Being a football manager is not the best career choice if you want job security. Indeed, soccer coaches are sacked on a regular basis as clubs make changes in order to achieve and maintain success, or at least try to.
Across Europe’s top leagues and beyond, head coaches are either sacked and choose to resign frequently throughout the season, with the length of a manager’s stint getting shorter and shorter with each passing year.
In fact, the next manager to be sacked is a vital part of football transfer news, as the impact of a managerial change can often make a huge difference both on and off the pitch. Furthermore, patience with managers grows ever thinner with each defeat a team suffers.
The 2023-24 season has now started following the summer break, with the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 campaigns all now underway.
Last season there was an unprecedented number of managerial casualties in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France. Will it be the same in 2023-24?
Below, FootballTransfers runs through every manager in Europe’s top five leagues who have left their posts this campaign.
Sacked/departed Premier League managers in 2023-24
Before the 2023-24 Premier League season had even begun, there was the first managerial casualty of the year as Julen Lopetegui left Wolves by mutual consent. He was replaced by former Bournemouth manager Gary O’Neil, completing a chaotic pre-season for the team.
O’Neil lost his job at Bournemouth at the end of last campaign as the Cherries replaced him with Andoni Iraola, who had shone at Rayo Vallecano in Spain.
In the 2022-23 season, 14 managers were sacked or departed in the Premier League, including Thomas Tuchel, Antonio Conte and Patrick Vieira.
In the 2021-22 season, 10 managers were sacked in the Premier League campaign, including Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Roy Hodgson, Marcelo Bielsa and Sean Dyche.
Sacked/departed La Liga managers in 2023-24
Quique Setien became the first La Liga manager to be sacked in 2023-24. The experienced coach paid the price after his Villarreal team won one and lost three of their first four games of the season.
In the 2022-23 season, 16 managers were sacked in La Liga, including Julen Lopetegui, Unai Emery and Rino Gattuso.
In the 2021-22 season, 11 managers were sacked in La Liga, including Ronald Koeman losing his job at Barcelona.
Sacked/departed Serie A managers in 2023-24
The first manager to leave their job in Italy was actually the Italy national team manager Roberto Mancini. He resigned from his post on August 13, having led the Azzurri to Euro 2020 glory and then failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. He was subsequently unveiled as the new Saudi Arabia head coach.
Mancini was replaced by Luciano Spalletti, who won the Scudetto with Napoli last season before stepping down from his post.
There have been no departures so far during the 2023-24 Serie A campaign, although Empoli’s Paolo Zanetti is under pressure.
In the 2022-23 season, 10 managers were sacked in Serie A, including Marco Giampaolo and Luca Gotti.
In the 2021-22 season, 10 managers were sacked in Serie A, including Walter Mazzarri and Andriy Shevchenko.
Sacked/departed Bundesliga managers in 2023-24
None so far.
In the 2022-23 season, 12 managers were sacked in the Bundesliga, including Domenico Tedesco and Bayern Munich’s Julian Nagelsmann.
Five Bundesliga managers were sacked in the 2021-22 season, including Mark Van Bommel and Jesse Marsch.
Sacked/departed Ligue 1 managers in 2023-24
None so far.
In the 2022-23 season, 12 managers were sacked in Ligue 1, including Peter Bosz and Lucien Favre.
The 2021-22 season saw only four Ligue 1 managers sacked from their post, including Claude Puel and Niko Kovac.
