Premier League Managers Beware! Sacking Is Only 5 Bad Results Away

Tis the season to be jolly, unless you're a football manager of course. As we look back on another busy festive period of Premier League football, many managers find themselves staring dangerously down the barrel, wondering if they'll be in their job much longer. There were nine casualties in December alone, with four Premier League managers picking up their P45s in time for Christmas. It's saddening to think that as manager of Manchester United, David Moyes is now the 10th longest serving Premier League manager, given that he was only appointed in May 2013. With that sorry state of affairs in mind, it is pertinent to reflect on why has football management become such a short term occupation and consider the stories behind two of the managers who were given their marching orders in December. Many chairmen will argue that instant success is a realistic ambition - just look at what Jose Mourinho has managed to achieve. He has made winning trophies look easy, whichever league he has managed in, and has won the Champions League with multiple teams. The self proclaimed "Special One" has lived up to his title but as the name suggests, he is a complete one off. Mourinho has always had the luxury of strong financial backing and has been able to sign any player he wants in pursuit of silverware. Even with strong financial investment in the first team, a manager needs time to mould a team in his own image. An obvious statement you would think, but time is not a commodity AVB was afforded at Spurs. AVB's rise and fall is the perfect example of the pitfalls a modern manager faces. After learning his trade as part of Mourinho's back room staff during the Special One's first spell at Chelsea, AVB only took up his first management role in 2009, with lowly Academia in Portugal. He saved them from relegation and was promptly offered the top job at Porto, where, in his one and only season as manager, he remarkably won the treble and his team were undefeated in the league. This instant success brought him to the attention of chairmen around the world and he was snapped up by Roman Abramovich in the summer of 2011, with the Russian oligarch paying Porto compensation for the pleasure. He was charged with the task of revitalising Chelsea's ageing squad and began by dropping the likes of Frank Lampard and John Terry.

Despite being given a three year contract to achieve his task, he was unceremoniously sacked after only nine months. A promising career lay in tatters but he was given a second chance at Spurs in July 2012, signing another three year deal, but just 17 months later he finds himself out of employment again. He lost his best player in the summer to Real Madrid and was given four months to mould a team with a number of new signings, some of which he allegedly may not have wanted. He left the club in December, with a win percentage of 53.7%, the highest of any Spurs manager in Premier League history. Spurs had one of the most exciting and pragmatic young European managers and were clearly in a period of transition, but AVB wasn't given sufficient time to create a Spurs team in his own image.

In contrast, Malky Mckay was given time to create a team at Cardiff and led them to a successful promotion campaign last season, but in December he fell victim to a manager's greatest enemy, an owner with unrealistic expectations. Vincent Tan played the pantomime villain to perfection over the festive season, seemingly oblivious to the boos of the crowd. McKay had the sympathy of fans, colleagues and pundits and he was generally considered to be doing a good job with the Welsh side, however, it became inevitable that McKay would be given the boot, once news emerged of Tan's discontent. The club's management of the situation was embarrassing - with pressure building a statement was issued to the effect that McKay would remain in charge for the foreseeable future.

He was sacked five days later.

The 'quick fix' culture that surrounds modern day football means that fans, owners and the media are all too quick to jump on a manager who suffers a string of bad results. The fickle nature of football leads to managers being hung out to dry one minute and applauded for genius tactical decision-making the next, and yet the Premier League's most successful manager, Alex Ferguson didn't win a major trophy in his first four years at Old Trafford. That won't happen again. With club budgets often hanging by a thread it is doubtful that any managers will be able to build a successful lasting legacy as owners look to preserve their investment. Statistics courtesy of BBC Sport