After less than six months in the job, Owen Coyle left Wigan Athletic by ‘mutual agreement’on Monday as the Championship club struggle to mount a promotion charge back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
Coyle took charge of just 23 games for Wigan since replacing Roberto Martinez in the summer and becomes the seventh manager in the last eight days to lost his job in the English leagues, as owners and chairman display their ruthless streaks.
According to a statement on their website, Wigan said that the agreement to terminate Coyle’s deal was mutual and that both parties felt things weren’t working out. Coyle was particularly disappointed that the FA Cup holders were struggling with life in England’s second-tier after being relegated from the PL last season.
What next for the Latics? Well, they have a strong squad that still has a chance or progressing to the knockout stages of the Europa League, sit six points off the playoffs in the Championship with a game in hand and have a solid financial grounding thanks to Dave Whelan’s shrewd business model.
Coyle wasn’t doing a bad job but it wasn’t that great either. Whoever comes in at Wigan next will likely reap the benefits of a rejuvenated squad ready to prove they can make it back to the PL. Replacing Martinez was always going to be a tough task and Coyle couldn’t live up to the expectations.
Who will the new boss be?
Ian Holloway is the 5/4 favorite to be the next Wigan manager, Sir Alex Ferguson’s former assistant Mike Phelan is at 3/1, former Wigan manager Paul Jewell 10-1, while some interesting names such as Roberto Di Matteo, 14-1, and Paolo Di Canio, 25-1, suggest the race to become the Latics new managers is wide open.
This trend of firing managers has heated up in the last week or so, as seven managers have lost their job in the last eight days.
With the intense festive period coming up and teams eager to give themselves a change of staying up, going up or consolidating, directors across the English Football League are getting trigger happy and have cut the chords with plenty of managers.
Fulham got rid of Martin Jol on Sunday after the Cottagers were hammered 3-0 by West Ham, Sheffield Wednesday fired Dave Jones after a poor run of form in the Championship, David Flitcroft was fired by Championship strugglers Barnsley on Saturday, Sean O’Driscoll left League One Bristol City and Guy Whittingham was fired by League Two Portsmouth.
Most of these clubs have gone through plenty of managers in an extremely short space of time, when will they learn that good results will likely come from continuity? Too often, especially in English soccer, the need to ‘freshen things up’ stunts the growth of teams and throws them backwards as they aim to move forward.
The ruthless and cold world of soccer management is not for the faint-hearted. Job security, especially at this time of year, is at a premium.
So, who is next on the chopping block?