initial bounce out of the players as they’ve been very poor recently.
However, unlike some of the other teams in the bottom half, the club aren’t in turmoil behind the scenes. Everton’s problem is an imbalanced squad which is lacking in confidence rather than anything else.
David Moyes
Even under Slaven Bilic, West Ham blew hot and cold. They could pull out a performance when they wanted to, but they could also be terrible on their day. In that sense not much has changed under Moyes, but there was an initial bounce back when he joined. However, they’ve recently been blowing cold again and have lost three of their last four games, including two pathetic performances against Liverpool and Swansea.
Moyes has the supporters onside, but the London Stadium and West Ham isn’t a happy place to be at the moment. There’s still resentment over the stadium move two years ago and there are also protests against the board, including some confrontation between the owners and fans on Saturday.
Alan Pardew
It was a big decision by the West Brom board to ditch Pulis, who fulfils a specific remit of keeping teams safe from relegation. Fans had grown frustrated with the style of play and results weren’t coming either, so the relationship eventually grew weary. However, his management and ability to organise a defence kept the Baggies safe for a number of years.
Alan Pardew’s style is very different to Pulis and he focuses more on attack than defence, which isn’t what you need when you’re in a relegation battle. His track record at clubs has been poor, with the exception of one season at Newcastle, and it’s astonishing that he even got this job. He’s had no effect on results and when he does leave the club, it’ll be very surprising if he gets another top flight role. However, there are clearly some deep rooted problems at the club. Having four senior players, including the club captain, commandeer a taxi in Barcelona isn’t good. Pardew also put a lot of faith in Daniel Sturridge, whose injury record has once again let him down.
Are their techniques working?
David Moyes, Sam Allardyce and Alan Pardew are all experienced managers, but the most successful periods of their careers came over a decade ago. Moyes’ most successful period was at Everton where he guided them to a fourth-place finish, while Allardyce’s Bolton side played some thrilling football. Pardew’s career has been mixed, but even his fifth-place finish with Newcastle was six years ago.
A lot has happened in that time and perhaps their management techniques might not work as well as they did a decade ago, as the Premier League has become more multi-cultural and players’ upbringings are now very different. The demands have changed for these managers and they may not be having the effect that they once had on new teams.
For both Allardyce and Pardew, there’s a vicious circle. Allardyce is bought in to do a very specific job and his brief is to save teams from relegation. Once he’s achieved this, there’s not much left. Aside from his time at Bolton, his football isn’t entertaining, and fans end up bored and angry. He then leaves a club and the circle repeats itself.
Pardew is similar, but West Brom is the exception. Usually when he takes charge of a new side, they see an instant upturn in fortunes and it continues for a while. However, at some point like at Newcastle and Crystal Palace, these fortunes change, and they descend into a deep spiral where his teams don’t look anything like winning. Unfortunately for Baggies fans, he’s skipped that part of the cycle at The Hawthorns and they just don’t look like winning.
Is there a changing of the guard taking place?
This is a tough question to answer as the sample size is limited. However, Carlos Carvalhal has turned Swansea’s fortunes on their head this season. Their squad is very limited and they sold their best player last summer, but they’re now sitting in 13th place in the table, with four wins in their last six, including a 4-1 victory over West Ham in their last game.
Last year, Marco Silva almost succeeded in keeping Hull in the Premier League. His side ultimately failed as they lost 4-0 to Allardyce’s Crystal Palace side, but it showed that there are other managers capable of keeping what many would consider lost causes in the Premier League.