If you are not good at your job, you will get the sack (except, of course, if your name is Arsene Wenger). This is the simplest rule of this world right now: do what is expected of you or else face the boot. Claudio Ranieri is the latest example that epitomises the culture of our world.
After winning the Premier League with Leicester City last season, one would have thought that Ranieri earned himself a gazillion ‘get out of jail free’ cards. However, it seems as though only Wenger has that card—his side haven’t won the league since I hit puberty—as Ranieri was sacked after a series of horrible results that saw Leicester hovering over the relegation spot.
The fact that the Foxes won the Premiership is a miracle in itself and yet it wasn’t enough to please the board who sacked their greatest ever manager at the first sign of trouble. The Joker was right, we are only as good as the world allows us to be.
However, this is just a sad sacking. Managers have been booted for reasons that make lesser sense than the lyrics of country music and here are 5 such sackings…
#1 Leroy Rosenior
One of the most common ways of unemployment is structural unemployment. This is the kind of unemployment where one loses her/his job because their skillset is no longer needed by the people at the top of the hierarchy.
This generally happens when there is a technological advancement or a change in structure. For our case, the latter was what cost Leroy Rosenior his job at Torquay in 2007. Rosenior lasted for just an embarrassing 10 minutes at the club.
The outgoing club owner, Mike Bateson, wanted someone to manage the club until the sale of it was completed. As Rosenior was about to be unveiled as the new manager, the club was sold and he was informed that his services were no longer required.
Poor, Rosenior. He must have felt like a guy who earned a date for the prom party but was ditched the moment they entered through the doors and the girl was asked out by someone else.
#2 Kim Jong-Hun
Only God knows whether he is actually alive or not. The ones who don’t know him, he was the head coach of the North Korea football team during the 2010 World Cup. As expected, his team didn’t do well in the World Cup and were handed a bashing by the rest of the teams in the group.
This, however, came as a shock to their then heir apparent, Kim Jong-un, who thought that his nation would win the World Cup if the coach listened to the instructions he constantly gave during the World Cup. One can only wonder why he didn’t take over the managerial hot seat himself.
In the end, Kim Jong Hun was not only sacked but was publicly humiliated by 400 people—including team members, who were forced into doing so— for several hours for his “betrayal” and losing the “ideological battle.”
#3 Iffy Onuora
Have you ever seen cows on a football training ground meant to train international players? Well, maybe not. However, former Ethiopia manager, Iffy Onuora, was sacked for precisely the same reason. Okay, using ‘precisely’ might be digressing the issue a little too far.
Here’s what actually happened: Iffy Onuora, a former Huddersfield striker, agreed to manage the Ethiopian National team, a job which was perhaps a little less glamorous for someone of his stature.
As it turns out, he did well with his team, taking Ethiopia to the semi-final of the regional tournament, CECAFA. However, in 2011, he was sacked because he offended the board by claiming that he had to clear cattle from the training ground before a session.
This allegation enraged the board, who in turn sacked their manager.
#4 Tommy Docherty
The mind of a human being is perhaps the most inscrutable object there is. One moment, it loves someone unconditionally and in some other moment, the same love is channelled towards someone else.
It is this change of mind that cost Tom Docherty his job at Manchester United in 1977. Mary Brown, the wife of a person named Laurie Brown, had a change of interest in love and got herself involved in an extra-marital affair with Docherty, who himself was married at that time.
Now, the problem was, Laurie was a physio at Manchester United. Ouch!
In the end, this turned out to be the downfall of Docherty at United. Not that he was too upset about it as he went on to marry Mary. And the best part? They are still together.
There is a cost for find true love it seems.
#5 Sam Allardyce
‘Big Sam’ was never going to be a successful England manager anyway. After all, there is no risk of relegation while managing England and that’s the only time he becomes a master-mind manager.
On 26th September, 2016, Daily Telegraph published an undercover video that exposed the current Crystal Palace manager. ‘Big Sam’ was filmed talking to a fictitious businessman on how to get around the stringent rules imposed by FIFA and FA that bars third-party ownership of players.
He then went on to make derogatory remarks on Gary Neville and Roy Hodgson before labelling HM Revenue and Customs “the most corrupt company in the world.”
Needless to say, the following day, Allardyce and the FA mutually terminated the contract that bound him to the England job.
