The 2025/26 football season is proving to be one of the most volatile in recent memory for managers across Europe's top leagues. Impatience from club hierarchies and fans has reached unprecedented levels, with a significant number of coaches dismissed even before the season reached its halfway point. The frequent managerial changes highlight the demanding nature of modern football with the business aspect of things also affecting the club's decision to give the axe if pieces are not falling into place straight away. While some of these coaches have got ample time to prove themselves others have been judged on short term results. No matter how shocking the dismissals were, the clubs are unwilling to make the sacrifice to wait for the long-term impact if immediate demands are not met.
This trend of decreasing managerial tenure seems set to continue in elite European football with the current campaign posing an example. The start of the season saw a lot of managerial casualties but rarely has there been so many sacking in the space of days at the turn of the year as happened in three major clubs of Europe in 2026. Once again, the English Premier League became a hotbed of managerial instability showing the merciless nature of the demanding league. However, other leagues have also witnessed several managerial exits in a very short period of time with their club. Italy's top-tier Serie A and Germany's Bundesliga saw over four to five clubs entering the sack race even before the season has matured.
We look at all those managerial sackings of the 2025-26 season that reminded that football could be a cruel job for managers
Enzo Maresca
Former Leicester City coach Enzo Maresca stepped into the Chelsea role when the club was struggling massively under Mauricio Pochettino. He was the third appointment by the new ownership of the Blues and became a successful choice in terms of titles won. Maresca did something that previous coaches in the ClearLake Capital regime failed to do, winning silverware. Despite his rigid tactics and some questionable decisions, the Italian not only returned Champions League football to Stamford Bridge by putting Chelsea into the top four of the Premier League but also won them the Europa Conference League title, the first trophy since the Roman Abramovic era. The Blues went on to add more honor to their name, winning the inaugural 32-team Club World Cup, beating the European champions PSG spectacularly by 3-0 last summer. Many even considered them one of the top favourites for the Premier League title in the 2025-26 season due to the manner of the victory and their overall performance in the competition.
It seemed like Maresca had become the managerial face of the project the owners implanted at the club to guide a young talented squad for dominance.
The whirlwind of sacking managers also looked to be ending with a long-term plan in place. Yet, five months later Enzo Maresca has been shown the exit door by mutual consent on New Year's Day, despite past success. While the 2025-26 season produced some highs like defeating Hansi Flick's Barcelona in the Champions League, the results were inconsistent but his sacking was more off-the-field than on it. Maresca's relationship with the board got strained as he publicly called out a lack of internal support, the club owners disliking his interest to take charge of a different club for leverage of a new contract and his want of more authority in the team. Following the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth which left Chelsea with just two wins in two months, the Italian was gone with Strasbourg's coach Liam Rosenior becoming the new manager.
Ruben Amorim
It was a shock at first that Ruben Amorim was made to stay after the worst Premier League season in Manchester United's history by finishing as low as 15th in the table and also losing the Europa League final to Tottenham Hotspurs, ending any chance of playing European football the following campaign. Still, the manager who was hired to his role in November 2024 following the sacking of Erik ten Hag as the first appointment under the INEOS ownership was given his first full season and a summer transfer window. A whopping $293 million was spent to revamp the squad especially in the frontline with the addition of Benjamin Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo. Yet, the performance of the team hardly improved despite the Red Devils being in the hunt for the top four spot. However the difference between seventh, the side's position when Ruben Amorim left, and 11th was just three points showing that United's position on the table was deceiving.
In 14 months of charge, the Portuguese hardly delivered any positivity. Instead, he ranked highest in the most negative records set including being the worst coach in the club's history. He had the worst win percentage of any of his predecessors, suffered the most losses and collected the fewest points in his tenure. The unwillingness to move away from the 3-4-3 system was the major cause of underperformance with the handling of the club's brightest academy talent in the last few years, Kobbie Mainoo also drew severe criticism. However, the biggest problem was his relationship breakdown with the board which he exposed in his explosive press conference following the 1-1 draw with Leeds United. The former Sporting CP coach complained about how he wanted to be a manager at the club but was assigned to a head coach role instead and that his authority was forcefully limited. That was the last straw that broke the camel's back with Amorim shown the exit door just five days into the New Year. Take a look at Ruben Amorim Record at Manchester United as Manager
Xabi Alonso
Another dream project that came crashing down was that of Xabi Alonso with Real Madrid, a club that he played for and was a legend with. The Spaniard arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu with one task of making Real Madrid a tactically astute team, something which previous managers lacked despite big successes. It was obvious because Alonso was a wanted manager having guided Bayer Leverkusen to a historic Bundesliga triumph unbeaten, breaking the monopoly of Bayern Munich and also doing admirable job for the Real Sociedad B team. The 2010 World Cup winner was expected to hit the highs with Los Blancos after they struggled massively in the final season under Carlo Ancelotti. The start of his tenure was positive as they won the first 15 of the 16 matches in all competitions even though the crushing 5-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid raised some eyebrows.
The problem started when Real Madrid were dominated by a struggling Liverpool team, one of Alonso's former clubs, at the start of November with the team also going down to Manchester City at Bernabeu while the wins they managed were scrappy at best. Alonso said to have lost the dressing room and that player power took over with many complaining about the Spaniard's over demanding training routine. There was disagreement with the management too, especially with the choice of medical staff and the 44 year old wanting more signings to be done. The material of an explosion was there and only a spark was needed which came in the form of a close yet a El Clasico defeat to Barcelona, 3-2 in the Spanish Super Cup final in Riyadh. The club called on an emergency meeting when they returned to Spain and relieved Xabi Alonso of his duties. His high promise appointment only lasted seven months with reserve team manager Álvaro Arbeloa taking interim charge instead.
Other Notable sackings
Managerial changes were shockingly prevalent in major European leagues with managers barely lasting a considerable amount of games. Having been relieved from his duties at former job in Manchester United, Erik ten Hag was appointed at Bayer Leverkusen at the start of this season with the German club appointing him to carry forward Alonso's legacy. However, it all came crashing down as he only survived three games into the season in an incredibly brief 62-day spell. Despite starting the campaign with a huge 4-0 win in the DFB Pokal, the 2-1 loss in the Bundesliga opener and losing a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 with Werder Bremen in the next game was enough for the club hierarchy to pull the plug on. In his place, former Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand was appointed and he has since steadied the ship for the 2023 league winners.
The big departure in Ligue 1 in France was of Adi Hutter of AS Monaco. The Austrian made a significant impact at the principality club, becoming one of the successful managers for them in the modern era. Under him, Monaco finished among the top three in three consecutive seasons and returned to Champions League football, transforming them from a mid-table outfit that they became in the last few years before him. However, the 2025-26 season did not go as planned with the manager getting sacked in October 2025, overseeing nine games. Among them he suffered three losses including humiliating ones to Club Brugge and FC Lorient with unconvincing performance putting them out of Champions League race. Monaco was in fifth when he left but had plummeted to ninth while also dangling 19th in the League Phase of the Champions League.
Over in Serie A, Igor Tudor was sacked from Juventus after results deteriorated in the current season despite the former Lazio boss putting the club back into the top four last time. The Croatian failed to win a single game in the final eight games of his tenure with the breaking point coming in the 1-0 loss to his former employers in October 2025. Along with him, Stefano Pioli of Fiorentina and Ivan Juric, who failed to replace Gian Piero Gasperini at Atalanta, also headed for the exit door after a series of poor results. However, Premier League still tops in managerial merry go round with clubs struggling at the bottom making some massive changes.
Nuno Espirito Santo was the first Premier League manager to be sacked in the 2025/26 season, dismissed by Nottingham Forest in early September last year despite his team hitting above their mark last season under him. His successor Ange Postecoglou, lasted an astonishingly short time, just 39 days and eight winless games, making his tenure the shortest permanent reign in Premier League history. Graham Potter was also dismissed from his job at West Ham United in the same month as Nuno Espirito Santo, with the latter taking charge following his departure, but he quickly became the Sweden national team manager. Meanwhile, Vitor Pereira got the sack in November 2015 with Wolves at the bottom of the Premier League.
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