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Which Premier League Manager Will Be Sacked First in 2017?
- Updated: December 26, 2016
In September 2015, I met Alan Pardew in his office at Crystal Palace’s training ground as he told me about his grand plans for the club.
Looking out across the empty training pitches, he talked about his desire to forever banish any relegation fears from Palace and move them up the Premier League table.
“I am more comfortable with the team, they understand what I want,” Pardew said. “I think it can deliver in more than 12 games a season…I would like to think we could get around the Europa League places.”
Fifteen months later, Crystal Palace are sitting 17th in the Premier League and Pardew will be sitting at home over the Christmas period after being sacked last week.
Memories of Palace’s run to the FA Cup final this year could not save Pardew or obscure the full horror of their league form in 2016.
This year Palace have won just six of their 36 league games and are bottom of the form table for the calendar year, 11 points adrift of Swansea City.
The £30 million signing of Christian Benteke should have been Palace’s insurance policy against any relegation fears, and though the Belgium striker has been a success, at the same time the Palace defence has been responsible for the third-worst record in the league.
As Palace continued to leak goals and lose eight of their last 10 league games, the club’s board had no choice but to bring to an end Pardew’s two years at Selhurst Park.
Which Premier League manager will now be the first to lose his job in 2017?
After Pardew’s departure, the bookmakers’ favourite is Swansea City’s Bob Bradley, who has only been in the role since the start of October.
Swansea’s 5-4 victory over Palace last month ultimately cost Pardew his job, but this remains one of only two victories Bradley has managed in his first 10 games.
That dramatic victory was supposed to revive Swansea’s fortunes, but Bradley has since seen his side lose heavily three times, and they now sit 19th in the table on the same points as bottom-side Hull City.
A controversial successor to Francesco Guidolin, the American might not remain in south …
