How many Premier League managers are secure in their job?

It has been a crazy season so far in the Premier League and it shows no sign of getting any less crazy. At this time it looks as though Manchester United will win the league and remain unbeaten by playing badly and that any three of ten teams could find themselves being relegated.

Safe

Amongst the ten teams who currently look safe above them are Blackburn and Newcastle, who have already changed their manager. Also included in those ten teams are Chelsea and Carlo Ancelotti’s grip on his job there seems to be slipping.

How many of those ten teams in danger are likely to take that route as well?

Certain

I would say that David Moyes at Everton, Ian Holloway at Blackpool and probably Mick McCarthy at Wolves are the only three who are certain to stay in charge. Also likely to keep their jobs are Mark Hughes at Fulham, Alex McLeish at Birmingham and Roberto Di Matteo at West Brom.

That leaves four other managers in serious trouble. Avram Grant at West Ham, Roberto Martinez at Wigan, Roy Hodgson at Liverpool and Gerard Houllier at Aston Villa.

Decision

At the time of writing all four of those managers are still in a job but it may well be that by the end of today they aren’t. It is anticipated that Liverpool may make an announcement today. The situation around Roy Hodgson at Liverpool has been discussed more than enough and we will just wait for the owners to make their decision.

Avram Grant was told a few weeks ago, when the Hammers slipped to bottom of the table, that he had to turn things around and games were labelled, ‘save our season’ games. Well now, a few weeks later West Ham are still bottom and they have just been thumped 5-0 by a Newcastle side playing without their main two strikers. He must surely be on borrowed time.

Promising

Roberto Martinez is a promising young manager and he has been given a fair crack of the whip at Wigan. He wants to play the game in the right way and he seems like a decent bloke. The trouble is that I have seen Wigan play a few times and they are truly abysmal. They are second from bottom and looked doomed to another season of struggle. Will the Wigan board continue to show patience and loyalty?

The final manager in trouble is Gerard Houllier. He inherited an Aston Villa side who were amongst the favourites to be challenging for a European place. They were sitting in eighth place in the league with seven points from their five games. It hadn’t been a great start but they had only lost one of their last four games.

Great

In his first game they won 2-1 at Aston Villa and everything looked great as they rose to fifth, just one place higher than they had finished last season under former manager Martin O’Neill.

For reasons difficult to understand, Villa had to wait another six games for another win. Since then, there has been only one win the nine games they have played. Houllier has the terrible record of three wins, five draws and eight defeats from the sixteen games he has been in charge. That terrible run has seen Villa slip into the bottom three for the first time since 2002.

Source

Despite all of that it would seem that for the moment Houllier is safe. The BBC reported yesterday that a senior Villa source had said the club remained “totally behind” their manager.

After their 1-0 defeat at home to Sunderland on Wednesday, the seventh time they have failed to win in eleven home games, Houllier admitted that his side are struggling.

Fight

“We are in a relegation fight now. We’re going through a difficult period but we’ll make it.”

He went on to say that he was sure of backing from his Chief Executive and the club’s owner.

“I spoke to Paul Faulkner and he was very supportive. I don’t doubt Randy Lerner’s firm support and determination. We are in this together, for better or worse.”

Loyalty

It would be nice to see a club show some loyalty to a manager and I hope that Houllier is right. In fact, I hope that all the Premier League managers keep their jobs and we can end this ridiculous managerial merry-go-round that English football has become.

When you look at expectations of football club boards together with results on the pitch, it is possible that Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Harry Redknapp, Steve Bruce, Owen Coyle and Ian Holloway could be the only managers in the entire Premier League who keep their jobs this season. I don’t suppose that will happen and I hope and pray that it doesn’t, but that is how silly things seem to be getting.

Who do you think is safe and who do you think might go?