WHY SAY ANYTHING?

And so to the final day of our troll through the Premier League managers. We have now considered the futures of fourteen of the poor souls and decided that most of them will continue to collect their relatively easy money for another few months at least.

If not, they will leave their current employ to be appointed by another clueless club who will continue paying them an absolute fortune for very little, if any, return. West Ham and Everton seem like good candidates for out of work managers to be interviewing!

Another example of the recycling trend is about to occur in West London. We have just been reading that serial failure Steve McClaren is to be announced as their new manager by serial losers QPR. This will change the perception of neither the club nor the manager!

Anyway, we digress, so here’s the last four in the list:

Southampton

Mark Hughes

Hughes should be given an extended contract having turned round the fortunes of the club. They may have only just missed relegation but the change in attitude has been palpable.

Southampton caused their own problems when they, firstly, fired Claude Puel who had guided the team to an eighth place finish. They then kept Mauricio Pellegrino much longer than they should have done. So the fault is all their own and, if they don’t want to make it three in a row they will be preparing the paperwork for Mark Hughes to sign in the vey near future.

When all the dust clears Hughes will still be in charge next season.

Tottenham Hotspur

Mauricio Pochettino

Will the unthinkable happen? It is well-known in the football world that Pochettino is unhappy with the spends he receives from Dastardly Dan. Now he has Dan’s new toy to contend with, the new White Hart Lane! So his spends could become even less.

There are already rumours abounding that players such as Mousa Dembélé, Danny Rose, Victor Wanyama and Toby Alderweireld will be sold to fund new purchases and Pochettino may be OK with those players leaving. If, however, he isn’t given the money he thinks he needs could he leave?

The rumours are also beginning to abound, (if that’s even possible), that Chelsea would quite like the Argentinean to be their manager instead of that moaning Italian. It would certainly be a move which would put more money both in Pochettino’s transfer kitty and his pocket.

If he were to make the move, what chance the likes of Harry Kane and Dele Alli staying at Spurs?

It will be interesting but our suspicion is that he will still be at White Hart Lane next season

Watford

Javi Gracia

This one is anybody’s guess. Watford seem to think that a manager is for Christmas and a while, not for life. In fact they have even terminated some of their managers in much less than a season so anything could happen here.

Again, our informed opinion is that Gracia hasn’t shown enough, despite a 14th placed finish which left them eight points above the relegation places, to keep bis job for another season.

Watford’s trigger-happy owners are looking for top half finishes in the near future and then to build on that so a new man will probably be in charge next term.

West Ham United

David Moyes

For once the Glaswegian has over-achieved! Not by West Ham standards but by his own. We fully expected the Hammers to either be relegated or, at least, be a lot closer to the drop than they have ended up. For Moyes, 13th was a decent finishing position. For West Ham United, however, in their new stadium and with their expensively assembled squad, top ten was really a must.

The Londoners were another team guilty of keeping their previous manager too long and they should have parted company with Slaven Bilić long before they did.

That said, a good manager coming in would still have had time to get the team up into the top ten.

With the exception of Manchester City, who were out on their own, then Manchester United and Liverpool, none of the rest played to their potential so all places below third were realistically up for grabs.

David Moyes’ problem is that he thinks he is a far better manager than he really is. Ironically, he is at a club where the owners think they are far better owners than they really are. On that basis they are a match made in heaven but, our bet, is that the owners can see through Moyes and will replace him for next season.

That’s it, there is no more, except to say good luck to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Cardiff City, (who should be playing in the Welsh league), and whoever joins them in the Premier League next season, hopefully Aston Villa.