The clock is ticking to take us closer to the halfway mark of the Premier League season and the holidays might end up proving more fatal than merry to some prime-time figures of the Premier League.
There have been many real surprises, like Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester, but there have also been many disappointments for major English clubs. Moreover, time is ticking for some managers and players. Here are a few characters who might see themselves out of a job if they keep underachieving.
Jose Mourinho
The Special One has been far from special this season.
Mourinho has led Chelsea to the 16 place in the standings 16 games into the competition, and might yet see his team drop down to the relegation zone before the end of the year, or as soon as this weekend should they lose and Norwich and Swansea win their matches.
The Portuguese manager is also the frontrunner in the race to be the next manager sacked according to SkyBet. The Betting agency has ranked Mourinho as the manager most likely to be out of a job in the Premier League with 4/6 odds.
Diego Costa
Costa is at no risk of being fired. Nevertheless, his days at Chelsea might be counted. A key member of last year’s championship squad, Costa might just be the biggest in all of the disappointments for Chelsea in 2015-16.
The striker finished last season with 20 goals scored in 26 matches played in the Premier League. While this season he has only three goals in 13 games.
Not only that, Costa has been adding to his usual repertoire of controversial antics. First, there was the whole Mourinho and the warm-up bib incident, now Costa went on to mock Chelsea’s defenders during the loss against Leicester. An action that infuriated even Sky Sports’ pundit Jamie Carragher.
“There’s nothing worse than a player coming back and telling other people what they should be doing,” Carragher said. “It’s not what he should be doing considering he’s been asleep all season.”
Also, a report from The Sun that the rest of the squad is less than pleased that Costa got away from both of those incidents without any sort of punishment.
Louis Van Gaal
The Manchester United manager is hot on Mourinho’s heels in the SkyBet rankings for managers in line for sacking, and the 2/1 odds of being the next manager shown the door in the Premier League are not undeserved.
Van Gaal was entrusted with United job to bring the club back to the standards of Sir Alex Ferguson’s days. Instead, what United fans got from Van Gaal was a £250m transfer bill and a group-stage exit from the Champions League.
Now an ESPNFC report claims that the Red Devil’s board is also worried about Van Gaal’s approach with the players, as they seem to be “disenchanted” with the manager’s work.
All of these factors add up to the possibility of Van Gaal leaving the club sooner than later. Moreover, the deciding point in this controversy might not even depend on anything that Van Gaal may do from now on, but on the decision, Pep Guardiola makes next week.
The Bayern Munich manager will decide whether he will stay in Germany or pursue a new challenge elsewhere. Manchester United is keen on beating Manchester City to Guardiola’s signature if he decides to leave Bayern.
