How Has The Life Span of a Premier League and Championship Manager Changed In The Last 10 Years?

As even the passing observer of English football will have noticed by now, the days of giving a manager time are long gone. There is hardly a single boss not a bad run form away from at least feeling the ground start to shift beneath his feet, if not even be shown the door.

But just how cut-throat has management in the Premier League and Championship become in the last ten years? We took a look at the average life span of bosses in each of England’s top two tiers, comparing them with the start of the 2019-20 season with that of the 2009-10 campaign a decade ago.

How Brutal Is The Premier League?

To see how great the difference was in the average life span of a Premier League manager now compared to ten years ago, we first looked at how many days each top-flight boss had been in charge for on August 10, 2019, the day the 2019-20 campaign kicked off.

We then did the same for all of the Premier League’s managers on the opening day of 2009-10, August 15 2009, and compared the two:

2019-20 season

Team	Manager on August 10, 2019	Number of days in charge by August 10, 2019
Arsenal	Unai Emery	444
Aston Villa	Dean Smith	304
Bournemouth	Eddie Howe	2493
Brighton	Graham Potter	82
Burnley	Sean Dyche	2475
Chelsea	Frank Lampard	37
Crystal Palace	Roy Hodgson	697
Everton	Marco Silva	436
Leicester	Brendan Rodgers	165
Liverpool	Jurgen Klopp	1402
Man City	Pep Guardiola	1135
Man Utd	Ole Gunnar Solskjaer	135
Newcastle	Steve Bruce	24
Norwich	Daniel Farke	807
Sheff Utd	Chris Wilder	1185
Southampton	Ralph Hasenhuttl	248
Tottenham	Mauricio Pochettino	1901
Watford	Javi Gracia	566
West Ham	Manuel Pellegrini	445
Wolves	Nuno Espirito Santo	801

2009-10 season

Team	Manager on August 15, 2009	Number of days in charge by August 15, 2009
Arsenal	Arsene Wenger	4710
Aston Villa	Martin O’Neill	1107
Birmingham	Alex McLeish	627
Blackburn	Sam Allardyce	240
Bolton	Gary Megson	660
Burnley	Owen Coyle	632
Chelsea	Carlo Ancelotti	75
Everton	David Moyes	2711
Fulham	Roy Hodgson	596
Hull	Phil Brown	954
Liverpool	Rafael Benitez	1886
Man City	Mark Hughes	436
Man Utd	Sir Alex Ferguson	8318
Portsmouth	Paul Hart	25
Stoke	Tony Pulis	1158
Sunderland	Steve Bruce	73
Tottenham	Harry Redknapp	293
West Ham	Gianfranco Zola	338
Wigan	Roberto Martinez	61
Wolves	Mick McCarthy	1121

On average, then, at the start of the 2019-20 Premier League, a manager lasted 789 days, which is the equivalent of 2 years, 8 weeks and 3 days. For context, that’s less than one-tenth the reigns of Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson at Arsenal and Manchester United respectively.

By comparison, on the day 2009-10 began, the average life span of a Premier League boss was 1301 days, which equates to 3 years, 6 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. So, in the last ten years, a top-flight manager lasts in the same job for about a year-and-a-half less, on average.

Why the sharp decline? Well, for starters, Wenger’s 22-year spell at Arsenal and Ferguson’s 26-year tenure at United have both ended in the last decade, and their longevity, of course, accounted for much of the extra length of time for 2009-10.

But clearly, ‘sacking culture’ is becoming rifer in England’s top tier – on the day 2019-20 kicked off, seven managers were less than a year into their jobs; by comparison, at the start of 2009-10, just five were in this position.

Not only that, but with the ever-increasing financial benefits in the Premier League, boardroom are getting itchier. Everton, for example, followed up David Moyes’ 11 years as manager with four different permanent bosses in the next six years. The revolving door continues to operate at Chelsea, meanwhile, with nine different men occupying the Stamford Bridge hot seat in the last decade.

And further down the table, the fear of slipping through the trap door to the Championship grows ever greater. Fulham, for instance, have been relegated twice in the last decade; in both of those campaigns, they sacked two managers.

Crystal Palace have only been in the Premier League since 2013, yet Roy Hodgson has been in charge for the Eagles the longest of their seven bosses since promotion, and he has only celebrating the two-year anniversary of his appointment in September 2019.

In fact, since 2009-10, no season has seen fewer managerial changes as the nine which took place in that campaign, with 2018-19 seeing ten after three consecutive of 13.

How Does The Championship Compare?

The Premier League may have garnered a reputation, rightly or wrongly, for being too trigger-happy, but what about the league full of teams for a place at the top table?

2019-20 season

Team	Manager on August 3, 2019	Number of days in charge by August 3, 2019
Barnsley	Daniel Stendel	423
Birmingham	Pep Clotet	44
Blackburn	Tony Mowbray	892
Brentford	Thomas Frank	291
Bristol City	Lee Johnson	1274
Cardiff	Neil Warnock	1032
Charlton	Lee Bowyer	331
Derby	Phillip Cocu	29
Fulham	Scott Parker	85
Huddersfield	Jan Siewert	194
Hull	Grant McCann	43
Leeds	Marcelo Bielsa	414
Luton	Graeme Jones	88
Middlesbrough	Jonathan Woodgate	50
Millwall	Neil Harris	1557
Nottingham Forest	Sabri Lamouchi	36
Preston	Alex Neil	760
QPR	Mark Warburton	87
Reading	José Gomes	224
Sheffield Wednesday	Lee Bullen	17
Stoke	Nathan Jones	206
Swansea	Steve Cooper	51
West Brom	Slaven Bilic	51
Wigan	Paul Cook	794

2009-10 season

Team	Manager on August 3, 2019	Number of days in charge by August 3, 2019
Barnsley	Simon Davey	990
Blackpool	Ian Holloway	79
Bristol City	Gary Johnson	1415
Cardiff	Dave Jones	1536
Coventry	Chris Coleman	536
Crystal Palace	Neil Warnock	667
Derby	Nigel Clough	212
Doncaster	Sean O’Driscoll	1065
Ipswich	Roy Keane	107
Leicester	Nigel Pearson	414
Middlesbrough	Gareth Southgate	1158
Newcastle	Chris Hughton	68
Nottingham Forest	Billy Davies	219
Peterborough	Darren Ferguson	931
Plymouth	Paul Sturrock	620
Preston	Alan Irvine	627
QPR	Jim Magilton	66
Reading	Brendan Rodgers	64
Scunthorpe	Nigel Adkins	1006
Sheffield United	Kevin Blackwell	541
Sheffield Wednesday	Brian Laws	1006
Swansea	Paulo Sousa	46
Watford	Malky Mackay	54
West Brom	Roberto Di Matteo	39

So, on average, at the start of the 2019-20 Championship, a manager lasted 374 days, which is the equivalent of 1 year, 1 week and 2 days – that’s less than half the average life span of a Premier League boss at the start of the 2019-20 top-flight campaign.

Compare that with the day the 2009-10 Championship campaign started ten years ago, and a second-tier manager lasted on average 561 days, which equates to 1 year, 6 months, 1 week and 6 days. So, while there has been a drop-off, it has been of only about six months, which pales in comparison to the decline seen in the Premier League in the last decade.

In short, then, the Championship is even more of a graveyard for managers and their careers than the Premier League.

Perhaps this shouldn’t be too surprising; given the Premier League offers hundreds of millions of pounds per year in revenue and more, the clamour among Championship owners to throw everything at a promotion challenge increased by the year. The amount of managerial changes in 2018-19 in the Championship – 15 in total – essentially bear this out.

So, too, does the hiring-and-firing culture just as prevalent at some second-tier clubs as at top-flight sides. QPR, for instance, are on their fifth permanent boss since returning to the Championship just four years ago, while 14 different managerial reigns have taken place at Nottingham Forest in the last decade.

They say there’s no guarantees in football, but for managers wanting to cut their teeth in the English game, there is probably at least one – at some point, probably prematurely, you will receive your P45.

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