Top-10 Shortest Managerial Reigns
Top 10 Shortest serving football manager
Top Shortest managerial reigns in football? Which managers lost their job in quickest time? With the football season coming to an end, it’s known as ‘silly season’ due to all the transfer rumours, but it’s also the popular time for clubs to sack their managers if they haven’t done a good enough job.
Carlo Ancelotti has been sacked by Real Madrid, Sam Allardyce has gone from West Ham United, Steve McClaren has left Derby County and Rafael Benitez is expected to leave Napoli after they complete their season.
Top 10 shortest managerial reigns in football
So there are several managerial changes already, but which manages are remembered for their short stints in charge? Here are the top-10 shortest managerial reigns.
T9. Terry Connor – Wolverhampton Wanderers – 13 Premier League games
Kick starting the Top 10 Shortest Serving Premier League Managers is current assistant manager of Championship side Ipswich Town, Terry Connor.
The Englishman makes the list when he took charge of Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2012 until the end of the season after the club sacked manager Mick McCarthy close to the end of the season.
Terry took charge of 18th placed Wolves in the Premier League with hopes of getting the relegation-threatened club back on track with only a few games left. His first game in charge ended in a 2-2 draw against Newcastle on 25 February.
He then lost the next seven games in a row which saw Wolves relegated to the Championship. He lost 9 games in total and drew 4 times, failing to win a single game in charge. His last game ended in a 2-0 loss to Manchester United, which was his 13th and last game as manager for Wolves.
T9. Rene Meulensteen – Fulham – 13 Premier League games
In joint ninth is Rene Meulensteen.
He was hired as the new boss of Fulham, taking over from Martin Jol, who was sacked after five consecutive defeats in the Premier League.
Meulensteen’s first game in charge ended in a 2-1 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur on 4th December, but Fulham and Meulensteen did win their first game just four days later on 8th December, when they beat Aston Villa 2-0 thanks to goals from Steve Sidwell and Dimitar Berbatov.
On Valentines day, Fulham hired Felix Magath to replace Meulensteen as manager after he took charge of just 13 games.
T5. Paolo Di Canio – Sunderland – 12 Premier League games
One of the most dramatic and funniest managers ever to manage a Premier League team.
Paolo Di Canio took charge of Sunderland football club with only few games left till the conclusion of the the season and put pen to payer on a two-and-a-half year contract.
After taking charge Sunderland they managed to win two games and draw two which helped them stay up in the Premier League with a 17th places finish.
Di Canio started the new season 13/14 as Sunderland manager and took only one point from five games.
The Italian’s transfer decisions were bizarre as well as he sold some of the more experienced players at the club before bringing in 14 new signings.
After these successive poor results, Sunderland fired the Italian manager with immediate effect.
T5. Iain Dowie – Charlton Athletic – 12 Premier League games
Iain Dowie took charge of Charlton Athletic at the start of the season in 2006.
Dowie was given enough funds to buy players and brought in Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Scott Carson on loan that year, but unfortunately he was unable to stop the disastrous start to the Premier League season.
Despite guiding the team to the quarter finals of the League Cup, he was unable to lift his team out of the relegation zone which put the final nail in his coffin at The Valley.
After only 12 Premier League games in charge of Charlton, Dowie parted companies with the club in November.
T5. Chris Hutchings, Bradford City, 12 Premier League games
Chris Hutchings is also joint 5th on the Top 10 Shortest Serving Premier League Managers with only 12 Premier League games managed for Bradford City.
Hutchings took charge of Bradford during the 2000/2001 season after the then manager Jewell moved to Sheffield Wednesday.
He managed to take Bradford to the Semi-Finals of the Intertoto cup and also won his first home game as manager against Chelsea.
However, he only lasted 12 Premier League games before he was sacked on November 6 2000.
T5. Chris Hutchings – Wigan – 12 Premier League games
The same manager makes the list twice.
This time around, seven years he found himself in similar situation as at Bradford, he joined up with Jewell at Wigan as assistant manager in 2001. He spent seven years working under him until in May 2007, he succeeded Jewell for the second time.
Wigan started the season on a high, going top of the Premier League for a little before Hutchings lost six consecutive times and once again was dismissed from his duties after just 12 games.
T3. Jacques Santini – Tottenham Hotspur – 11 Premier League games
In joint 3rd is Jacques Santini.
He parted ways with his club after just 11 Premier League games for Tottenham Football Club after a series of disagreements with the then sporting director at the club.
Technically this manager was not sacked, but decided to resign due to personal issues only after 11 Premier League games.
After resigning he said that ”he dug his own grave ” by agreeing to join the English club before the Euro 2004.
T3. Sammy Lee – Bolton – 11 Premier League games
A manager who started out as an assistant at the club. Sammy Lee joined Bolton in September 2005 as an assistant manager to Sam Allardyce.
Lee was offered a coaching role for the England under 21’s but he turned it down in order to stay with Sam Allardyce at Bolton and was nicknamed ”Small Sam” in contrast to Allardyce who’s known as ”Big Sam” by football fans.
In 2007 Big Sam left Bolton and it was confirmed that Sammy Lee would succeed him at The Reebok Stadium.
As manager of the club, Lee only manages one win in his 11 games in charge before he was sacked.
The Bolton fans responded to the news by giving the man they called Small Sam a huge round of applause for appreciation for the time he spent at the club as a player and as assistant manager.
2. Paul Sturrock – Southampton – 9 games
This time on the list is a Scottish manager.
Paul Sturrock took charge of Southampton in 2004 as a successor of Gordon Strachan. Just after 9 games in charge at Southampton it was understood that Sturrock would be leaving the club ”by mutual consent” after a disappointing run of form since he took charge.
There were rumors that his departure was also because of player unrest and dressing room disagreements.
1. Les Reed – Charlton Athletic – 7 Premier League Games
Finally we are down to the first on the list.
Les Reed started out as a consultant before returning to Charlton Athletic as an assistant to Iain Dowie. On 14th November Dowie was sacked and was replaced by Les Reed. During his short spell at Charlton he only won a single game and got knocked out of the League Cup by a team who were in League Two.
Reeds spell at Charlton became infamous as he was attacked by the media and was given some memorable nicknames, including; ” Les Miserable ” and ” Santa Clueless ”.
He was voted on an unofficial poll online as the worst manager of all time and in December he was replaced by Alan Pardew as he left the club by mutual consent.