World Football: 10 Clubs That Will Get New Managers This Summer

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Every summer, there is a wave of managerial changes that sweeps the top league of Europe and many other teams around the world.

Impatient owners easily grow weary of men who are leading their clubs into stagnation or failure (whether this is perceived or real), and many managers are unceremoniously dismissed from their positions annually.

Many times, one can see change on the horizon without being involved with the club itself. If there is a late-season collapse, the team has not performed up to expectations or there is public friction with the management of the club, the boss is likely on his last legs.

With that in mind, let's take a look at 10 clubs that will undergo a painful transition managerial transition this summer.

Marseille

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This has been an immensely disappointing season for Marseille, who are languishing in ninth place and have no chance of reaching the Champions League next season.

Competition at the top of Ligue 1 was expected to be tight this campaign, but Didier Deschamps' side are not even close to challenging such pillars of French football as Toulouse and Rennes.

The schedule only gets harder from here for Marseille, and if the team cannot secure results in either of its next two fixtures against league leaders Montpelier and Lyon, Deschamps may see time run out on his reign at the storied club.

With the squad that Marseille has, the French giants really should be doing much better this season.

Villarreal

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Few could have predicted just how abysmal Villarreal's season in La Liga has been this year.

After the Yellow Submarine lost its best player, Giuseppe Rossi, to injury, the team and its performances have, well, sunk. And they have sunk so low, in fact, that the club is actually flirting with the ruinous prospect of relegation.

For such a proud club that actually qualified for this season's Champions League to fall so low is a disgrace to the supporters and Villarreal's history. It is hard to believe that no one will be forced to account for the stunning futility of the team this season.

Blackburn

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I really feel bad for Steve Kean.

Blackburn's embattled manager has had to endure cries for his sacking almost since the start of the season, and every match he has overseen this year could have been his last.

It is almost impossible for a manager to keep his dressing room settled in situations like that and somehow find some measure of balance in his team selections when he makes it to the next game. Yet that is what Kean has been forced to withstand.

For all the sympathy I have for him, his team is mired in the relegation zone and is in serious danger of being sent down at the end of the season. And if that happens, he does not stand much chance of remaining in his position.

LA Galaxy

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Let's take a brief break from Europe for a moment to focus on one of the most mightily struggling teams in Major League Soccer: Los Angeles Galaxy.

The Galaxy, of Landon Donovan and David Beckham fame, are defending MLS champions but have won only a single match of their first four played so far this season.

If, with so much talent on the team, Bruce Arena cannot get his men to perform like they should, it would not be shocking if he were to be dismissed this summer for his team's under-performance.

Liverpool

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If not for his significance in the history of the club which he manages, Kenny Dalglish would surely be dismissed as Liverpool manager at the end of this season.

Prior to Tuesday's win against Blackburn, the Reds had lost six of their past seven matches and had fallen behind archrivals Everton in the Premier League table.

This despite over £100 million of January and summer investment from the club's new American owners. 2011-12 has been a truly disastrous season for Liverpool, and the club can count itself lucky that it is guaranteed Europa League football through its triumph in the Carling Cup in February.

It would still not be shocking, though, if only due to the team's stunning failure this season on numerous occasions, if King Kenny is dismissed at the end of this season.

Tottenham

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England.

That really encapsulates why Tottenham will almost certainly be without a manager after the season is over. England is competing in a little tournament called Euro 2012 this summer, the team has no permanent manager and Harry Redknapp has long been tipped as the long-term successor to Fabio Capello at the helm of his country.

No other manager in the pool of candidates that the FA will be evaluating will be as wholly qualified for the job, nor have the untarnished international coaching record that Redknapp has. Plus, as a major bonus, he's English.

Spurs better start looking soon for their next manager.

Manchester City

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A trophyless season is certainly not what Sheikh Mansour had in mind at the start of the campaign when he unleashed the most expensive group of footballers ever assembled upon the Premier League.

Yet, with Manchester City's embarrassing late-season collapse, that is exactly what is befalling a side that once had an eight-point lead over Manchester United, who they now trail by that very margin.

At the heart of the turmoil has been the stoic Roberto Mancini, who has faced one of the toughest managerial tasks in the world in taming so many explosive egos in one dressing room and trying to corral Mario Balotelli on a weekly basis.

But when you have a squad with the names that make up the Italian's weekly team sheets, ending a season without a trophy is simply inexcusable.

Real Madrid

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There is a more-than-negligible chance that Jose Mourinho could achieve everything he set out to this year.

After all, Real Madrid are in the semifinals of the Champions League and currently lead La Liga with a game in hand over rivals Barcelona. If the Portuguese becomes the first manager in history to win the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga, it will leave nothing to accomplish at Real Madrid.

With more than one high-powered team surely eager to pursue the Special One's services and an ever-tumultuous front office situation at the Bernabeu, there will be little incentive for Mourinho to stay.

And, as the club so often does, Real Madrid will have to bring in a new manager.

Barcelona

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Due to Pep Guardiola's insistence on signing one-year contracts every season, there is always some amount of speculation about his future and when his last season in Catalonia will be.

This year, however, with vacancies at a number of high-profile clubs, conjecture has been at an all-time high, and there appears to be genuine uncertainty about Guardiola's future with Barcelona.

After all, what else is there to do at his hometown club? A legend as both a player and manager, Guardiola has won everything there is to win at both levels and may seek a fresh challenge elsewhere.

Who Barcelona might get to replace their current manager is unclear, but whoever he is will have impossibly large shoes to fill.

Chelsea

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Is there ever a summer in which Chelsea doesn't change managers?

Roman Abromavich is so impatient that, even when the club finishes second in the Premier League and the Champions League in the case of Avram Grant, he unceremoniously fires whomever is in charge in search of someone better.

Honestly, though, I do not know why anyone would take a position at the helm of Chelsea. Andre Villas-Boas was the last to make the fatal mistake, and he got overwhelmed by the influences of senior players and ultimately crushed by the oppressive hand of his owner.

If some of the aforementioned managers are on the market this summer and Abromavich decides that he wants to compensate them handsomely, a permanent replacement for Roberto di Matteo will be one of the least surprising signings of the entire summer.

 

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