Life, they say, isn’t fair. To some extent, this is a true saying. Sometimes, you work your socks off but it bears no fruit. And at some other times, you do absolutely nothing and yet achieve great things.
When it comes to football, it is no different either. There comes a time when the best of teams lose to the beer-belly jugheads that resemble more Sunday Pub league football than the professional visage which the star players exude. Life is just as uncertain as the ending of M. Night Shyamalan movies; a twist can pop up at any given time.
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Such twists and turns occur a lot in a manager’s life. Despite being at the top and bringing stability to the team managed, the manager could get the sack out of nowhere. And here are 5 managers who were sacked unjustly.
#1 Vicente del Bosque at Real Madrid
This is perhaps the most unfair sacking in the history of the sport. Indeed, having won two Champions League and La Liga titles each, one would have thought that he would be given a bumper contract that would run for a lifetime.
Instead, he was given the sack.
Florentino Perez is many things, but a football director isn’t one of them. He might have made a lot of money with his construction company and might be a genius when it comes to business dealings, but in pure footballing terms; he is terrible.
It took a post-del Bosque Real Madrid 11 years to win their next Champions League title. Just goes to show how much damage the construction magnate did to the club when he deemed the World Cup winning coach as old-fashioned.
#2 Quique Sanchez Flores at Watford
When a newly promoted team appoints a new manager, the most one could expect from him is surviving the drop. Hence, when Watford sacked Quique Sanches Flores after a highly admirable 11th placed finish, it didn’t make much sense.
Yes, he might have had a terrible second half of the year, but perhaps it was a bit too harsh to base his sacking on just that.
Most of the players and many pundits were absolutely stunned by the owners’ decision to bring down the axe on him, with captain Troy Deeney calling it a “crazy” decision. The club now sit at 11th after 7 games, but only time will tell if they can maintain their spot. And even if they did, what’s the point?
After all, it wouldn’t be an improvement.
#3 Sam Allardyce at Blackburn Rovers
Big Sam might be the subject of many people’s ridicule right now, but one can’t deny that he has his qualities as a manager. The relegation-surviving specialist somehow manages to save teams from the drop and it is for this reason that his sacking at Blackburn Rovers was inscrutable.
When Allardyce was made the manager of Rovers in 2008, they acquired only 13 points from 17 league games and were 11 games without a win. However, in his very first game, he beat Stoke 3-0 and ended the dire run.
The recently-sacked England manager made sure that his team avoided relegation with a 15th placed finish. The very next season, Blackburn Rovers finished an impressive 10th place. However, the following year when the club was taken over by an Indian company, Allardyce was sacked despite the club being in a decent 13th place.
He was replaced by Steve Kean and the Rovers ended up at 15th. In Sir Alex Ferguson’s words, it was a ridiculous decision.
#4 Jupp Heynckes at Real Madrid
Real Madrid have 11 Champions League titles under their belt—a record among all clubs. Ask the fans which trophy they covet the most and they would still claim that the premier European title is their holy grail despite the fact that the club’s league record has been atrocious this decade.
So when the club hadn’t won the trophy for an unbelievable 31 years, it was starting to worry Madridistas. Some were in fear that they might never win the trophy ever again. However, Jupp Heynckes became the saviour.
As Real Madrid beat Juventus 1-0 in the final of the 1997 Champions League, they went on to lift their 7th title in the competition. Everyone was supposed to lick the boots of Heynckes, instead, he was given the boot.
The lack of good results in the league, where Madrid finished 4th—11 points behind winners Barcelona—has been touted as the reason for his demise, but when did the club ever care about league glory?
#5 Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea and then at Real Madrid
No manager of this era has had to face the amount of unfair sackings like Carlo Ancelotti has. The Italian is somewhat of a Champions League specialist and was the first person after Del Bosque to win the Champions League (in its new name) with Real Madrid.
And yet, a year later, he was sacked because he couldn’t win anything.
Not that it was entirely his fault either as his most important player in the tactical sense, was sold off to Manchester United. However, it wasn’t the first time that Don Carlo had to face the axe in an unjust manner.
After guiding Chelsea to their first ever domestic double, he was sacked the following season for not being able to win anything. At the time, and even now, it seemed like a short-sighted decision from the Florentino Perez of the Premier League.
