It's a tough life being a football manager especially in England where the media combined with a section of dimwit fans make this a health hazard - literally, I mean ask Glenn Roeder, Gerard Houllier, Joe Kinnear who have all suffered major health scares while at the job.
It's usually the Premier League that provides the sack stories and yes there probably will be one as the season progresses with Blackburn's Steve Kean surely going to force the first mid-season managerial change of the season with Owen Coyle, Steve Bruce, Mick McCarthy not too far behind.
Surprisingly though, it's been the 2nd tier Championship that has provided the two sack stories of the season so far. At the start of the season, two of the Midland's big clubs, Leicester and Nottingham Forest had two former England managers at the helm; Sven-Goran Eriksson had joined Leicester in the middle of last season while our favourite wally under the brolly, Steve McClaren replaced Billy Davies at the City Ground in the summer.
As of 25 October 2011, both managers are gone. McClaren resigned from his post on 2 October with the club languishing towards the wrong end of the table. It appears the same reasons that resulted in Billy Davies' departure in the summer have accounted for a manager of a higher calibre - never a good sign for a big club like Nottingham Forest.
Yesterday, Eriksson was out of a job - this one probably a bit more of a surprise even though Leicester were still mid-table and had beaten Millwall 2-0 on the weekend. The Foxes had spent large in the summer and were expecting to challenge at the top of the table. Again though, you wonder if the Thai owners understand much about football. It will be hard for them to get a manager of Eriksson's calibre as a replacement. Leicester City aren't a Premier League club yet they seem to be behaving like one.
Have McClaren, Eriksson become bad managers overnight at Nottingham Forest and Leicester after coaching at what should be the highest level of the game, i.e. the national team? The answer is the same to the question of whether Roy Hodgson became a bad manager at Liverpool last season - no, the chemistry just wasn't right.
Forest, Leicester and Liverpool at the time are/were clubs in chaos, in transition, needing direction, with crazy expectations and too much history. It doesn't bode well for any manager even as experienced as those three mentioned. At least Liverpool appear to have found a manager that fits their mould in Kenny Dalglish and Steve Cotterill may be a better fit for Forest than McClaren.
Perhaps the England managers' reputations and egos were too big for second division clubs.
So if you're thinking about becoming a football manager at the highest level, think again.
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