Relegated clubs make manager decisions
Stoke City, Swansea City and West Bromwich Albion, the three clubs relegated from the Premier League this season, have all made decisions on the respective futures of their managers today.
It was bad news for two of them and good news for one as, one by one, all three clubs made announcements this afternoon with the first news coming from South Wales with Swansea dispensing with the services of Carlos Carvalhal.
Carvalhal was sacked by Sheffield Wednesday on Christmas Eve, but four days later took a step up into the Premier League at Swansea, replacing the fist pumping Paul Clement. Things started well for him. He won five of his first nine games in charge but, despite turning his press conferences into somewhat strange comedy routines, things turned sour for him after the last of those wins against West Ham.
There weren’t any more wins with Swansea picking up only three points from their final three games. It always looked likely that they would escape the drop given their last two home games were against Southampton and, as it turned out, already relegated Stoke, but they lost both and were relegated with 33 points.
At around 1 p.m. today, Swansea announced that they would not be retaining his services while thanking him for his hard work and commitment since taking over.
Soon after came news from Stoke that Paul Lambert would also be leaving his job. It was mid-January when he came in to replace Mark Hughes. Like Swansea, they were in the bottom three, but never seriously threatened to get out of it.
Lambert won his second game in charge, a 2-0 home win against Huddersfield, and his last, that win at Swansea on the final day of the season, but they were the only victories during his time in charge and Stoke, like Swansea, thanked him for his work but confirmed he was leaving and they would be looking for a new man to take over in the Championship.
They finally got rid of him after losing 2-1 against us and, with relegation all but certain, gave Darren Moore, or Big Dave as he’s best known, the job until the end of the season. Things didn’t quite go to plan in that he turned around their fortunes. He didn’t lose a game until the final day of the season, that after relegation had been confirmed, and that provided them with a dilemma. Should they continue with their caretaker boss or bring in a new manager for next season?
I was expected Moore to go but well done West Brom. Today they confirmed that he is the new permanent head coach, a decision that has delighted the new man and the supporters. It begs the question as to where they might have been now had he been given the job when Pulis left and they hadn’t employed Pardew.
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