Top 7 most shocking managerial sackings in EFL Championship history (Ranked) | OneFootball

Football League World looks at the seven most shocking and controversial managerial sackings to have taken place in the Championship

Patience is very much a virtue within the confines of EFL Championship boardrooms, with unrealistic expectations afoot and time often tending to be of the essence as trigger-happy owners rarely back down from making controversial sackings when the moment is believed to be right.

Usually, of course, the moment is indeed wrong, and the dismissals are met with surprise and outrage before backfiring dramatically on the club in question.

There have been no shortage of shocking sackings throughout the second-tier landscape over the years, and Football League World has decided to name and rank the SEVEN most surprising calls to have taken place.

7 ? ? David Wagner at Norwich City - May 2024

Getting things underway is the controversial sacking of David Wagner from Norwich City in May 2024, which came less than 24 hours after the Canaries were trounced by Leeds United in the play-off semi-finals.

Norwich had failed to build upon a stalemate draw at Carrow Road in the first leg and left West Yorkshire battered and bruised following a 4-0 defeat to the Whites, yet Wagner had done remarkably well to steer the side into promotion contention in the first place and the immediacy of his departure was both surprising and harsh in equal measure.

Wagner, who first arrived at Norwich in January 2023, could only take the club as high as 13th in his first season and had looked to be on the way out when they dropped to 17th in November, although the German turned up the heat and secured a sixth-placed finish come the end of the campaign.

Norwich, much like many on this list, may well have been left with regret when replacement Johannes Hoff Thorup won just 14 of his 47 games in charge before being relieved of his duties in April of the following year.

6 ? ? Liam Rosenior at Hull City - May 2024

A month of surreal sackings saw Liam Rosenior separately dismissed at the MKM Stadium after narrowly falling short of achieving a play-off finish at Hull City, who wound up an often-exhilarating 2023/24 campaign just one place and three points shy of Norwich in seventh.

Rosenior, having taken the Tigers to a first top-half finish since relegation from the Premier League back in 2017, signed a new three-year contract just months earlier and had even been nominated for the Championship's Manager of the Season award in April.

He steadied the ship upon arriving for the club's second-tier return two years prior, although expectations were raised when the likes of Fabio Carvalho, Liam Delap, Ryan Giles, Jaden Philogene and Anass Zaroury joined throughout the season - with varying degrees of success, it must be said - in a clear show of ambition from popular chairman Acun Ilicali.

The Turkish mogul put his neck on the line by dismissing Rosenior in the wake of Hull's failure to reach the top-six and it did initially backfire when Tim Walter and later Ruben Selles nearly sent his side down the following season, although the subsequent appointment of Sergej Jakirovic then proved a masterstroke as promotion was won through the play-offs against all odds last time out.

5 ? ? John Eustace at Birmingham City - October 2023

Undoubtedly the most ill-fated judgement call made by much-liked owners Knighthead at Birmingham City to date, the decision to part company with John Eustace in the early stages of the 2023/24 season will always go down as a disaster.

Eustace recorded Blues' highest points tally since 2016 with 53 in his first season when the Second City outfit wound up in 17th-place prior to Knighthead's takeover that summer.

From the outside looking in, expectations remained modest, but the club's key decision-makers didn't quite see it the same way and ultimately decided to pull the trigger after just 11 matches of the new season - despite Birmingham emerging as an early surprise package by sitting in fifth at the time of his exit with five wins already on the record in the wake of a rousing 3-1 victory over West Midlands rivals West Bromwich Albion.

Birmingham highlighted a "misalignment with the leadership of the Club" as a leading reason for Eustace's unprecedented departure, though that hardly vindicated the appointment of Wayne Rooney either, and Blues would plunge to relegation contenders under the Manchester United legend's management, which yielded just two wins from 15 fixtures.

The damage was already done by the time that Rooney was sent packing before Birmingham dropped into League One and while Knighthead have largely put it right both on and off-the-pitch ever since, they will never find much merit for having so harshly sacked the now-Derby County boss.

4 ? ? Chris Wilder at Sheffield United - May 2025

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As we've seen with Wagner, harsh sackings in the aftermath of play-off defeats are not uncommon and that's the exact fate which befell Chris Wilder following Sheffield United's agonising last-grasp loss to Sunderland at Wembley last year.

Not only had the Blades made it to the final, they had done so by defeating Bristol City by a six-goal margin across two legs and were unfortunate to have not sealed automatic promotion courtesy of 100-point campaigns for both Leeds United and Burnley.

Indeed, third-placed United's points haul of 90 - 92 without a two-point deduction - would have been enough to earn a top-two finish in eight of the previous 10 Championship seasons, yet they ultimately failed to get the job done when it mattered most.

A revered figure at Bramall Lane, the dismissal of the iconic Blades figure wasn't solely determined by missing out on promotion at the first time of asking, and division in ideas of the recruitment strategy between Wilder and new owners COH Sports - who had thrashed out a new contract prior to his sacking - played a central role.

Instead, the American consortium sought out the aforementioned Selles after his departure from Hull City, but the Spaniard went down as the club's worst-ever manager by losing all six of his games in charge before the United top-brass came out with their tails between their legs to swiftly re-appoint Wilder.

3 ? ? Gary Rowett at Birmingham City - December 2016

Although the two sackings were sanctioned by two different ownership groups, it's remarkable that Birmingham feature twice and the sacking of Rowett was even more startling than Eustace's exit.

The two cases present many eerie similarities, though, with Rowett having taken Blues from 23rd upon arrival to two successive tenth-placed finishes and then into play-off contention.

Yet, in December 2016, Birmingham decided to pull the trigger when Rowett's side were seventh and just three points shy of third following a 2-1 win against Ipswich Town and just two defeats from the last seven matches.

Not even six hours later, Blues would confirm the appointment of Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola, highlighting the Italian's "pedigree" as mirroring the club's ambition to "move in a new direction" despite a largely-unconvincing managerial record.

Much like replacing Eustace with Rooney, shifting the tried-and-tested for a flashy name with immense Premier League playing pedigree backfired dramatically, with Zola going on to take just two wins from 24 games as Birmingham crashed down the table and only survived by two points on the final day.

2 ? ? Brian McDermott at Leeds United - January 2014

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Massimo Cellino's reign at the Leeds United helm was characterised by chaos, and few sagas were more controversial and absurd than the prolonged departure of Brian McDermott in 2014.

Initially appointed as Neil Warnock's successor in April 2013, the former promotion-winning Reading boss was a popular figure among the Elland Road faithful but failed to receive the same level of faith and support from Cellino as the chaotic Italian set his sights on purchasing the club.

It's the nature of his sacking, as opposed to simply the sacking itself, that solidifies McDermott's departure as one of the craziest to have ever taken place in Championship history.

In January 2014, it was widely-reported that Cellino, despite having not yet completed his purchase at this stage, had ordered the sacking of McDermott. Reports then emerged that club directors were attempting to reinstate the ex-Arsenal midfielder owing to Cellino's inability to formally sanction a dismissal, although assistant Nigel Gibbs was placed in caretaker charge for a fixture against Huddersfield Town after prospective new head coach Gianluca Festa had changed the line-up for the home clash with the Terriers.

The situation created uproar as sponsors withdrew their investment and, infamously, infuriated Leeds fans would chase Cellino's taxi around Elland Road following the initial sacking of McDermott.

However, the Whites soon released a statement announcing that McDermott had not been dismissed after all - only for his departure to eventually be finalised following the conclusion of the campaign, which petered out with a disappointing 15th-placed finish, but not before Cellino had claimed Leeds had "no manager" when the Whites boss was away on holiday prior to his exit by mutual consent.

The grass isn't always greener, and Cellino found that out for himself when the bizarre tenure of ex-Forest Green Rovers Dave Hockaday lasted just 70 days.

1 ? ? Gus Poyet at Brighton and Hove Albion - May 2013

The bizarre sacking of Gus Poyet from Brighton and Hove Albion at the end of the 2012/13 season sent shockwaves throughout the footballing world, not only due to the decision itself but how the Uruguayan claimed to have unforgettably learned of his fate.

Poyet began his managerial career with Brighton in 2009 and took the Seagulls back into the second-tier as League One champions in his first full campaign, which was followed up with a 10th-placed finish and then a run towards the play-offs.

Hugely popular among many at Brighton, Poyet's side finished fourth - marking a highest league finish in 30 years - and then fell to defeat against bitter rivals Crystal Palace in the semi-finals before it was announced that the ex-Chelsea midfielder had been suspended and informed to stay away from the club pending an investigation into potential breach of contract for comments made in the wake of the elimination at the hands of the Eagles.

A month later, however, Poyet allegedly found out of Brighton's decision to part company when a member of the BBC production staff brandished a printout of a club statement while he was covering the FIFA Confederations Cup clash between Spain and Nigeria.

The Seagulls denied that Poyet was only made aware of the outcome when performing his punditry duties, although he claims that's when his fate was realised.

Either way, it represents the most shocking Championship sacking we've seen, marking an abrupt end to what had been a dazzling spell in charge of the Sussex-based side.