Staring down the barrel of a gun: why managing in the Premiership is now harder than ever

By Ainsley Jacobs, writing in London

Even in a stadium filled with 35,000 people, Avram Grant must have felt like the loneliest man in the world last Saturday. Watching his team getting ripped apart by Arsenal, his head must have been a whirl with rumours of his impending departure from Upton Park. Football can be a cruel game sometimes, as Arsenal inflicted the final knockout blow on Grant’s reign at Upton Park. Watching his haunted eyes at the final whistle you felt sympathy for a dignified man who in truth was always on a hiding to nothing. Not that he has been alone in staring down the barrel of a gun as each season the stakes of success and survival in the Premiership get higher and higher.

Take Roy Hodgson for example. Eyebrows were raised when he was appointed as Rafael Benitez’s successor in July 2010. Many fans were skeptical over the idea that this genial man could steady the ship and restore Liverpool’s glory years. Six months down the line and Hodgson looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole. Liverpool’s dismal form coupled with a poor squad built by his predecessor meant that Hodgson had to go and yet he probably departed Anfield thinking that he never got the time to prove what he could do. However in this day and age, time and patience are commodities few managers can count on.

(Source: philosofooty)