On the back of Paul Ince’s sacking and the possibly looming departure of Mark Hughes, we should take on some festive spirit and give these two unfortunates something to be cheerful about. So, for Ince, Hughes and terrible managers everywhere, here are the three worst Premiership managers of all time.
Steve Wigley
Booted out the door at Southampton after only one win in 14 games, Wigley was just one of Rupert Lowe’s many masterstrokes as Saints chairman.
Wigley was put in temporary charge of the club after Gordon Strachan’s departure in 2004, yet his discomfort in the position became evident so quickly that Paul Sturrock was ushered in to replace him after only two games.
Sturrock went on to last just 13 games before Wigley was pushed back into the hot seat, some say against his will.
He has since been appointed head coach at Bolton by Gary Megson, a move which was against the wills of some of the Bolton faithful, as the ever-brilliant forum on boltonbanter.com revealed:
“I think he's just w**k and his record would prove as much. But then again who the fuck wants to work with Gary Megson other than somebody on the dole?”
Wigley is just one in a long line of coaches who haven’t been able to cut it as managers. And while the likes of Brian Kidd and Sammy Lee stake strong claims to be included in this collection of the Premiership’s worst, there are a couple of men who save them from such infamy.
Iain Dowie
Dowie may be one of the few premiership managers who can claim to have made a genuine contribution to the English language.
His use of “bouncebackability” to describe his Crystal Palace team led to the word’s inclusion in the Collins dictionary in 2005 with the definition: “The ability of a person or team to bounce back, that is, to return to good form after a period of not performing well.”
Unluckily for Dowie his etymological prowess failed to translate into Premiership management prowess as he led Palace to relegation via seven wins in 38 games.
Charlton foolishly let him return to the Premiership in 2006, and even more foolishly gave him more money than they’d ever given any manager in their history.
He promptly pissed £4m of it away on Djimi Traore and went on to be sacked after managing only two wins in 12 Premiership games.
The Addicks went on to appoint the marginally better Alan Pardew, but Dowie had already done enough to propel a solid mid-table team towards the end of their seven-year spell in the top flight.
Egil Olsen
A man who started his managerial career at a team called Frigg and now finds himself at the reigns of Iraq’s national team is clearly one for wacky choices. His vigil at Wimbledon proved just that, as he put his notorious football philosophy into place to send the Dons crashing out of the Premiership in 2000.
Olsen’s scientific approach to football has made him somewhat obsessed with what players do away from the ball, so much so that he asked his players to be "å være best uten ball", which literally translates as "to be best without the ball".
Unfortunately for him this approach led to the Dons losing eight games in a row and him being sacked.
His final contribution to the Wimbledon cause was a 3-0 mauling by Bradford. The Dons went on to be relegated in 18th place while Bradford finished three points above them in 17th.