The new season hasn’t even begun yet and we’ve already seen a manager leave their postin the Championship, with Danny Rohl and Sheffield Wednesday mutually parting ways on Tuesday. But which Championship manager will be the next to go?
Paulo Pezzolano- Watford
Predicting Watford to sack their manager is like shooting fish in a barrel. Even if they announced Pep Guardiola as their new manager, he still would’ve made this list. Watford made a strong start to last season with Tom Cleverley at the helm, but the hornets would fall away as time went on, the season ultimately ending with the club 14th in the table and with Cleverley being dismissed.
Watford have done some good business in this transfer window so far. They haven’t really lost any big hitters and have strengthened well, with Caleb Wiley returning to the club on loan once again, Hector Kyprianou joining on a free transfer and highly rated youngster Nestory Irankunda especially standing out. Uruguayan Paulo Pezzolano is now in charge at Vicarage Road. The quintessential Watford manager really, a promotion specialist who doesn’t last long at whichever club he is at. It’ll be interesting to see how he gets on.
Nathan Jones- Charlton Athletic
Perhaps a slightly rogue one considering the pedigree that Nathan Jones possesses but I don’t think that it is out of the realms of possibility that a poor start to the season could see the Charlton higherups panic and make a drastic change.
The Addicks are certainly giving themselves the absolute best chance of survival, with the signing of last season’s League One golden boot winner Charlie Kelman, taking their spending to over £8 million. The only player of note that they have lost is Thierry Small who made 48 appearances for the South-East London side last season, before joining Championship rivals Preston North End on a free transfer.
Paul Heckingbottom- Preston North End
Speaking of Preston, Paul Heckingbottom is next. Preston were the first club to see a managerial change last season, parting ways with Ryan Lowe after only one game. This gave Heckingbottom virtually the whole season to implement his ideas at Deepdale. Despite this, Preston only managed to finish in 20th place, only one point above the relegation zone.
In an attempt to improve on this, North End have let a lot of starting players leave, including their top goal scorer from last season Emil Riis Jakobsen. Hopefully, a full pre-season will be just what Heckingbottom needs to help Preston avoid a relegation battle this season.
Mark Robins- Stoke City
Similarly, Mark Robins had a lot of time to get his message across at Stoke last season, but in the end, they would only survive relegation by two points. There was certainly an improvement under Robins, but they still struggled at both ends of the pitch. The Potters had the worst goal difference of the teams who survived and scored the joint second fewest goals.
They will need to find a replacement for midfielder Wouter Burger, but the squad has been improved in other areas. Veteran left-back Aaron Cresswell has joined the club on a free transfer following his contract at West Ham expiring.
Maksym Taloverov has come in to bolster the centre of defence, as has Ashley Phillips who returns to the club for a second loan spell. Sorba Thomas and Divin Mubama are good pickups in attack, but it’s difficult to predict how Mubama will do, given how limited his opportunities in senior football have been thus far. Robins will need to make a strong start to the season especially given how good the teams coming up from League One look.
