Paul Clement has recently been sacked by Swansea, becoming the sixth managerial casualty in the Premier League this season. Now we have just surpassed the halfway point in the league season, it feels like this is as good a time as any to review the sackings in the Premier League this season and how they have affected us. It is quite commonplace for a team to have something of a honeymoon period under a new manager before a team begins to stabilise and become more predictable.
For example, in the case of Crystal Palace, they have plucked themselves out of the mire and I think Roy Hodgson has done an excellent job after adopting a team who failed to score and lost each game prior to his arrival after the closure of the summer transfer window. The case of Crystal Palace is not the only one that seems to have affected us, I will explain in more detail in due course but a quote from the late great Sir Bobby Robson sums up our situation perfectly: "We have gone 'bum bum' (pointing down) that way, and they have gone 'bum bum' (pointing up) the other way".
Crystal Palace (Out: Frank de Boer/In: Roy Hodgson)
Going in chronological order and where better to start than Crystal Palace. After de Boer's sacking, the Eagles had played four, lost four and did not even score a goal as he became the quickest managerial casualty in Premier League history (four matches).
Hodgson's appointment however failed to start smoothly and there was no such thing as a honeymoon period for Palace as they went on to lose a further three league games before the start of the resurgence which they have experienced in their recent form with only one defeat (against Tottenham away) in their past nine league matches.
With Palace having seemingly pulled off a miraculous win against the champions Chelsea in their previous league match prior to coming to St. James' Park, a new-looking Palace side came out in force against us as their defence refused to roll over and have their tummy tickled. The first shot on target came with Mo Diame's 72nd minute shot which was well saved. Since Hodgson's appointment, the defence at Selhurst Park has been playing of the quality that's fit for survival in the Premier League.
Having only just overtaken us after their recent away win against Leicester, it does feel that the London club is in a much better position in terms of confidence for the near future compared to the confidence the Newcastle players have at the moment. However, over the course of this season, the strikers with previous Premier League experience, Benteke and Wickham have been misfiring. We can familiarise with that situation with Joselu having only successfully struck three times since moving to Tyneside and has only been dropped for one game. With fellow strikers of Gayle and Mitrovic as well as Perez who, despite being a natural attacking midfielder, is no stranger to the striker role - this shows that we have Premier League experience in the final third, our problem is that they, Gayle and Mitrovic especially, are not getting the requisite amount of game time to show that quality whereas Palace have little back up up top.
When de Boer was sacked
Crystal Palace were 19th (4 matches, 0 points).
Newcastle were 10th (4 matches, 6 points)
Currently under Hodgson: 16th (19 matches, 18 points)
Leicester City (Out: Craig Shakespeare/In: Claude Puel)
It was not the best of starts to a season by Leicester but I thought at the time that sacking Craig Shakespeare was a rather radical step when I had confidence in his ability to turn things around at the King Power. However it appears that form and confidence among the Leicester squad are on the increase since Claude Puel's return to the Premier League and now find themselves in a comfortable mid-table position which I believe matches the ability of the players they have.
The Foxes were in the midst of a good run when they came to town earlier in December. A good long range effort from Riyad Mahrez followed by a second half strike from Demarai Gray and an unfortunate Ayoze Perez own goal gave Leicester the narrow win to get the three points.
My verdict on this is that Puel's arrival at Leicester has been a move that hasn't massively affected Newcastle because they are currently nine points ahead of us in eighth place. However, I don't think Leicester would have done as well as they have been doing if they stuck with Shakespeare.
When Shakespeare was sacked
Leicester were 18th (8 matches, 6 points)
Newcastle were 9th (8 matches, 11 points)
Currently under Puel: 8th (20 matches, 27 points)
Everton (Out: Ronald Koeman/In: Sam Allardyce)
Considering the amount of money Everton had spent in the summer transfer window, it is needless to say that they should have done a lot better than they did under Koeman and I believe Koeman is a good manager but his sacking was justifiable. After losing their star striker, Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United, I feel that the Toffees should have spent their money more wisely. Everton fans may not have been expecting a like-for-like replacement for the brawny Belgian but they were capable of purchasing a much better striker than Sandro Ramirez.
After a long and dodgy spell under an inexperienced David Unsworth, Sam Allardyce came in to his first job since leaving his post at Crystal Palace soon after last season had concluded. Allardyce has done excellent work at Everton already and despite his win percentage not being as good as his win percentage as England manager, he has still got the best out of the players at his disposal and has seen the team from Merseyside shoot up the league.
Everton's form in the past month has seen them go from milling around the relegation zone to becoming a top half team. After playing them at St. James' Park earlier in December, it was a difficult defeat to take considering that Everton were far from their best. Arguably, Allardyce was still enduring his honeymoon period on Merseyside at the time but this run is still continuing as he remains unbeaten since taking the job on.
When Koeman was sacked
Everton were 18th (9 matches, 8 points)
Newcastle were 7th (9 matches, 14 points)
Currently under Allardyce: 9th (20 matches, 27 points).
Watch out for the second part of this article where we will review the departures of West Ham's Slaven Bilic, West Brom's Tony Pulis and Swansea's Paul Clement.