The Premier League resumes soon after the Nations League break, so now is a great time to catch up on one of the most popular football specials markets every year: Which Premier League manager will be the first to leave his post during the 2026-7 season?
Before we move on to this season, here’s what happened last year: A total of 11 managers were sacked, resigned or left by mutual consent during the 2025-26 Premier League season.
- Fun Fact: Three of those left Nottingham Forest: first Nuno Espírito Santo (the first manager across the league to leave his post on 8th September 2025), then Ange Postecoglou, and then Sean Dyche. The man who replaced Dyche for the last part of the season at Forest, Vitor Pereira, was then also sacked in the summer!
How Does the ‘Next Premier League Manager to Leave’ Market Work?
It’s one of those where it does exactly what it says on the tin.
There are currently 20 managers in the Premier League, and the question being asked, or what you’re betting on, is: which one will be the first to officially leave their position over the course of the season?
And yes, trust us, there will be at least one manager out before the season is up, and probably three or four at least, if previous years are anything to go by.
Once that happens, all the major bookies will then have a ‘Next Manchester United manager’ or ‘Next Tottenham manager’ market to bet on, with all the frontrunners included in it. But that’s to worry about another day.
- Betting Tip: Back Michael Carrick to Be Next Premier League Manager to Leave @3.5
Michael Carrick looks like the first to go.
The fears that he wasn’t quite ready for such a big job- both tactically and in terms of man management- have been given some fuel after a poor start where the energy and attacking intent of last season doesn’t seem to be there anymore. Results: very disappointing so far.
It won’t cost United much to sack him, and it would be an easier task to do because it wasn’t a secret that he wasn’t their first choice when they sacked Ruben Amorim last season.
Who Are the Favourites on the Market?
Such is the nature of Premier League football: with every win priceless, every defeat a disaster and endless analyses of every individual player and team’s performance, despite being just five games into the new season, some managers will feel like they’re already under huge pressure and fighting to save their jobs before autumn arrives.
Inevitably, those are the managers who are shortest in the betting as the first to leave their respective clubs.
Roberto De Zerbi (Tottenham): 3.0
De Zerbi was an interesting choice as Tottenham manager at the back end of last season. Big salary, long contract, and apparently a lot of freedom and power were given to him. Cue the huge summer spending, with De Zerbi insisting on bringing in plenty of expensive players.
At least he succeeded in beating the drop last season in what would have been arguably the most disastrous relegation of any Premier League team in history, given Spurs’ standing. Mind you, they weren’t that convincing in beating relegation and only did so on the last day of the season.
But good faith is in short supply at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the moment. After five games, they have just two points, just two goals for, eight against, and are bottom of the table, a position they at least failed to occupy last season, with other teams like Wolves and Burnley even worse than them.
Striker Richarlison has been ignored in De Zerbi’s squads after requesting a summer move, injuries to key players are mounting up, and while they can’t score, they also can’t stop conceding.
Sacking De Zerbi would prove extremely costly to the club and a case of back to square one, but if results don’t improve and relegation is once again a possibility…
Michael Carrick (Manchester United): 3.5
Carrick is a very different case to De Zerbi. He was brought in on an interim basis halfway through the season at Manchester United, performed well, was popular among players and fans and stayed on when that wasn’t originally the plan.
But for how long will it still be the plan for him to stay after a slow start?
Five league games: one win against Ipswich, plus draws with Fulham and Everton, and defeats against Hull and Manchester City. The last one won’t have gone down well with their fans, because bitter rivals City were down to ten men for much of the match, and United still lost.
They were also knocked out of the League Cup by Brighton, meaning their only really positive result was a 4-0 win in the Champions League, but even then, that was against Sabah, one of the weakest sides in it.
If results in the league don’t pick up, the United hierarchy may well return to their original shortlist of candidates and go for one of the bigger names they wanted to begin with.
Alvaro Arbeloa (Fulham): 5.5
At the time, it made sense. Though Arbeloa’s first job in management at Real Madrid hadn’t gone too well, and he left them at the end of last season, you could see why Fulham fancied a man who had played in the Premier League, had managed some big egos at Real and was looking to rebuild his career at a smaller club: Fulham.
But after five games, only Spurs are below them after three straight losses to begin with, and just two draws from their next two. Like Spurs, they’ve conceded eight times in five matches so far.
Arbeloa has a decent squad at his disposal, but no owner likes to see their team in the relegation zone, and given Arbeloa is very new to management, the powers-that-be may be thinking about a far more experienced hand in charge before things…get out of hand.
Frank Lampard (Coventry) 9.0
And now to Frank Lampard, the man with the famously sky-high IQ, who was a brilliant goalscoring midfielder at Chelsea for over a decade, and an England international over 100 times.
After somewhat unimpressive management spells at Chelsea (twice), Derby and Everton, he joined Coventry and got them promoted last season.
It’s normal for promoted clubs to the Premier League to struggle, but that doesn’t necessarily mean many expected Coventry to lose all of their first four league matches, going down to Arsenal, Hull, Man City and Brighton, the last one a huge 5-0 defeat where Lampard’s side looked badly out of their depth.
Thankfully, they beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 in their last league match to ensure they’re 18th rather than 20th, but they’ll need plenty more of those against-the-odds wins if they’re to beat the drop. Lampard himself will need a few more sooner rather than later if he’s to keep his job.
