Are Southampton and Norwich City readying sack announcements? Social media hint could suggest so | OneFootball

The complete radio silence from two of the Championship's current crisis clubs, Norwich City and Southampton, hints that change could be coming.

There's been complete radio silence from the social media accounts of Norwich City and Southampton since Saturday, and that doesn't spell good news for the two clubs' embattled managers.

Both Liam Manning and Will Still have cause to be concerned, this week. Their respective clubs, Norwich City and Southampton, are both floundering near the bottom of the Championship table, and even though both were only appointed in the summer, either or both are already finding themselves running out of road, should they wish to star in their respective positions.

Norwich's 2-1 defeat at Swansea City on Saturday was their fifth League defeat in a row. They sit in 23rd place in the table, with only the financially stricken Sheffield Wednesday below them. It's been a surprisingly weak start to the season, for a club who were expected to improve on an underwhelming 13th place finish last season.

Depending on your perspective, the situation at Southampton could be better or worse. On one hand, the Saints are at least not in the relegation places following their 2-1 defeat at Blackburn Rovers. They're in 20th place in the table, so at least they're not in the bottom three. But that's about as far as the good news goes for head coach Will Still.

With the substantial advantage of Premier League parachute payments behind them, they were expected to be challenging for a quick return this season, not looking uncomfortably over their shoulders at the possibility of a second successive relegation into League One.

Liam Manning looked like the right choice for Norwich City in the summer

Expectations at Carrow Road didn't go so far as expecting promotion back to the Premier League this season, but with two of the Canaries' three seasons since their last relegation from the top flight in 2022 having ended with the team finishing in 13th place in the Championship, there was optimism that, with a new manager and money having been spent on the first-team squad, there would be improvement, this time around.

It felt as though Liam Manning should have been the right choice for Norwich City. Manning took Bristol City into the Championship play-offs last season without enormous investment into the team. On top of that, there was a sentimental reason for him to be a success too, with him having been born in Norwich and having started his academy career at Carrow Road.

But Norwich's record under him has been dismal. Their only two league wins of the season so far both came away from home and in August. The Canaries have played five home League games so far this season, and have lost every single one of them. They spent a lot of money during the summer transfer window, but have little to show for it.

And while fans should remain patient while a new manager finds his feet, Manning was appointed at the end of May, giving him an entire summer to fine-tune his team. All the more worrying, performances haven't improved in recent weeks. There's been a deterioration since a modest start to the season.

Southampton's position hasn't been helped by high pre-season expectations

The situation that Will Still faces at Southampton is, in some respects, even more severe than that facing Liam Manning at Norwich because expectations at St Mary's before the start of the season were so much higher. The Saints may have had a dismal season in the Premier League in 2024-25, but such is the size of the financial advantage enjoyed by clubs just relegated as a result of parachute payments, a serious tilt at a quick return will have been.

Yet Southampton's form this season hasn't been much better than Norwich's. They've also only won two League games this season, and one of those came on the opening weekend.

Their run of results since then has been one win in eleven League matches, and that came away from home against then-bottom club Sheffield United. Like Norwich, Southampton were extremely busy in the summer transfer market, but all of this spending has amounted to very little indeed.

The managers of both clubs may be concerned by the radio silence from their clubs since last weekend's results. A happy club will post on social media reasonably regularly. It's good for engagement and keeps fans interested, after all.

But when silence does come around, particularly in the middle of a poor run of form, there's no way of sugar-coating the silence as being anything encouraging. It all points to the possibility that some considerable announcement could be set to follow in the very near future.

Both Southampton and Norwich City have fallen way short of the expectations that were placed upon the teams before the start of the season. Both of the clubs' managers may be running out of time to fix the issues they face. They may even have already completely run out.