Source: Team_Talk
Under-pressure trio leading sack race
The first two months of the Premier League season are over and it's about time the first managerial casualty was identified.
There are already one or two obvious targets lined up in the cross hairs but also one other who could also be looking for TV analysis work come November.
TEAMtalk's hit list comprises three names. Two are obvious, the other not so.
First to go will be Hull's Phil Brown. The players aren't performing for a man who looks to be suffering from second-season syndrome.
When asked before the 6-1 thumping at Liverpool where he wanted to be at the end of October his response was: "Still in a job."
Brown had the fans on his back following the 1-0 home defeat by Birmingham and chairman Paul Duffen came to his defence.
Not quite the dreaded vote of confidence but probably a step towards it.
But despite needing all of the friends he can get at the moment Brown pulled no punches following the Anfield debacle.
He said: "I think the players should show more pride in the shirt and their performance."
In the fickle world of football don't be surprised if the players take umbrage at such words.
Even at this early point in the season some clearly aren't
earning their salaries. Hull's October fixture list reads Wigan, Fulham, Portsmouth and Burnley.
Definitely a defining month in their season.
Portsmouth manager Paul Hart is in an even more precarious position than Brown with his side's Premier League record reading no points from seven games, the worst start since the league came into being in the early 1990s.
Hart, like Brown, enters every press conference and interview wearing his most optimistic smile but has been in the game too long not to know the sack could be just around the corner.
Following the 1-0 home defeat by Everton on Saturday he said: "We can't keep shooting ourselves in the foot."
Sulaiman Al Fahim has promised to invest in the club but £40million of the £50million he is expected to inject will be taken up wiping out the club's debt.
With only £10million to spend come January it could be another manager who is trying to keep the Hampshire club in the top flight.
Wolves, Tottenham, Hull and Wigan await Pompey in October. Again a defining month of fixtures.
Also living on borrowed time is Birmingham's Alex McLeish.
As soon as Carson Yeung completes is takeover - expected to go through next month - the comfortable atmosphere at St Andrew's will leave with the departing regime.
Successive managers at Birmingham have been shown patience by David Gold and David Sullivan but Yeung's priorities will be different.
Make no mistake he is coming into the Premier League to make money and won't want his investment sitting too near the bottom of the table.
McLeish has the fans on his back despite wins over Portsmouth and Hull. During the 2-1 home defeat by Bolton on Saturday supporters were voicing concerns over his persistence with a lone striker in Christian Benitez.
"I heard what the fans were saying but there is no evidence in terms of our performance to suggest we create more when playing two up front rather than one," said McLeish.
But if you can't defend - both of Bolton's goals came from set-pieces - and you have sacrificed your striking options then you are on an express train back to the Championship.
Kevin Phillips, so often the saviour last season in the Championship and the scorer against Bolton on Saturday, will not be the answer this season.
With the fans starting to turn against him, a new regime coming into the club and games in October against Burnley, Arsenal and Sunderland, don't be surprised to see McLeish feature in the managerial departures list.
