Scolari, etc

We are still in early February, and Scolari is now the eighth Premiership manager to have resigned or been fired this season. It's not hard to see why Big Phil should have filled the headlines, but it's worth looking at the pattern further down the Premier League. Only two of the clubs who have made management changes are in the top half of the table (Chelsea and West Ham). The other five are between 11-18 (11th Sunderland, 13th Newcastle, 15th Tottenham, 16th Portsmouth, 18th Blackburn). Failure is unforgivable in the modern game.

It is also worth noting that the three clubs promoted to the Premier League last year (Hull, Stoke and West Brom) are all in the lower half of the table. but have stood by their managers.  All three are small clubs and all have English managers.

Another strange statistic. Of the managers who have been fired or resigned, only two out of eight (Portsmouth have lost two managers this season) are foreign. The rest are British or Irish - Tony Adams, Alan Curbishley, Paul Ince, Roy Keane, Kevin Keegan, Harry Redknapp.

The message seems to be: watch out for clubs with big aspirations and stay with the small clubs with British owners. Or, of course, the exact opposite: sign up for a big club with huge aspirations and a very rich foreign owner and take the money and run.