Coaching merry-go-round lives on in Greece
AGONAsport’s Nick Tsambouniaris looks at the incredible coaching carousel that has once again taken place in the Greek Super League, with five managers sacked after two rounds.
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The Super League is notoriously known for its gung-ho owners’ approach. As clubs strive for success, a ‘quick-fix’ mentality usually prevails over a more long-term sustainable approach. It is no different in the coaching ranks as trigger-happy owners tend to have that short-sighted approach. Surely by now, managers would know they stand on thin ice at the best of times and a crisis is never too far away.
We are only two rounds into the new 2019-20 season and a whopping five managers have already been sacked! Yes – five out of 14 clubs and we are barely in September.
Incredibly, two of these coaches never even got the opportunity to oversee a single game. Larissa parted ways with Goran Petric on the 8th of August, 2019. He was only hired on the 12th of May, 2019. The experienced Makis Chavos was shown the door by Lamia on the 5th of August, 2019. However, his stay was not as short as Petric’s. He guided Lamia to an impressive season in 2017-18 after taking over from Babis Tennes (he lasted 334 days).
The highest profile of the five managerial changes is AEK punting Miguel Cardoso after just a sole league game (a 1-2 home loss to Xanthi). The Portuguese coach oversaw five official matches but that shock 1-3 home loss to Trabzonspor in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa League was arguably the straw that broke the camel’s back as it meant the Enosis were at long-odds to qualify for the Europa League. He lasted a mere 90 days (only two more than Petric at Larissa), having been appointed on the 28th of May, 2019 and sacked by the 19th of August, 2019.
The fourth coach to leave his club was Savvas Pantelidis. He enjoyed a strong season at Aris in 2018-19, impressively steering the club to the qualifying stages of the Europa League via a fifth-place finish in the club’s first season back in the top flight. Much like AEK, Aris suffered a poor 3-0 loss away to Molde which seriously dented their prospects of making the group stage. On top of this, they could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to OFI and the axe was wielded after a 1-0 away loss to newly-promoted Volos last weekend. Pantelidis had the job for 291 days.
The most recent of these sackings was Akis Mantzios at Panionios. He lasted 272 days but with his team winless after their first two outings (losses to Volos and PAOK), and languishing in bottom-place on -6 points, the owners saw it as a time for change as desperation kicks in.
