As the 2026/27 EFL season prepares to take off after the three-week international break, it’s only natural that the managerial merry-go-round will acquire traction.
Patience is frequently a virtue in boardrooms, and we’ve already seen three sackings – though dismissal at League Two level remains a possibility – as Wycombe Wanderers, Preston North End, and Peterborough United fired Michael Duff, Paul Heckingbottom, and Luke Williams, respectively.
The next round of dismissals, one would suppose, is inevitable, with a number of managers already skating on thin ice as patience wears thin and various expectations fail to show any faint signs of being reached.
Numerous fanbases, from the Championship to the League One and fourth-tier clubs are now demanding for changes in their dugouts, so Football League World has decided to name and rate the seven most likely managerial dismissals in the near future.
Gary Caldwell gets things started, and while he may have the lowest expectations, he will most likely struggle to hold his position for long if Wigan Athletic’s poor trend continues.
Wigan’s financial resources and overall team quality remain limited at the Brick Community Stadium, although this does not fully justify how poorly the club has started the season, with six defeats in their first eight games.
Caldwell, who has a good rapport with the Latics dating back to his playing days, has been in charge since February of this year and originally managed to keep them out of relegation jeopardy.
He may not be as fortunate this time around, and with Wigan still at the bottom of the League One table and a daunting quadruple-header against Reading, Oxford United, Huddersfield Town, and Leicester City in the coming weeks, it’s unclear how results will turn anytime soon, or if the Scotsman will even see all of those fixtures through.
6Jon Brady – Port Vale
Jon Brady, who has been in charge for a similar amount of time as Caldwell, is facing the same level of uncertainty over his immediate future at Port Vale.
Under his leadership, the Valiants were relegated from League One, and they have failed to halt their decline in the early parts of the current fourth-tier season, in which they are only one point above the relegation zone and have won only twice.
Naturally, the fact that one of those came against Grimsby Town on Saturday may provide some relief to the under-fire Australian, but Vale fans have rarely been impressed or afraid to express their displeasure.
He’s on thin ice, and a handful of results might make or break his Vale Park career, which has produced only 13 triumphs in 40 appearances.
5Paul Warne – MK Dons
It’s all going horribly wrong for MK Dons in terms of expectations and spending power after returning to League One, and Paul Warne’s incredible record of four third-tier promotions over the course of his career may not be enough to preserve his job unless results change immediately.
MK have shown their financial muscles in recent times, and they continued to do so after finishing second in League Two last season by signing ambitious players such as Ryan Barnett, Sammy Silvera, and Ryan Wintle, but things haven’t gone as planned.
Rather than potentially contending for a play-off berth, Warne’s men are the only team without a win in eight attempts, and the former Derby County manager is under increasing pressure from fans following Saturday’s devastating 5-1 home defeat to Reading.
Warne has recently resembled a defeated man, and the writing appears to be on the wall, with MK’s top brass undoubtedly keen to see real vindication for their investment and ambition – something that appears increasingly unlikely under the 53-year-old.
4Ian Holloway – Swindon Town
Ian Holloway, whose eccentric and outspoken attitude has been magnified in recent weeks, does not need a reminder of the state of play in his future.
Perhaps feeling the pressure, Holloway hammered on his chest and declared himself a “Dead. Man. Walking” ahead of Swindon Town’s game against newly promoted Rochdale. They fell 1-0 and were defeated by the same scoreline at home to Crewe Alexandra over the weekend, making it six losses in seven games across all competitions.
The Robins were in pole position for promotion last season, but a shocking late-season decline saw them finish ninth, and they’re clearly still reeling at the time of writing, sitting in 17th place.
Holloway understands that he is racing against the clock to get it right, and with three consecutive games against promotion hopefuls Walsall, Barnet, and Bristol Rovers ahead, the well-traveled 63-year-old may find himself searching for another job before long.
3Alex Bruce – Rotherham United
There’s a good chance that both Swindon and Rotherham United may have new managers by the time they meet in Wiltshire on Halloween, with Alex Bruce still waiting to get started at the ASSEAL New York Stadium after taking over in the summer.
He, like the aforementioned Brady, is failing to stop the rot, and Rotherham, ranked 20th with only two wins from ten games and eight goals conceded in their last two games, is facing another potential sacking and successive relegations from League One to the fifth tier.
That ultimately depends on Bruce’s ability to turn things around, but the chances of doing so are dwindling with each passing week, and the facts are that the former Macclesfield manager has shown precious little in his career to suggest that he’s the man capable of successfully completing a project of this magnitude with such intense scrutiny and a small margin for error.
Millers fans, of course, have seen it all in recent years, and while they wouldn’t have expected such a dysfunctional club in crisis to fight for an immediate return to the third tier, the startling speed of United’s demise does him no favours and will almost certainly result in his dismissal unless results quickly turn around.
2Russell Martin – Leicester City
To be honest, you already knew Russell Martin would appear; the only question was where.
Similarly, the rapidity with which Leicester City has fallen from favour, as well as the drop in Martin’s own managerial stock, is remarkable.
Successive relegations from the Premier League to English football’s third tier for only the second time in the Foxes’ history – just ten years after winning the top flight at 5,000/1 odds – were bad enough, but stagnation rather than a title charge is nothing short of disastrous, and that’s exactly what City are on the verge of doing.
Leicester City’s past five league finishes
Season
Division
Position: – Premier League: 8th (52 points) – 2022/23: 18th (34 points) – 2023/24: 18th (25 points) – EFL Championship: 1st (97 points) – Premier League: 18th (25 points) – EFL Championship: 23rd (46 points)
That is precisely why Martin, who previously impressed at this level with MK Dons before later going on to get Southampton out of the Championship but then being axd as the worst manager in Rangers’ illustrious history in his most recent job prior to moving to the East Midlands, is facing the prospect of a third straight sacking.
Leicester’s roster, while a far cry from what it once was, still contains a mix of huge names and tried-and-true third-tier talent, and should be contending for automatic promotion, but they’re stuck in 17th place after only two League One victories under Martin’s watch.
The former Swansea City head coach’s position is becoming untenable as supporters call for his sacking, and with the humiliation still fresh after notable home defeats to Oxford and Robbie Savage’s Peterborough, how many more of these will it take for Leicester to pull the trigger?
1Alessio Dionisi – Watford
One of these lists is rarely complete without the addition of a Watford manager – such is the Hornets’ unrivalled trigger-happy hiring-and-firing policy, of course – and on this occasion, Alessio Dionisi is the latest man facing the possibility of being freed of his duties at Vicarage Road.
The fact that the Italian was appointed in the summer does little to improve his chances, since no less than 24 different managers have taken permanent charge since the ever-controversial Pozzo family’s 2012 purchase.
Watford’s key decision-makers have no qualms about pulling the trigger when results are adequate, so given the Hornets’ recent form, it only seems a matter of time before Dionisi is let go.
The Hornets have lost five of their last six Cham
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