It’s that time of the footballing year where many clubs who have possibly started the season poorly could be looking at a replacement in the manager department.
We spoke to football writers from across the UK to get their thoughts on who could be the first manager to leave their post this season and following his sack from Manchester United, was Erik ten Hag predicted to be the first to go?
We spoke to football writers from across the UK to get their thoughts on who could be the first manager to leave their post this season and following his sack from Manchester United, was Erik ten Hag predicted to be the first to go?
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00:00In typical newsworthy fashion, these chats were recorded before Eric Ten Hag's time at Manchester United came to an end, but was he on the journalist's shortlist to go before the statement was released?
00:15Usually in a Premier League season, the first manager gets the sack. Who do you feel like that could be at this stage of the season?
00:25It's a difficult one. You never want to say he deserves a sack, a manager deserves to go, but there are some things that come out and say the red card didn't help and someone didn't pick up the man for the winning goal, but ultimately the buck stops with the manager.
00:42One point from eight games, conceding 18 goals in that time, only Wolves have conceded more. It's not bowling well. Gary O'Neill is under pressure after taking one point.
00:57I've said it before with Eric Ten Hag, if he doesn't deliver at Manchester United, you would think that in EOS, given the amount of people brought to the club and their expertise, they'll be looking at this and thinking, we can't afford to be out of the Champions League again.
01:14We have ambitions to do X and Y just for the money that comes with it. Eight games in, it's early days, but clubs are soon going to start looking at changing. I think you have Russell Martin, Southampton and Eric Ten Hag at it too.
01:31There are a few names, I think, that will be buzzing around people's heads. Eric Ten Hag, the big profile while at Man Utd, they're really underperforming, but that win against Brentford's probably going to gain him a little bit of time. Gary O'Neill at Wolves, of course, only one point in the opening eight games, but the fixtures have been really tough and the board are still backing him, is the understanding there.
01:49But with Southampton, yes, you're probably the weakest team going up and it's expected that you're going to struggle, but the way that they have been struggling to lose a 2-0 lead against Leicester City, a fellow newly promoted team, and lose that game 3-2. Poor game management, the tactics from Russell Martin have been a bit too one-dimensional perhaps, so I think Martin might be the first one to go.
02:11He probably will get another few weeks to see if he can turn things around, but it has been a very tough start. You wouldn't really want to be in his position, it's such a difficult one to come up to the Premier League with a squad that's not quite good enough, but they're not even really getting close to results, so I think he will get the sack fairly soon.
02:28Two who stand out are Russell Martin at Southampton. They've looked really ineffective, certainly defensively, so far in these early few weeks. I think they've really not adapted to life in the Premier League and I think sometimes look a bit naive with their set-up. Ultimately, when it comes down to it, O'Neill, it's a results game and simply they haven't got enough wins on the board at this early stage of the season.
02:50I think if we get to the stage where we get to the November international break and they're still really struggling, he could well be the first manager to go as well. So they're the two who could possibly stand out at this stage of the season.