Premier League managerial exits as Rodgers and Potter make it 13 for season

Apr 2, 2023 3 min read
Premier League managerial exits as Rodgers and Potter make it 13 for season

Leicester sacked Brendan Rodgers on Sunday afternoon and Chelsea dismissed head coach Graham Potter in the evening, extending the record for in-season Premier League managerial changes to a record high of 13.

Antonio Conte’s exit from Tottenham last week surpassed the previous Premier League record of 10.

Rodgers left the Foxes in the wake of Saturday’s last-gasp defeat at Crystal Palace, while Potter departed Blues following a home loss to Aston Villa.

Here, Football Mad looks at this season’s departures and how the tally compares to past campaigns.

Timeline of trouble

PA graphic
PA graphic

August

Scott Parker took Bournemouth to promotion last season but did not even see out their first month back in the Premier League after a 9-0 defeat to Liverpool.

September

Graham Potter in Chelsea training
Graham Potter left Brighton to take the newly-created Chelsea vacancy (Adam Davy/PA)

A shock Champions League defeat to Dinamo Zagreb prompted Chelsea to dismiss Thomas Tuchel. Brighton boss Graham Potter was lured to replace him.

October

Wolves moved on from Bruno Lage early in the month, before Steven Gerrard was dismissed by Aston Villa.

November

Southampton’s struggles saw Ralph Hasenhuttl sacked and replaced by Nathan Jones.

January

Everton’s ongoing relegation fears cost Frank Lampard his role at Goodison Park.

February

Nathan Jones
Nathan Jones lasted only three months at Southampton (Kieran Cleeves/PA)

Leeds ended Jesse Marsch‘s unhappy spell in charge before, a week later, Jones became the second Saints casualty of the season after just three months in charge.

March

Crystal Palace sacked Patrick Vieira after a 12-match winless run before Conte‘s increasingly fractious relationship with Spurs came to an end.

April

Rodgers was dismissed after the Foxes dropped into the bottom three following Saturday’s last-gasp defeat at Crystal Palace, which extended their winless run to six games.

Potter departed following Blues’ 2-0 loss at home to Villa, which saw them slip into the bottom half of the table.

Sacking season

PA graphic
PA graphic

Prior to this season, the record number of departures was 10 – set on three previous occasions in the Premier League era.

The 2013-14 campaign was the first to hit double figures, with Fulham contributing two to that total as first Martin Jol and then Rene Meulensteen were shown the door. West Brom and Tottenham’s in-season appointments, Pepe Mel and Tim Sherwood respectively, lasted only until the end of the season and Spurs then lured Mauricio Pochettino from Southampton, taking the season’s final total to 13.

There were a record 15 in total in 2017-18, with again 10 coming during the season including two each from Southampton (Claude Puel and Mauricio Pellegrino) and West Brom (Tony Pulis and Alan Pardew). West Ham, Everton, Stoke and Swansea each made a second change when the season concluded, while Arsene Wenger resigned from his long reign at Arsenal.

Last season was the other to see 10 managers jettisoned during the campaign, including Xisco Munoz and Claudio Ranieri being flung off the ever-erratic Watford roundabout. An 11th departure came at the end of the season as Manchester United’s interim boss Ralf Rangnick, appointed in November to succeed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, left Old Trafford.

There have been three separate instances of nine in-season departures, in 1994-95 – when there were still 22 clubs in the Premier League – 2004-05 and 2008-09.

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