Coaching Changes At Olympiacos Amongst Top In The World
The last 14 months has seen Olympiacos change more managers than many clubs around the world, especially clubs who have recently won championships in their domestic leagues.
The 7-time defending Greek Super League champions have made seven coaching changes since July 2016. Ever since Marco Silva shockingly left the club during last year’s preseason, Thrylos have gone from coach to coach in ridiculously quick fashion. Victor Sanchez took the reins from Silva, only to give way to Paulo Bento after exiting the Champions’ League qualifiers. Bento remained in the job from August 2016 to March 2017. A series of poor results saw the Portuguese boss get the boot for caretaker manager Vasilis Vouzas to come in and oversee the club for a couple matches.
Takis Lemonis was then appointed until the end of the season and the interim coach led Olympiacos to the title. In the summer, Lemonis was dismissed in favor of Besnik Hasi. The Albanian coach successfully guided the team through to the Champions’ League Group Stage, but a bad start to the league campaign meant the end for Hasi. In his place, Lemonis has been called in for the fourth time.
These seven changes in 14 months are more than all the managerial switches at the club from 2010-2016 COMBINED. During that time, the club only had six coaches come through.
This high amount of manager hirings and firings places Olympiacos amongst the top in the world over the last year plus. Few other clubs around the globe have made as many changes and no domestic champions of the last couple seasons have changed managers so often. This is taking into account league champions from Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia.
Even a club like Palermo, who have an owner in Maurizio Zamparini who has been at the club for 15 years and made 40 coaching changes, have failed to sack so many managers. In the same time that Olympiacos have made seven managerial switches, Palermo have only made five.
It remains to be seen whether Lemonis can stake claim to the job. If he manages to finish out the season with the club, then he will become the longest-serving coach at the club for the last two seasons. That would represent a small step toward stability for a club and board that have shown to be anything but that since the beginning of last season.
