8 Worst Premier League Manager Sackings From The Past 10 Years

3. Michael Laudrup - Swansea City

It was a tough decision for which way round Laudrup and Mackay should be in the middle of this list, but Laudrup's sacking just edges it. Michael Laudrup replaced Brendan Rogers at Swansea before starting their first ever top-flight season in 2012/13 - the first ever Welsh entry into the English top-flight. It was easy to think that they had no chance before the league had even began; the thought of a new manager taking over a debut top-flight club was not a very positive one. It turned out much differently. Laudrup adopted a very particular style of play that appealed to Swansea completely. The style was pass, pass, pass. Brendan Rogers used simlar tactics while he was at Swansea, but with emphasis on the wings especially. With Laudrup, it was not just the wings that mattered; creating space for the pass was done all over the pitch and it was clear to see how much of a difference it was making. His team's play was instantly eye-catching, refreshing and most importantly, successful. Swansea began their debut Premier League season with a 5-0 win over fellow new guys, QPR. This set the tone for what was to come from Swansea, and after a few weeks they were dubbed the 'Barcelona of Wales' by much of the media for their extremely attractive and elegant play. Laudrup's team continued to flourish throughout the season, and they astonishingly won their first ever silverware, beating Bradford City 5-0 in a memorable league cup final, making the 2012/13 season even more historic for the Welsh club. They continued to defy the odds set before the season, and ended up finishing in an incredible 9th position. However, this season has not been so smooth for Swansea. They started off quite shaky, languishing in the relegation zone for much of the first month of games, but then turned it around to climb the table. Nevertheless, it was the month or two prior to his sacking that ultimately determined his fate, losing 6 from 8 games. The unfairness of it all doesn't just come from the fact that 4 of those teams he lost to were both the Manchester clubs, Chelsea and Tottenham - expected outcomes as they are much better teams, but like so many of the other unfair incidents of manager sackings, the owners were very quick to forget the things Laudrup had just achieved in the previous season with Swansea. They had obviously expected that they would maintain their form into the new season, which, for a club new to the top-flight, is extremely hard. Laudrup proved how successful he could be at Swansea, but their owners cheaply threw his services away just because of a small run of easily recoverable bad form - a very dismissive way of operating a football club.