Six Premier League clubs will be under new management next season, but are Andoni Iraola, Xabi Alonso or Enzo Maresca likely to be sacked?
From title contenders to newly-promoted teams, new managers will be eagerly anticipating their first games with their new employers, but that hopefulness can quickly turn as the Premier League’s past attests.
Here’s our verdict of which of the new managers are most likely to be getting an early P45:
6. Andoni Iraola – Liverpool
After fans lost their patience with Arne Slot, there is optimism about what Iraola can bring to Liverpool.
An easy win for the Basque manager would be to get the Reds playing attacking football for too many games were stale affairs under Slot. Getting the best out of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Liverpool’s other expensive signings of last summer would also be welcome.
As for what the board expects, the ambition is always to challenge for the title but failure to do that would not necessarily be the nail in Iraola’s coffin.
It seems unlikely the Liverpool board will sack him this season, barring a complete collapse.
5. Marco Rose – Bournemouth
Like Brighton, the Bournemouth manager role is one piece of a very large puzzle and so new head coach Rose will have been scouted under the belief he can fulfil it.
Stylistically, he is similar to his predecessor and so Bournemouth will be confident he can pick up where Iraola left off. But like the Spaniard, Rose has also lost key personnel at the back with Marcos Senesi out the door. Up front, Eli Junior Kroupi is being linked with a move away too.
In terms of expectations, Bournemouth will want to at least see a continuation of Iraola’s work, even if Rose is not able to match their sixth-place finish of – last season.
4. Enzo Maresca – Manchester City
For the first time in over a decade, Manchester City are entering a new season without Pep Guardiola at the helm and even if Maresca is a disciple, it is hard to understate the impact of losing such a central figure.
The club revolved around Guardiola and even with another manager carefully selected, there is no way of really knowing how he will do before a ball is kicked.
Unlike Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, Guardiola has left behind a talented squad that needs few improvements for a title bid but the question is, can Maresca get the best out of them?
On paper, he should be able to. He was able to win trophies with a far less talented squad at Chelsea – even if it was only the Club World Cup and Conference League – and is an evolution of Guardiola’s style rather than a revolution. Players also seem to warm to him with a number of key Chelsea assets voicing their displeasure at his departure.
City will likely be patient with their new man but two seasons without the title feels a long time for the former serial winners. A third may not be tolerated.
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3. Xabi Alonso – Chelsea
Every indication is that BlueCo have learnt their lesson when it comes to Chelsea and yet, there is still that doubt.
Alonso’s appointment as manager rather than head coach seemed a telling move, a recognition of mistakes made, but is any Chelsea fan confident enough to state that Alonso won’t be sacked if BlueCo don’t like early results?
As for Alonso, the challenges he faces are a youthful squad with little experience and a number of his key players pining for moves elsewhere. Marc Cucurella has already gone, Enzo Fernandez may go too. Cole Palmer has not looked the same for over a year.
If Alonso has been promised signings of already top-quality players, he should be able to get them competing at the top end of the table and, as it was for United last year, no European football will be a blessing.
But still there are doubts. Not over Alonso but BlueCo. Say Alonso has the team in fifth at Christmas, will BlueCo get an itchy trigger finger? You would not put it past them even if the rest of the footballing world would see it as a mistake.
2. Pierre Sage – Crystal Palace
Oliver Glasner has set a particularly high bar considering what he achieved at Crystal Palace and Sage arrives with no experience in the division.
He is, however, very highly rated. His achievements at Lens include their first-ever Coupe de France title and he arrives at Selhurst Park with a lot of optimism. But many a manager with plenty of potential has failed in England. Some at Palace.
The tasks ahead of him are to keep the bulk of his squad with both Jean-Philippe Mateta and Chris Richards heading into the final year of their deals. Palace also have European football once again, this time in the Europa League, which makes league football a harder task.
1. Gary O’Neil – Ipswich Town
If the previous manager was still in charge, the chance of him being sacked would have been very low, but Kieran McKenna’s departure from Ipswich has brought a new era for the Suffolk club.
Gary O’Neil is the man chosen by the Ipswich hierarchy for the club’s second attempt at staying in the division but it is not too hard to imagine a world in which he is sacked before the season is out.
Ipswich do not tend to sack managers, O’Neil is only the 20th in their history, but patience for a hopeless season ran out after their year back in the Premier League.
The task is also significant for O’Neil. The Ipswich squad will need a lot of investment over the summer and he does not have that same familiarity with the existing cohort as his predecessor.
He does at least have form for keeping teams up at both Bournemouth and Wolves – but it went particularly wrong at the latter and this is still a daunting task.
A slow start and Ipswich may consider an early change.
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