Which managers had the shortest reigns in the history of the English Premier League?
The responsibility of every top manager is to win trophies and always get the best out of his team at highest level of the game, but once that can’t be accomplished such manager is destined to lose his job.
Over the years we’ve seen managers who had a long tenures in the Premier League, such as legendary managers Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger but now it’s very hard to see a long-serving manager in the Premier League again.
From Sam Allardyce at Leeds United in 2023 to Frank de Boer at Crystal Palace in 2017, here are the managers with the shortest spells in the English Premier League.
Bob Bradley – (84-days, Swansea)
Bob Bradley’s lacklustre management of Swansea City that got him sacked in 2016 still remains one of the most brutal managerial dismissal in recent years.
Bradley only picked up just eight points from his 11 matches he over saw in the dugout of the Premier League club, and considering the poor performance on the pitch his swift dismissal looks justified.
Initially Ryan Giggs was expected to land the Swansea job but the American tactician got the job eventually and was later sacked 84-days into his reign at the club.
Frank de Boer – (77-days, Crystal Palace)
Being a top player sometime don’t necessarily means you’ll end up becoming a fantastic manager, though we’ve seen cases where a brilliant footballer end up becoming a wonderful manager but we can’t count many of them out there now.
Frank de Boer was announced as the new Crystal Palace manager in 2017 after joining from Inter Milan with the hope he’s going to turn the fortune of the Eagles around for good, but unfortunately things turned out bad and he was sacked just 77-days into his reign at the club.
The former Ajax legendary defender was a high-profile appointment, replacing Sam Allardyce on a three-year deal but he was eventually sacked when Palace lost their first four league matches of the season without scoring a single goal.
Rene Meulensteen – (75-days, Fulham)
Meulensteen after 75-days of been in charge of Fulham as the manager of the London outfit, he was shown the exit door after club owner Shahid Khan felt the Dutch tactician can’t turn the fortune of the club around.
He only won just three of his 13 league games in charge of the Craven Cottage outfit, and was sacked in favor of Felix Magath who succeeded him following the poor performance he had in charge of the team.
After Meulensteen was sacked he hinted he could have turned things around if club owner, Shahid Khan hadn’t pressed the panic button on him.
Javi Gracia – (71-days, Leeds United)
Gracia’s dismissal at Elland road is perhaps the most ruthless sacking in recent time, considering the manner in which the Spaniard was relieved of his job via phone call on his birthday.
The Spaniard was appointed in February but was sacked after just 10 weeks and 12 games in charge of Leeds United, with his final match in charge of the team coming in a defeat against Bournemouth.
After sacking him Leeds United turned to veteran coach, Sam Allardyce, but the English tactician couldn’t also safe them from dropping to the Championship.
Les Reed – (40-days, Charlton Athletic)
Another laughable and shortest reign in the history of the English Premier happened to Les Reed in 2006, when he was sacked by Charlton Athletic hierarchy after crashing out of the League Cup against Wycombe and managing just one win in the league.
During Reed’s reign in charge of Charlton he only clinched four points from his seven games in the Premier League, and due to that abysmal performance he was nicknamed ‘Les Miserable’ due to his sullen mood in games.
Alan Pardew took over from him after spending just 40-days which stands till date as the second shortest managerial reign in the history of the Premier League.
Sam Allardyce – (30-days, Leeds United)
If Karl Robinson’s statement on the impossibility of keeping the Yorkshire side afloat were anything to go by, that shows Sam Allardyce only took the Elland road outfit job based on risk.
Both Allardyce and is assistant Robinson joined forces to turn the fortune of the club around with the side sitting 17th place at the time on the table, but unfortunately they couldn’t conjure any magic as they dropped to the Championship.
Sam Allardyce only picked just one point from his final quartet of domestic fixtures, and after talks between him and the club hierarchy failed he was relieved of his job after just 30-days in charge of Leeds.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
