Should Leeds and Burnley sack Daniel Farke and Scott Parker after Premier League promotion?
There are question marks over Daniel Farke and Scott Parker's top-flight records, despite their Championship heroics.
Leeds United and Burnley will be playing Premier League football next season.
Sheffield United's 2-1 defeat at Turf Moor in the Championship's late game on Easter Monday confirmed that the Clarets and Leeds will finish in the automatic promotion spots.
The title is yet to be decided, with two games left in the second tier, but already the decision-makers in East Lancashire and West Yorkshire will be shifting their focus to next season and life in the Premier League.
It will not be lost on the chiefs at Turf Moor and Elland Road that the three teams promoted out of the Championship last season – Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton – will be relegated straight back to the Championship and have looked out of their depth.
The gap between the Premier League and the EFL's top tier feels wider than ever. When Ipswich's relegation is confirmed, which is only a matter of time, it will mean that for two seasons in a row, all three of the promoted teams will have been relegated straight back to the second tier at the first time of asking.
Leeds and Burnley's top priority next season will be to buck that trend, but they face a headache concerning their coaches.
Farke and Parker are promotion specialists who have struggled to make their mark in the Premier League.
The German is on course to win a third Championship title in five full seasons at the level, a remarkable record, but has been far from convincing in the top flight.
His first Premier League season with Norwich saw the Canaries relegated after finishing bottom of the table. The Carrow Road outfit stuck by him and saw their faith rewarded with immediate promotion, but again he struggled in the top tier and was sacked after taking just five points from the first 11 games of the 2021/22 campaign.
Parker has now won promotion three times with three different clubs – Burnley, Bournemouth and Fulham. All three sides had recently come down from the Premier League and had players too good for the Championship, which has led to the feeling that while he can set up a team well defensively, he is overreliant on individuals to produce in the final third.
The former England midfielder's record in the Premier League makes for similar reading to Farke's. He was relegated twice with Fulham and lasted just four games in the top flight with Bournemouth before getting his marching orders.
Farke and Parker's combined 15 wins from 103 Premier League games do not inspire confidence and mean the pressure will be on straight away if they make slow starts next season.
It would be madness for either club to sack their manager this summer having just won promotion to the Premier League. Or would it? There's a reasonable argument to be made that doing so would give them the best chance to stay up.
The reality is that it would be no surprise to see Farke leave Leeds or Parker leave Burnley in the first few months, or even weeks, of the 2025/26 campaign, which would mean a new manager arriving midway through a Premier League season, inheriting a squad that is not theirs and having barely any time to work with them on the training ground.
The Whites and the Clarets will show faith in their managers in the summer transfer window, and both coaches have earned that much, but their past failures in the Premier League raise serious doubts about whether either can help their side bridge the widening gap between the EFL and the top tier.
By entering your details you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Check out more of our Sport coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
