Managerial Merry-Go-Round

After getting into a few saves to get used to new features and deciding what kind of game I wanted to spend a long time on, I am about to embark on the 2017-18 Premier League season with my beloved Stoke City. I find it interesting that none of the other 19 clubs in the league have their original manager and some have had multiple men at the helm. Here's a list of the clubs and their current in game managers -

Arsenal - Alan Shearer. Mr Personality predictibly joined Newcastle in November 2011, staying there for 4 years before leaving for Everton for another two years. This will be his first season with The Gunners.

Aston Villa - Paul Jewell. The grumpy scouser obviously started the game at Ipswich, was at Sheff Utd for 5 years before leaving for Villa. He is about to begin his first full season with Villa.

Birmingham - George Burley. Dour Scot George was unemployed before getting the job at Sheff Wed in 2013, staying there just over a year before leaving for Brum. In the 3 years since he has established them in the league, the highlight being a 6-1 win over Man Utd at Old Trafford last season.

Blackburn - Gus Poyet. Gus did a grand job at Brighton until February 2012 but stangely left to become youth coach at Rayo Vallecano, before taking the same job at Birmingham. He got back into management at Championship Blackburn, leading them back to the Premier League.

Burnley - Gareth Southgate. Strange face Southgate got back into management at Bristol City in 2012 before leaving for Burnley. He has now been in charge for 5 years, getting them promoted, relegated and the promoted again. Burnley have become the yo-yo club of the moment.

Chelsea - Paul Lambert. Lambert left Norwich for West Brom in 2013 only to leave 18 months later for Chelsea. He has now been there for 3 years. Chelsea have not been anywhere near winning anything since the start of the game.

Everton - Alex McLeish. Nomadic McLeish left Villa in December 2011 for Blackburn, went to Sunderland in 2013, 3 years later Man Utd came calling but was only there for 8 months. Recently appointed Everton manager.

Leeds - Kjetil Rekdal. Can't say I've ever heard of this Norwegian but he became Leeds manger in February 2017 and led them back in to Premier League via the play-offs. We'll have to wait and see how Leeds get on back in the big time, this will be the first season back.

Liverpool - David Moyes. This is probably the most interesting one (and by interesting I mean unlike real life). Moyes left Everton in 2014 for Tottenham, staying for only one season before moving back to Merseyside with Liverpool. He's done well in the 2 years he has been there, taking Liverpool back into the Champions League for the first time since game start.

Man City - Andre Villas-Boas. Pretty boy Andre has been on a tour of English clubs the past 6 years. Sacked by Chelsea on December 2012, he was out of work only a few weeks before joining Bolton. He had 2 years there, one season in Spain with Sevilla, two years with Arsenal, now about to start first season with Man City.

Man Utd - Marcelo Bielsa. Argentine Bielsa's first job in England, been at Old Trafford for 8 months now after spells at Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla. Utd have struggled since Fergie's retirement, Sinisa Mihajlovic and McLeish not lasting too long. Only acheivments being League Cup and FA Cup runners up and winning Europa League.

Newcastle - Andy Watson. Scotsman Watson was Swansea manager from 2012 to 2015, leaving for Newcastle. He's done alright, qualifying for the Europa League through league position.

Sheff Utd - Mike Phelan. Fergie's real life right hand man left Man Utd in May 2012 to manage Southampton. he stayed there for 4 years getting them briefly back to the Premier League. He left for Villa for one season, before joining Sheff Utd 5 months ago.

Southampton - Steve Cotterill. Steve 'loyalty means nothing' Cotterill left Portsmouth in 2014 for Villa before joining the Saints 2 years later. Keeping them in the top division has been quite an acheivement.

Sunderland - Brad Friedel. American baldy Brad stayed at Spurs as a player until 2014, left to become goalkeeping coach at Sunderland before being promoted to manager in April 2016.

Tottenham - Ciriaco Sforza. Swiss Sforza has been all over the place, starting the game at Grasshoppers, he manager Switzerland U23's, came to England in 2012 to West Ham, left for Portsmouth, went to Spain with Recreativo, and came back to London with Spurs.

West Ham - Ian Holloway. Mad as a box of badgers Ian was loyal to Blackpool until 2013, has been at West Ham ever since finishing FA Cup runners up and qualifying for the Europa League. Finished 17th in the league last season though.

Wigan - Steve Clarke. Another Scot, Clarke has been manager at Wigan since 2012 and has managed to survive every season so far. Never finishing higher than 11th but ended up in 17th three times, I liken Wigan to that cockroach you just can't get rid off (in the nicest possible way of course).

Wolves - Darren Ferguson. The seventh Scottish manager in the Premier League has been in the Midlands since 2014. he left Peterborough after leading them to one season the top division. Wolves has been comfortably mid table for the past six seasons.

Anyone else got interesting, unlikely or just plain strange managerial appointments?

A couple of side notes - QPR are now in League One, along with other previous real life Premier League sides Coventry, Barnsley, Bradford and Swindon. Darlington are also there, not like there real life problems. Fleetwood are now also a football league club. And 22 of the 24 championship teams have previously been in the Premier League, real life and game life.

Exeter are gunning for Premier League promotion in 2017. You've got to love this game!

]Wolves - Darren Ferguson. The seventh Scottish manager in the Premier League has been in the Midlands since 2014. he left Peterborough after leading them to one season the top division.

I'm surprised he managed to get them into the Prem! Every game i've played they've been relegated.

Looking at mine though, I have similar manager in charge of the same clubs with the exception of Crawley Town (?), who have Stern John at the helm!

In my game most managers are poorly paid which has me concerned that AI boards are too quick in getting shot of the manager because it will not cost them much in termination fee's & likewise employed managers are moving too frequently because the compensation owed is quite low.

Looking around a bit the manager appointments are rather strange. For example Villas-Boas just gets kicked out everywhere. Chelsea lasted till Nov 2012, picked up by Lazio where he got poached by ManUtd, where he stayed for 11 months before getting sacked and is at Espanyol now.

On the other hand Mancini who had a horrid league, but good cup runs in the first season (CL runner up, FA cup winner, 6th!! in the PL), was allowed to stay, ending 5th in the PL next year and no other noticeable achievements (EL semi's, for which ManCity shouldn't care), then ending 3rd, so finally CL football for ManCity again and got poached by Inter. Looking at these achievements there's no way he'd get away with this IRL.

Same goes for Mourinho who was 2nd behind Barcelona in the league 2012/2013, CL semi's/first knockout round, cup 5th round/semi. So basically 2 seasons with Real winning nothing and he was allowed to stay, which he repayed next season by winning la liga and a CL final he lost, next season he got the Spanish cup again, but 2nd in la liga, before having a horrid season ending 4th and losing the spanish cup final. Even with all that his current job security still is stable.

So, we got two of the probably most impatient and most ambitious boards sticking with managers that clearly aren't achieving what you'd expect of their clubs. While on the other hand a Villas-boas seems to gets sacked every save. I think this is the other side of Barside's problem, that clubs with managers that currently are on huge wages won't sack their managers. (although I don't know how much wage Villas-Boas gets?)

Update - The Premier League now has one less Scottish manager. Steve Clarke has been sacked by Wigan. An unlikely person has taken over - ex Arsenal midfielder Gilberto Silva. I'm not sure pies are that popular in Rio!