Who could be sacked next in the Premier League? West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui under intense scrutiny plus surprise contender

Premier League clubs are not renowned for their patience when firing managers, and we’ve already had our first sacking of 2024/25.

Despite signing a new deal in the summer, after a dreadful start to the season, Manchester United decided to sack Erik ten Hag.

He became the first casualty of this campaign, but he almost certainly won’t be the last.

It took until December last season for the first owner to swing their axe, but Paul Heckingbottom’s sacking as Sheffield United manager sparked Nottingham Forest into a similar decision with Steve Cooper.

And now that Ten Hag’s been removed, a similar process could be triggered.

Here, we’ve looked at the top five most likely contenders to be sacked next, via talkSPORT Bet’s latest odds.

Julen Lopetegui 13/8

The Spaniard was intended to lead West Ham into a bright new era but his reign since succeeding David Moyes has been shambolic.

There was much excitement surrounding the prospect of the former Wolves chief, having led Sevilla to Europa League glory in 2020 and also managing Real Madrid.

Lopetegui was backed heavily with a huge £150m outlay, that included £40m Kilman, £25.5m teenage winger Luis Guilherme, Aaron Wan-Bissaka for £15m from Man United and Crysencio Summerville from Leeds for £25m.

In addition, fan favourites Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta and Mohammed Kudus all remained at the club.

But for one reason or another Lopetegui’s tactics have not translated onto the pitch with just three wins from their first 11 league games.

West Ham lost their opening three home games of a league season for the first time ever and were also hammered 5-1 by Liverpool in the Carabao Cup.

Lopetegui was brought in to improve the Irons’ ninth-placed finish last campaign and bring European football back to the London Stadium.

But things haven’t worked out, and talkSPORT understands that Edin Terzic has been sounded out as a possible replacement.

The 42-year-old worked at West Ham as the club’s assistant manager for two years under Slaven Bilic and led Borussia Dortmund to the Champions League final last season.

He parted ways with the German giants via mutual consent in the summer, and the Hammers’ director of football, Tim Steidten, is a huge admirer.

6

Russell Martin 7/4

Time is running out for the Southampton boss, with the club rooted to the bottom of the table.

The Saints have just one win all season, beating Everton 1-0 at home, but they’ve lost nine of their other ten.

This has included some spectacular collapses, including one from 2-0 up against Leicester.

However, Jordan Ayew’s 97th-minute winner capped an inspired Foxes comeback.

talkSPORT understands that the Southampton board are split over what to do with Martin.

Owner Dragan Solak wants to see more from the former Swansea boss, while Martin still retains the support of the club’s sporting director, Rasmus Ankersen.

However, with the Saints now four points from safety, they need to start picking up points sooner or later.

Otherwise, Martin will likely be moving on.

6

Gary O’Neil 5/1

The Wolves manager is running out of both time and excuses as the club find themselves floundering in the drop zone.

O’Neil was given backing by the Wolves hierarchy at the start of the season, with games against six of their first eight Premier League opponents coming against teams that finished in the top seven.

Among those matches were battling performances at home to title chasers Manchester City and Liverpool, but with no points to show for it.

His side were also gutted in the summer market, with star man Pedro Neto and key defender Max Kilman leaving for Chelsea and West Ham, respectively.

Set piece coach Jack Wilson has been sacked, and O’Neil could soon follow.

Heading into a must-win game against Southampton, talkSPORT understood that O’Neil was coming under increasing pressure after just one win in the last 20.

However, the Old Gold managed to beat the Saints 2-0 to lift themselves off the bottom of the table, and they now have a favourable run of fixtures in which they have to pick up points.

If they don’t, O’Neil’s tenure at Molineux would likely be over.

6

Oliver Glasner 6/1

A few months is a long time in the life of a Premier League manager!

Glasner joined Crystal Palace in February to succeed Roy Hodgson and guided them to tenth in the Premier League.

Glasner won seven of his opening 13 matches in charge at Palace and went unbeaten in their final seven games of last campaign, a run that included wins over Liverpool and Man United.

After his impressive start to life at Selhurst Park, Bayern Munich were revealed to be interested in signing the Austrian as their replacement for Thomas Tuchel before Vincent Kompany was appointed.

However, Palace valued him at a whopping €100m in order to keep hold of his services but a slow start to this season has flipped the mood in south London.

Palace failed to win in their first seven Premier League games this season with the scope of a rebuild at the club proving an issue.

Talisman Michael Olise and Jordan Ayew both left – with the pair’s 13 assists last season nearly a quarter of Palace’s overall tally – as did Joachim Andersen while Marc Guehi was also the subject of persistent transfer talk despite eventually staying put.

In contrast, incoming stars Eddie Nketiah and Ismaila Sarr have both failed to open their goalscoring accounts in the Premier League, with Eberechi Eze‘s injury not helping matters.

To make things worse, Adam Wharton has had surgery to fix a persistent issue, and the goals have also dried up for former hitman Jean-Philippe Mateta, who has three this season in 11 matches.

Mateta, Palace’s player of the year last season, scored 13 goals in 14 Premier League appearances under Glasner – more than any other player in the top-flight during that time.

But things have worked out differently this time, and Glasner’s future is looking uncertain.

6

Ange Postecoglou 16/1

This one might shock many Tottenham and non-Spurs fans, but as it stands, Postecoglou is the fifth-favourite to be sacked.

After a solid first campaign under the Australian in which Tottenham finished fifth and played some excellent football, this season hasn’t quite gone to plan.

In the Premier League, they are currently tenth with five wins and five defeats, showing they’ve been inconsistent.

A 2-1 home defeat to Ipswich before the November international break was a particularly damaging result, as the Tractor Boys grabbed their first top-flight victory of the year.

The main issue for Spurs has been in defence, where Cristian Romero has struggled to replicate the form he’s previously shown and Micky van de Ven has suffered a hamstring injury.

6

So, the league form isn’t great, and Spurs are facing an intense battle with several clubs to make the top four.

Meanwhile, in the cups, Posteocglou’s speciality, things are progressing a bit better.

The former Celtic boss promised the Tottenham fan base that he would win a trophy this year because that’s what he does in the second season at clubs.

Tottenham are into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, where they will play Ruben Amorim‘s Manchester United.

And in the Europa League, they are seventh, though a 3-2 defeat to Galatasaray could turn out to be damaging.

Given the high odds, it’s hard to see how Postecoglou will be the next manager sacked, but if the league form doesn’t pick up and they crash out of the cup competitions, that could change.