Sam Allardyce left his post as England manager 67 days after his appointment on Tuesday.
Allardyce and the FA felt his position was untenable after he was caught making a series of controversial comments in an embarrassing newspaper sting.
“The FA can confirm that Sam Allardyce has left his position as England manager,” an FA statement read.
Here, we look at five other managers whose reigns lasted an even shorter space of time (days in brackets):
Steve Bruce – Wigan (55)
Ironically the front runner in the betting to fill the England vacancy the former Manchester United skipper didn’t dally long at Wigan. He took charge for eight games in 2009 at the Second Division side but after a play-off loss he bid them farewell decamping to Crystal Palace.
Steve Bruce.
Alan Shearer – Newcastle (51)
Nicknamed ‘Mary Poppins’ by some his spoonful of sugar to save his beloved Newcastle from relegation from the Premier League in the 2008/09 campaign was not what the patient required. With no managerial experience it had been a very optimistic appointment at best and they ended up being relegated. “I am hurting. I am raw, I take my share of the blame I thought I could save them in those eioght games,” he said.
Alan Shearer.
Brian Clough – Leeds United (44)
The best manager England never had for many, ‘Old Big Head’ took on the unenviable task of managing Leeds in the post Don Revie era, when the latter had become national team boss. He entered a veritable vipers nest as immortalised in the book and then the film version of David Peace’s ‘Damned United’. A strong character he met with similar individuals at Leeds and there was going to be only one casualty. Seven games and just one win and poisoned relations saw him shown the door with his ambitions of winning the European Cup with them and getting one up on Revie shattered. “Did I say the European Cup? I hardly lasted long enough to be given my own teacup at Leeds,” he joked in his autobiography. He had the last laugh in guiding unfashionable Nottingham Forest to two European Cup victories.
Brian Clough.
John Toshack – Wales (41)
Former Liverpool and Wales great he was a popular choice when appointed national team coach in 1994. It took just 90 minutes and a defeat to Norway to turn the cheers to jeers and he was gone. Returned 10 years later a wiser man and remained at his post for six years — not a likely scenario for Allardyce to emulate.
John Toshack.
Jorg Berger – Arminia Bielefeld (5)
Veteran German coach — a former East German national youth team handler who had fled to West Germany in 1979 — was called up to literally the last chance saloon in being in the dug-out for Bielefeld’s final game of the season and a relegation decider. They drew and it was not enough to save them. Nor him as he was let go. He never got another chance to prove himself dying in 2010 aged 65.
Jorg Berger.
