Time to Say Goodbye? 3 Top Clubs Where Coaches Could Be Sacked

The season has only just started, yet some are already talking about upcoming sackings.

Manchester United

Midway through last week Manchester United progressed in the League Cup against Rochdale, but even to beat a League One (third tier) side, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team had to work hard. Rochdale were ultimately beaten only in a penalty shootout. Yes, there was rotation and young players were given a chance, but overall United fielded a fairly experienced side: with Paul Pogba, Phil Jones, Fred, Jesse Lingard and others.

In Solskjaer's first nine away matches his team collected nine wins, but in the following nine it did not win once. After that very win over PSG in the Champions League, United lost exactly half of their matches (10 out of 20).

In 17 of United's last 20 matches, Manchester United failed to score more than one goal. For a club with a wage bill of 332 million pounds a year, such dismal statistics are unacceptable, and it is no surprise that Solskjaer is under pressure from both the media and fans.

A lobby of former teammates, now working as TV pundits, still keeps Solskjaer's place at Old Trafford, but if they lose Monday evening's match against Arsenal, talk of “sacked in the morning” will return.

Next sacked Premier League manager: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 6/1 (William Hill)

Barcelona

Barca, like the Manchester giant, won their last match (2-0 away at Getafe). Before that the Catalans also celebrated a league win when they beat Villarreal (2-1). But there is skepticism about the future of Ernesto Valverde at Barcelona: doubts over Valverde's failures in Europe in previous years have been joined by a not-so-good start to this season (0-1 vs Athletic, 2-2 vs Osasuna, 0-2 vs Granada.

Right now Barca are in chasing mode: in the league the blaugrana trail both Madrid giants and... Granada, and in the Champions League they have so far managed only a draw (0-0 with Borussia Dortmund). With the return of Lionel Messi, who was named the world's best player for the sixth time the day before, Barcelona will undoubtedly improve, but questions over Valverde are unlikely to go away.

Catalan club president Josep Maria Bartomeu still backs Valverde, but ahead lie two tough games at Camp Nou: against Inter in the Champions League and Sevilla in the league. Dropping points here is certainly not in Valverde's interests.

Ernesto Valverde will be sacked as Barcelona head coach before the match with Sevilla: “yes” 7.0 (Parimatch)

Milan

Six points from six matches, a goal difference of “-4” and a place in the bottom five of Serie A. Only in June did Marco Giampaolo sign a contract with Milan on a “2+1” basis, but by the end of September talk of Giampaolo's likely dismissal is everywhere.

In July Giampaolo criticized Antonio Conte's training methods, but now it is Conte's Inter that leads the league with the maximum points, while Milan languish at the bottom of the table.

The media are already reporting the first candidates for Milan's potentially vacant head coach position. Likely replacements for Giampaolo include Gennaro Gattuso, Claudio Ranieri, Luciano Spalletti, Rudi Garcia and... Ukraine national team head coach Andriy Shevchenko.

Vasily Obaraz