Tough Brief For Premier League New Starts

Two Premier League new starts arrived at their desks this week and the bosses at Liverpool and Sunderland both face tricky opening fixtures on the road this weekend.

Their long term forecast however is even bleaker as they embark on jobs that are unlikely to last in the fickle world of football which continues to rid itself of the patience so badly needed for managers to bring success to their clubs.

Kloppmania
Jurgen Klopp’s appointment at Anfield has been a dream for headline writers and the red tops in England have been plastering their back pages with plenty of Klopp-related rhymes, one of which suggesting that Klopp can take the Kop flops back to the top.

The bespectacled sports scientist faces a Saturday lunchtime test at White Hart Lane to begin his reign and he can only hope that he is afforded more patience than his predecessor in the Anfield hot seat who was given the boot a mere 3 years into his Liverpool project.

At the time of his sacking, Brendan Rodgers was the second longest serving manager in the top division

…which tells you all you need to know about the merry-go-round of Premier League management and while Klopp insists he will have a greater say on recruits than the Carnlough man did, his main concern should be whether the American owners are prepared to support him when the going gets tough, which it inevitably will.

Sam’s Task
Kloppmania has seen Sam Allardyce’s return to the North East relegated to the skinny columns inside the back pages and he takes his new side to West Brom on Saturday with much less of a fanfare than his German colleague.

But it is Big Sam’s fifth go at a Premier League job that looks the trickier assignment of the two given his task of keeping Sunderland in the big league where the big money is.

The Black Cats are languishing in the relegation zone with a paltry return of 3 points from their opening 8 games and are a 5/2 bet to beat the drop and avoid Championship football next season.

It’s no easy start for Sam with a Tyne-Wear derby on the horizon and a tough visit to Everton the week after. He’ll need to get the demanding Mackem faithful on his side early doors and if those results don’t go his way, the fans and more importantly his employers will be questioning his appointment from the outset.

Religious fanatic Jurgen Klopp will not only will he be hoping for a good start this weekend but in the long term he’ll be praying that he is given more time to make his mark in Liverpool history than those who preceded him.

Allardyce’s life expectancy at Sunderland is even shorter and when the owners display their inevitable lack of faith those headline writers will be out in force again to tell us that Sam is not the man and Klopp is for the chop as the ruthless moneymen wield their axe yet again.