| Updated: A difficult start to a season can quickly put a football manager under pressure. Some clubs give coaches time to respond, while others make a change after only a handful of league matches, turning the opening months of a campaign into a particularly uncertain period on the touchline. The contrast across Europe has been striking, with one league already recording eight managerial changes while another has yet to make a single one.
SportingPedia analysed managerial changes across Europe’s top 7 leagues in the 2026/27 season, covering the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Liga Portugal and the Eredivisie. We recorded every change up to 4 November 2026 and compared how many league matches each departing coach completed before leaving his club.
By that date, the seven competitions had recorded 23 managerial changes. Liga Portugal leads with eight and Serie A follows with five, while the Premier League is the only one of the seven leagues without a managerial change. Nacional has already changed manager twice, while Paulo Fonseca’s departure from Lyon on 4 November brought Ligue 1 level with La Liga and the Eredivisie on three changes.
Some spells ended remarkably quickly. Alexandre Santos at Nacional, Fabio Grosso at Fiorentina and Eugen Polanski at Borussia Mönchengladbach all departed after only three league matches, while João Gião, Domenico Tedesco and Dino Toppmöller lasted four. Serie A supplied four of the nine coaches who left within six league games, while Robin Peter at ADO Den Haag reached 11, the longest spell among the 23 departures.
Managerial changes in Europe’s top 7 leagues in the 2026/27 season
Data Source: Transfermarkt
Liga Portugal leads with eight changes, while the Premier League has none
Liga Portugal has recorded eight managerial changes, comfortably the highest number among the seven competitions. Serie A follows with five, while La Liga, Ligue 1 and the Eredivisie have three each. The Bundesliga has recorded one, leaving the Premier League as the only competition without a managerial change.
Portugal’s lead is clear, with three more changes than Serie A and more than twice as many as Spain, France or the Netherlands. Nacional is the only club to appear twice, while the other Portuguese changes came at Rio Ave, Arouca, Estoril, Famalicão, Braga and Sporting.
Serie A’s five changes came at Fiorentina, Bologna, Parma, Venezia and Udinese. Valencia, Osasuna and Espanyol account for the three in La Liga, while Ligue 1 reached three following Paulo Fonseca’s departure from Lyon on 4 November, alongside earlier changes at Lens and Le Havre. PEC Zwolle, Willem II and ADO Den Haag make up the Eredivisie total, while Borussia Mönchengladbach accounts for the Bundesliga’s only change.
The gap at the two ends is particularly striking. Liga Portugal has reached eight changes and Serie A five, while the Bundesliga has recorded just one and the Premier League has yet to make its first.
Shortest managerial spells of the 2026/27 season in Europe’s top 7 leagues
Data Source: Transfermarkt
Six coaches were gone after no more than four league matches
The shortest spells lasted just three league matches. Alexandre Santos left Nacional after three games, Fabio Grosso departed Fiorentina after the same number and Eugen Polanski left Borussia Mönchengladbach after three. Those exits came in three different competitions.
Another three coaches lasted only one match longer. João Gião departed Nacional after four league games, Domenico Tedesco left Bologna after four and Dino Toppmöller left Lens at the same point, bringing the number of coaches gone within their first four league matches to six.
The next exits came after five and six games. Carlos Cuesta left Parma after five matches, as did Carlos Corberán at Valencia, while Giovanni Stroppa reached six with Venezia. In total, nine of the 23 departures came before a seventh league match was completed.
Sotiris Sylaidopoulos and Vasco Seabra both reached seven matches, while five coaches departed after eight: Vasco Matos, Carlos Carvalhal, Carlos Vicens, Luis Miguel Ramis and Henry van der Vegt. Eight matches is therefore the most common exact tenure among the departing coaches.
John Stegeman, Didier Digard and Paulo Fonseca left after nine league games, while Kosta Runjaic, Manolo González and Rui Borges reached 10. Robin Peter lasted the longest, leaving ADO Den Haag after 11 league matches.
Serie A accounts for four of the nine earliest departures
Serie A sits behind Liga Portugal for total managerial changes, but several of its departures came particularly early. Four of the league’s five departing coaches left within six league matches.
Fabio Grosso left Fiorentina after three games, Domenico Tedesco departed Bologna after four, Carlos Cuesta left Parma after five and Giovanni Stroppa departed Venezia after six. Kosta Runjaic was the only one of the five to reach double figures, leaving Udinese after 10 league matches.
Those four Serie A departures account for four of the nine coaches who left within six league matches across all seven competitions. The remaining five were Alexandre Santos and João Gião in Liga Portugal, Eugen Polanski in the Bundesliga, Dino Toppmöller in Ligue 1 and Carlos Corberán in La Liga.
Liga Portugal therefore leads for the overall number of managerial changes, while Serie A contributes the largest number of departures within the first six league matches.
Methodology:
SportingPedia examined managerial changes across the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Liga Portugal and the Eredivisie during the 2026/27 season, with a cut-off date of 4 November 2026.
For every managerial change, we recorded the club and the number of league matches completed before departure. Only domestic league fixtures were counted, with cup and European matches excluded.