As Chris Hughton is sacked by Brighton here are 11 other managers who harshly lost their job
CHRIS HUGHTON has been sacked this morning despite once again keeping Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League.
His dismissal seems harsh from the outside – the Seagulls may have struggled this season but they are punching well above their weight.
This campaign was only the eighth in their 118-year history that Brighton have been in the top flight.
Next year they will be back, but with a different manager at the helm.
In such a ruthless business as the Premier League, hair-triggered chairman aren’t exactly uncommon.
Here are 11 of the other harshest sackings in recent memory.
Claudio Ranieri (Leicester City)
Where else to start but with the Tinkerman himself.
A victim of his own magical, incredible success, the Italian should have had a job for life at Leicester City.
Somehow, Ranieri inspired the Foxes to the Premier League title in 2016, a feat not likely to be repeated for a lifetime.
But that bought him little time – just nine months, in fact, before he was sacked.
Chris Hughton (Newcastle United)
Poor old Chris Hughton.
The Brighton sacking is not the first time the Spurs legend has been on the receiving end of poor treatment by his bosses.
In December 2010, with Newcastle sitting safely in 11th, Mike Ashley decide to chop Hughton in favour of Alan Pardew.
That despite Hughton being the man to get the Toon back into the Premier League at the first time of asking and scoring an impressive 5-1 win over bitter rivals Sunderland.
Nigel Adkins (Southampton)
What do you get for taking a club to two successive promotions?
The sack six months into your first season in the top flight.
Adkins took the Saints from League One to the Premier League but was out of a job before the season ended.
To be fair to Southampton, they replaced him with Mauricio Pochettino, who has turned out to be pretty handy in the dugout.
Roberto Di Matteo (Chelsea)
As interim manager, Di Matteo led the Blues and owner Roman Abramovich to ultimate glory – a Champions League victory.
The Italian landed the full-time gig after that famous night in Munich in May 2012.
But the feeling in west London was that he was never the right man for the job and after elimination from the Champions League group stage brought an end to his brief tenure.
Less than six months had passed from the biggest day in Chelsea history to them needing a new boss.
Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea)
A season before his sacking, Ancelotti had led the Blues to the best season in club history.
Chelsea had won the Double in 2010, playing the best football of the Abramovich era.
But successive Champions League failures were Ancelotti’s undoing, with a loss to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan (who went on to win the Treble) a particularly bitter pill to swallow for Roman and the board.
Ancelotti’s unceremonious sacking in a corridor at Goodison Park was one of the club’s poorer moments.
Harry Redknapp (Tottenham)
The English boss had taken over when Spurs were a shambles.
The north Londoners had been reeling after the Juande Ramos era and were bottom of the league on his first day.
An impressive four years in charge saw Spurs reach the Champions League for the first time as well as secure successive finishes in the top five.
But Redknapp’s head had been turned by the England job and an end of season slump cost him his job.
Claudio Ranieri (Chelsea)
Like Hughton, Ranieri has been on the end of some rough treatment in his career.
At the end of the 2003-04 season, Abramovich’s first at the club, Ranieri led the Blues to a genuine title challenge and second-place finish.
The Blues also reached the semi-final of the Champions League – although were shocking over two legs against Monaco.
Unfortunately for Ranieri, a young Jose Mourinho was dominating at Porto and Chelsea made their move.
The rest is history.
Avram Grant (Chelsea)
Following on from Jose Mourinho’s first spell at Stamford Bridge was always going to be a mammoth task.
But Grant did everything he could, recovering from a dreadful start to make a credible challenge in the title race.
But it was in Europe where one moment harshly cost Grant his job.
The Champions League final against Manchester United went to penalties.
Cristiano Ronaldo missed the only penalty from the first eight and one more successful spot-kick would win it.
That’s when John Terry stepped up…
Sam Allardyce (Blackburn Rovers)
After Paul Ince’s terrible reign, Allardyce steadied the Blackburn ship and established the side as a mid-table club.
But the Venkys took over and had a change of plan, sacking Big Sam for Steve Kean.
It’s fair to say it hasn’t worked out – Blackburn were relegated in Kean’s first full season in charge and haven’t been back to the top flight since.
Slavisa Jokanovic (Watford & Fulham)
In 2015, Jokanovic had led Watford back to the Premier League for the first time in eight years.
The board clearly didn’t view him as the right man for the job, however, with Jokanovic losing his job before the season even started.
After four years in the Championship, Jokanovic brought Fulham back to the Premier League – although the club struggled after a massive £100million summer spend.
Still, the decision to get rid of Jokanovic just 12 games into the season was harsh and did nothing to improve results.
Claudio Ranieri won only three matches and was sacked himself in February, before Scott Parker took over – and lost five games in a row to see the club relegated.
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Quique Sanchez Flores (Watford)
They’re ruthless at Vicarage Road.
The man who took the job from Jokanovic proved himself decent, taking the Hornets to a comfortable mid-table finish and the semi-final of the FA Cup.
But even that wasn’t enough.
Walter Mazzarri came in and just about scraped survival a season later before he was sacked.