Paul Heckingbottom of Sheffield United is the first manager to be sacked this season in the Premier League. The Englishman leaves the club as the bottom team, and his successor is already lined up.
The immensely popular Chris Wilder is returning to Sheffield, as announced by owner Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad Al Saud. Wilder was the coach of Sheffield between 2016 and 2021, under his guidance, the club returned to the top level for the first time since 2007.
Sheffield was then relegated again, and when things looked bleak in the Championship, Wilder was dismissed. Over two years later, he returns. This has not yet been announced by the club, but the owner has.
This is the first managerial change at the top level of English football since the start of the Premier League season. In the past ten years, there has only been one season where it got this far without a managerial dismissal. In the 2020/21 season, Slaven Bilic was the first manager to be sacked on December 16, 2020, by West Bromwich Albion. Wolverhampton Wanderers, meanwhile, had already intervened before the current season by parting ways with Julen Lopetegui.
Normally, English clubs are much quicker with dismissal letters. For comparison: last season, Scott Parker of Bournemouth was done just 26 days after the start of the season. In the 2017/18 (Frank de Boer at Crystal Palace) and 2015/16 (Dick Advocaat at Sunderland) seasons, there were also Dutch managers who couldn't complete the season in the Premier League.
