Jeff Stelling reacts to manager situations at Everton and Southampton as Leeds United and QPR make appointments
Jeff Stelling feels bad about managers losing their jobs but feels the outlook at Everton and a host of other clubs has now changed as a result.
The Toffees have won two out of three since Sean Dyche was appointed to replace Frank Lampard, lifting the club out of the relegation zone in the process.
Stelling’s beloved Hartlepool lost again on Tuesday night (21 February) and are a point above the League Two relegation zone, so he was likely making a nod to the situation Keith Curle currently finds himself in.
Elsewhere in the Premier League, Leeds United have finally found a successor to Jesse Marsch in Javi Gracia, and Southampton went to Chelsea and picked up a win under Ruben Selles after sacking Nathan Jones.
With Gareth Ainsworth becoming the third manager this season at Queens Park Rangers on Tuesday after Michael Beale left for Rangers and replacement Neil Critchley was sacked, Stelling acknowledged how much of a game-changer the moves might be.
Posting on his personal Twitter account on Tuesday night the Sky Sports host wrote: “Feel bad but Everton, Leeds, Southampton, QPR just changed.”
On the up
It remains to be seen at some of the other clubs who have made moves in the dug out, but for now at least it looks to be working out for Everton.
The two home games against Arsenal and Leeds, two sides in very different situations, brought similarly committed performances from the Toffees and yielded the same result with a pair of 1-0 wins.
There remains a lack of cutting edge in attack, and the defeat away to Liverpool was a number of steps down, but given how low things had got with Lampard in charge there has clearly been a lift.
Managers get less and less time to turn things around now, and while Mikel Arteta had that luxury and is reaping the benefits currently, clubs at risk of relegation are far more likely to pull the plug and look elsewhere.
Lampard was the man to come in and inject positivity last season, keeping the club in the Premier League in the process.
So for his reign to unceremoniously come to an end just a year later and Dyche to provide the same boost shows that teams with little margin for error will continue to roll the dice on a change.
The fact that he was on both ends of the process within 12-months while Dyche himself was sacked at Burnley a matter of months ago also means, while it is undoubtedly a difficult experience to be sacked, there is often another opportunity waiting around the corner.