’Sacking’ Premier League managers worked well, claims study

A new study has shown that axing managers who aren't performing well can be a positive step for a football club

'Sacking' Premier League managers worked well, claims study

A new study has shown that axing managers who aren't performing well can be a positive step for a football club.Developers of the Football Manager series, Sports Interactive conducted this study to mark the launch of their new iOS release Football Manager Handheld 2012.

The study explains that most of the teams who sacked their managers last year performed better in the remaining part of season.

Liverpool who feared relegation during the tenure of Roy Hodgson performed really well after their club legend, Kenny Dalglish took over them in January. They earned half a point extra per game under Dalglish as compared to Hodgson's regime.

Whereas West Brom also witnessed similar fortunes under Hodgson last year after he immediately replaced Roberto Di Matteo at the Hawthorns, The Sun reports.

Even Newcastle who sacked manager Chris Hughton last year did marginally better under the new boss, Alan Pardew.

Every team who axed their managers last year did better in the remaining part of the season except Blackburn Rovers who performed better under sacked coach, Sam Alladyce than under the new manager, Steve Kean.

Blackburn won 1.05 points per game under Kean when compared to 1.22 in the 16 games Allardyce was in charge for Rovers.

Kean is at risk of losing his job as Blackburn is lying at the bottom of the league table.

"The possibility of an extra 4.7 points a season is a tempting carrot for any board but the ramifications of a managerial blood bath are far greater to football as a whole," said Miles Jacobson, Football Manager 2012 Studio Director.

"With so many sackings on the cards, is it time to either have a manager transfer window or copy the Italian system where managers can only work at one club per season," he added.

In the last seven seasons up to 2009-10, at least one club has battled out of the New Year bottom three to survive and in all of these cases barring one the manager had been changed at some point in the season.