Who would be a Premier League manager? The hire and fire culture of football coaching is no better illustrated than in England's top flight. Average lengths of time in charge are ever decreasing. Clubs take succour from the hundreds of millions of pounds worth of TV revenue being in the Premier League provides. If that status is threatened chairmen up and down the country are more than prepared to wield the axe. Those in the firing line can be swiftly replaced by foreign coaches, desperate men out of work looking for a way back into the beautiful games and, on occasion, by a promotion from within. We look at five top flight teams and their bosses who are feeling the heat.
5. The Next Crystal Palace Manager
Sitting bottom of the Premier League, whoever takes the Eagles job on following Ian Holloway's exit from Selhurst Park has history against them. Palace have been promoted into the Premier League on four previous occasions and every time they suffered immediate relegation. No pressure then. Welshmen Tony Pulis and Chris Coleman are the favourites to fill this hotseat. Both men bring track records of keeping clubs of a similar standing in the division. Pulis took Stoke City and established them as Premier League mainstays. In the end familiary bred contempt with fans who turned on his bowling shoe ugly brand of football. He may make the Eagles hard to beat defensively, but battling draws will not keep them up. Coleman meanwhile spent several years at Selhurst as a player. Whilst he is presently in charge of the Welsh national side, but his future is uncertain as he has not signed the new contract offered to him to continue this work. Fulham became an established top flight team during Coleman's Craven Cottage tenure.
Jamie Clark is a qualified Web Journalist after undergoing professional training at the University of Sheffield. A prolific and accredited sports writer, he also enjoys classic comedy, historic fiction, 80s music and heritage.
