Watching the race for Champions League places, the teams winning promotion and a certain recent sacking reminded me of a list I'd made back in Jan '13 during one of the many calls for Jol's head. Not to toot my own horn (per se), but from that list: Martinez - has Everton within a point of Arsenal and with a game in hand for 4th and a Champions League spot. Kenny Jackett - Has Wolves in first, 6 points clear of 2nd place Brentford and with a 12 point cushion for automatic promotion with 5 games to play in League One. Nigel Pearson - Has already clinched promotion to the Premier League with Leicester City. Eddie Howe - took over a Bournemouth side that were in the relegation mix early last season and led them to promotion to the Championship. This season has them 5 pts out of a playoff spot for Premier League promotion with 6 games to go. They are in 10th, so it's unlikely they'll jump to 6th, but if they can, they'll have a shot at back to back promotions. Chris Hughton just got the sack from a Norwich side that aren't exactly loaded with talent but also aren't dead certain for relegation either. A victory over us would probably see them safe. Still, would have to go as a miss. Di Matteo, Zola and Jones are all currently out of football. Jones won promotion for Wednesday last year but was dismissed this past December with Wednesday in the relegation mix. Zola resigned in December from Watford with the team in 13th. Obviously Rodgers has Liverpool in contention for the League title, so that one is unrealistic, even with that fickle lot. But it's interesting that he was last season's version of David Moyes and there were enough rumors of a potential sacking around midseason that I bothered to mention him. It seems unlikely that we'll be in the market for a manager in the summer. But having seen so much on Martinez, Jackett, Pearson and Howe in the last week or two, I thought it would be interesting to revisit this. And partly b/c of the rumor that got out about Magath facing the sack if he fails to keep us up (even though it was quickly refuted by Sarah Brookes on twitter). But then people thought the rumor about Rene facing the sack going into the United and Liverpool matches was lazy journo garbage. So you never really know.
