The sacking of Ange Postecoglou as Nottingham Forest boss last week, less than 20 minutes after his side were beaten 3-0 at home to Chelsea, was the third managerial dismissal in the Premier League this season – and the second at Forest despite there being just eight games played.

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, who had a spat with ex-head coach Nuno Espirito Santo, now in charge at West Ham United, has been quick to act this season, with former Tottenham Hotspur boss Postecoglou sacked after just 39 days in the job, paying the price for a winless start under his stewardship, one that had already sown enough seeds of doubt in Marinakis’ mind to see him make a decision.

The stakes are high in the Premier League. For any club outside the so-called ‘big six’, who, even having posted worst-ever seasons in the Premier League era like Manchester United did last season, are in reality too big to fail and fall through the trap door. For those sides, decisions are made based on who will help them qualify for European football, specifically the Champions League.

For the rest, while the odds may be longer for some, staving off relegation worries is the first port of call. The financial price to be paid for dropping out of the Premier League is significant, and can be catastrophic if an immediate rebound back to the promised land isn’t achieved. Despite parachute payments softening the landing on a three-year sliding scale, losing up to 40% of revenue isn’t unheard of.

That’s why snap decisions are made on the future of managers, and why the cost of sacking those who haven’t hit the standards required is seen as a necessary spend in order to protect the major revenue streams that come with Premier League membership. Severance pay can be expensive to shell out for, but it is often a drop in the ocean compared to what the cost of relegation could be, or what missing out on lucrative Champions League revenue could do to the balance sheet and ability to spend and strengthen within the confines of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability regulations (PSR).

The more sackings, the more paid out in severance payments to managers and backroom staff. It also points to a lack of strategy and often reflects poorly on the decision-making of owners or those they have tasked with following through with the call to axe a boss and make a change.

So who leads the way in the Premier League over the past five years when it comes to money shelled out on paying up the contracts of bosses who have failed?

Chelsea (£40m – Frank Lampard, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino)

The managerial merry-go-round at Stamford Bridge isn’t something new under the current Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital ownership group, in charge since May 2022, it has been a fixture of Chelsea for some time, right back to the time of Roman Abramovich. With so much invested, returns on the field are expected, and if managers can’t deliver then there is limited patience.

Frank Lampard’s 2021 sacking saw him entitled to around £2m in severance pay, a fairly small sum, but when the current England manager Thomas Tuchel was sacked early in the Boehly/Clearlake project after the two parties failed to align over the club strategy, the cost of sacking the German and his backroom team was in the region of £15m.

Then came Graham Potter. Now, we haven’t included the cost of compensation for hiring managers in this analysis. If we did then that would be some £21.5m added to the list of wasted money after that was what the Blues paid Brighton & Hove Albion for his services in September 2022.

Potter lasted just seven months and 31 matches at Chelsea before being shown the door after poor results, with around £13m paid in compensation to the former Ostersunds boss, who has since been hired and sacked by West Ham United, and this week took on the role of head coach of the Swedish national team.

Then came Mauricio Pochettino. While only a two-year deal, sacking the current Unites States national team manager cost the club around £10m. Enzo Maresca, for now, is faring better than his predecessors, but the amount spent on sacking bosses doesn’t reflect well on ownership.

Tottenham Hotspur (£38m – Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo, Antonio Conte, Ange Postecoglou)

The Daniel Levy era at Spurs has been over for some weeks now, and while a world-class stadium and strong balance sheet are to show for his time as chairman, making good calls on managers wasn’t a strong suit of leadership over the last five years.

Jose Mourinho’s 2021 exit cost the club £16m, before the very brief stint in the hotseat of another Portuguese manager, Nuno Espirito Santo saw them have to shell out around £14m in compensation for four months work.

Then came Antonio Conte, whose 2018 sacking at Chelsea cost the club more than £25m, although a far smaller payout was due when he left in 2023, this time £4m, the same sum due to Aussie manager Ange Postecoglou when he was fired at the end of last season.

Manchester United (£24.5m – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Erik ten Hag)

The threat of the sack may have been hanging over the head of current boss Ruben Amorim like the Sword of Damacles for a little while now, but given the amount already spent on sacking managers it is little surprise they have afforded the former Sporting CP boss more time.

A legend for the club in his playing days, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s reign as boss came to an end in 2021 after 168 games over nearly three years. Bringing an end to his time in the dugout, and that of his coaching staff, cost the club around £10m.

Dutchman Erik ten Hag’s arrival at Old Trafford was seen as ushering in what was hoped would be a successful new era after he impressed as boss of Ajax. But his exit 12 months ago cost the club £14.5m, a figure increased due to the fact that he was handed a rather surprising contract extension after winning the FA Cup some months prior.

Everton (£20.6m – Carlo Ancelotti, Rafael Benitez, Frank Lampard, Sean Dyche)

Everton netted some €5m in compensation from Real Madrid when Carlo Ancelotti left Goodison Park in favour of the Santiago Bernabeu in 2021, but the cost of sacking managers has proven to be an expensive business for a club that has been through the financial wringer over the past five years.

Rafa Benitez was an unpopular appointment among many Evertonians from the start, and his exit in 2022 cost the club around £10.5m, a sum recognised as an ‘operating exceptional cost’ in the 2021/22 accounting period in which it fell.

Then came Lampard, whose payout was reflected as £7.1m in the club’s accounts for 2022/23. The exact figures related to the departure of Dyche and his staff last season have not yet been made public, although they will fall in the 2024/25 accounts. A reasonable estimate would be around £3m.

Wolverhampton Wanderers (£13.5m – Nuno Espirito Santo, Bruno Lage, Julen Lopetegui, Gary O’Neil)

When Nuno left in May of 2021 after four years in charge at Molineux, he did so at the end of a Premier League campaign and by mutual consent. But with two years remaining he was entitled to a severance package from the club, likely around the £3m mark.

His replacement, Bruno Lage, left in October of 2022 had a little under two years on his deal remaining, and on a similar deal, another £3m ballpark sum was the likely outcome, according to industry analysis.

Then came Julen Lopetegui, who was became the highest paid manager in Wolverhampton Wanderers history when he arrived as Lage’s replacement. But the Spanish boss, currently in charge of the Qatar national team, left a little over a year into his three-year deal. In the club’s accounts for that period, while no figure was placed on his departure it did point to the fact that “operational cost savings were largely offset by the departure of the previous head coach and his coaching team.”

Using that, and taking a broader look at the accounts, suggests a figure of around £4m when staff costs were included for Lopetegui’s severance package. His successor, Gary O’Neil, was understood to be on similar terms, with the terms of his severance also similar, albeit slightly less. With this in mind, a sum of around £3.5m given the length of his deal that remained, which was roughly 18 months.

Nottingham Forest – (£10.5m – Chris Hughton, Steve Cooper, Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou)

Chris Hughton’s 2021 exit as boss of a struggling Forest side in the Championship cost around £1m, with the former Brighton boss having around a year on his deal remaining.

In came Steve Cooper, whose arrival cost £1.5m from Swansea City, although we aren’t including that here. But his exit from Forest in December 2023 cost the club, based on his two years remaining, around £3m.

The September sacking Nuno, whose relationship with Marinakis had soured towards the end of last season, will have cost the club around £6m based on remainder of deal and understood salary, with Postecoglou’s short reign seeing the club incur a severance hit of around £3.5m.

West Ham United (£8.5m – David Moyes, Julen Lopetegui, Graham Potter)

When David Moyes departed the London Stadium at the end of the 2023/24 season it was agreed ahead of time.

Moyes, who had delivered European success to the Hammers through winning the UEFA Europa Conference League in June 2023, had seen his side endure struggles on the pitch in 2023/24, and it was announced that he would be leaving his position when his deal expired in May 2024. The result being no compensation due to the current Everton manager.

Lopetegui, Moyes’ replacement, left in January 2025 but had a pre-agreed clause in his deal that saw him entitled to around £3.5m should he be sacked, effectively 12 months pay.

Potter inked a two-and-a-half year deal in January, but with two years remaining, a payout of around £5m is understood to be the ballpark figure.

Newcastle United (£8m – Steve Bruce)

Newcastle United’s change of ownership from the Mike Ashley era to the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) back in late 2021 pretty much had the writing on the wall for Steve Bruce as soon as it was announced.

Bruce’s relationship with the Magpies fans had broken down, and with the PIF wanting to stamp their authority on the team and make a statement, the former Hull City, Birmingham City and Aston Villa boss was shown the door a fortnight after the new owners took over.

Bruce, whose managerial career has taken in spells at 13 clubs, did walk away well compensated, however, to the tune of some £8m.

Aston Villa (£7m – Dean Smith, Steven Gerrard)

Dean Smith’s 2021 exit from Villa Park after he had been the man to return them to the Premier League football following a period in the Championship, would’ve cost Villa around £2m, it also paved the way for the expensive hiring of Steven Gerrard from Glasgow Rangers, with the Liverpool legend having been in situ as boss of the Scottish side, with £4.5m required to prize him away.

Gerrard left after 11 months. While the actual cost of his sacking wasn’t itemised in the accounts, the estimate was around £5m, with a pre-agreed severance of around 12 months pay likely.

Leeds United (£6.5m – Marcelo Bielsa, Jesse Marsch, Javi Gracia)

When the popular Argentinian boss Marcelo Bielsa, the man who led Leeds back to the promised land of the Premier League in 2020, was handed his P45 in February of 2022 it was a decision that was not universally popular, such was the high regard he was held in by the Elland Road faithful.

The cost of his exit was detailed in Leeds’ accounts for 2021/22, with Bielsa receiving £3.5m in severance from the club. His successor, American Jesse Marsch, spent a year in charge before he was also shown the exit door. The 2022/23 accounts didn’t detail the cost of his exit in such detail, but industry estimates place the cost of his compensation at around £3m.

Javi Gracia arrived on a flexible contract and lasted 12 games, while Sam Allardyce took on a short-term stint in the dugout. Compensation was afforded to neither.