Ralf Rangnick could be the latest victim of player power in the Premier League should he lose his job because Manchester United stars are ‘annoyed’ by his training sessions.
The German coach may only be contracted in his current role at Old Trafford until the end of the season, but United have been quick to act in the past if they don’t see things going in the right direction.
Rangnick wouldn’t be the first to lose a job in that manner, with players on occasion visiting chairman in order to share concerns about the middle man.
With that in mind, Silver Screen Beat Sport have taken a look back at six occasions in which managers have lost the faith of their players – and subsequently been left without employment.
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Paolo Di Canio
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Former Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn said back in 2013 that Paolo Di Canio was sacked by the club because he had lost the faith of the players.
The former West Ham forward was in charge for just 13 fixtures having impressed at Swindon – lasting only six months between March and September.
Quinn said: “If we start to peel the layers off in the coming days and find out what life was like under him from various players, you’ll probably see a story that says this was a guy who did things in a totally unique way and, by the looks of things, the players weren’t buying into it.”
Andre Villas-Boas
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Andre Villas-Boas joined Chelsea from Porto back in 2011, but would only last 40 matches in the dugout before being sacked in March of 2012.
His exit came after players confronted the manager in a in training-ground row, on a day that owner Roman Abramovich happened to be at Cobham.
A few weeks later his lost his job, going on to manage Spurs, Zenit, Shanghai SIPG and most recently Marseille.
John Carver
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John Carver was in charge of 20 Newcastle games as caretaker and then interim boss in 2015, winning three, drawing four and losing as many as 13.
Before his sacking in June of that year, Carver accused his players of not having enough bottle to beat Sunderland in the derby, which didn’t go down too well.
He said: ‘We’ve got a group of people that have played in several derbies and there’s a little bit of a pattern there. I am absolutely embarrassed to be part of it, but I am a part of it and I have to deal with it.”
Ruud Gullit
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Ruud Gullit went from Chelsea player to manager back in 1996, winning 41 of his 83 games in charge before being sacked and called arrogant by chairman Ken Bates.
Former Blues striker Michael Duberry told JOE in January of the circumstances around Gullit’s exit, and said that he wouldn’t give dropped or unfavored players any explanation.
He said: “When he got sacked, and the rumour was that players went in and spoke to Ken Bates on him, for me it wasn’t a surprise. It wasn’t a surprise that players were (deflated).”
Claudio Ranieri
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Despite leading them to Premier League glory just a season earlier, Claudio Ranieri was sacked by Leicester in 2017 with reports saying that players had gone to the chairman.
However, he couldn’t bring himself to believe that had been the case, with Kasper Schmeichel telling BBC Sport: “There’s absolutely no truth in that whatsoever.
“We are players and we can only affect on the pitch – and we haven’t done that.”
Jose Mourinho
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Jose Mourinho has been sacked from four jobs in the Premier League, the latest of which coming at Tottenham following spells with Manchester United and Chelsea.
It was reported last year that a player revolt caused the legendary boss to lose his job in north London, with Daniel Levy left with no choice but to sack him.
Silver Screen Beat said that it was Levy who did the firing, but the players who supplied the metaphorical ‘bullets’.
