Is the football sacking a modern-day virus? The Premier League is at the halfway point, and there have already been several mangers forced out. In fact, in this season alone six managers have been sacked from five different Premier League clubs - Tottenham, Everton, Arsenal, West Ham and Watford. The latter having cycled through two managers in the space of 85 days. With such a high turnover, it is a legitimate question to ask whether football has a sacking problem.

Football sacking example nr 1: Unai Emery.

A recent high-profile example is Unai Emery of Arsenal who sacked after only 18 months in charge at the Emirates. After finishing fifth last season, the Gunners have been poor this season. Even despite Arsenal spending a lot in the summer transfer market. While Emery should shoulder some of the blame, the fact is he was at a club that is suffering from inaction under absentee owner Stan Kroenke. The BBC noted that the most important changes needed at Arsenal are in the boardroom where they need better governance. In light of this, will Mikel Arteta be able to change anything unless the board changes its approach?

Football sacking example nr 2: Manuel Pellegrini.

Similarly, West Ham quickly found a replacement for Manuel Pellegrini. The East Londoners had been in dismal form since their 2-0 win over Manchester United in September and had lost 7 out of 10 league matches before a match against Southampton at St. Mary’s. It's a fact that Pellegrini needed a win against Southampton to keep his job. Even though he insisted that the fans and players were behind him. While the win seemingly spared Pellegrini. He was fired two games later after two consecutive defeats to Crystal Palace and Leicester City. His replacement was David Moyes, who bwin reported saved West Ham two seasons ago from relegation. With the team currently only 1-point above the relegation zone his tenure will be defined by whether he can keep West Ham up.

Watford as *great* example.

Watford have seen two managers come and go recently, which brings the total to 11 managers in the last 7 years. And while the managerial revolving door is nothing new at the club, sacking two popular managers in such a short period may reveal deeper problems. Sportswriter Ben Saunders indicated that there appears to be a problem with complacency and confidence. This has permeated all levels of the club - from players all the way up to the board. And although Quique Flores’ second coming wasn’t the antidote the club needed, with only 2 wins in 12 matches. It may have been a mistake to bring him back in the first place. Specially ahead of difficult fixtures against Arsenal and Manchester City. The difficulty of those matches reduced the chances of Watford bouncing back and contributed to Flores not being able to build any momentum.

These examples highlight how most sackings are purely reactionary solutions to a bad run of form. Instead of constantly changing their managers, clubs should focus their spending and efforts on reorganisation and better governance. If drastic changes will come at every level then new boss generally struggles to be better than the old boss.

Written by Jeannie Burrows for statisticsports.com