Rafa Benitez First Winner of the Sack Race "Turnip Head" Manager of the Month Award

• Friday, 27 November 2009

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The Sack Race "Turnip Head" Manager of the Month Award is a new category designed for football managers who have seen their team underperform each month. The term Turnip Head was given to Graham Taylor by the press as England struggled at Euro 92 and missed out on the 1994 World Cup altogether.

The November Turnip Head Award goes to Rafa Benitez after Liverpool’s dire start to the season continued throughout November, the month has seen Liverpool crash out of the Champions League and fall further behind in the Premier league title race and the is much speculation about the Next Liverpool Manager Betting. Other Managers in the frame for the unwanted award included Gary Megson at Bolton who have been plummeting down the table and Mick McCarthy at Wolves who has seen his Wolves side suffer some heavy defeats and is also looking vulnerable.

Gary Megson is enduring a torrid spell at the Reebok Stadium and is one of the favourites to be the Next Premier League Manager To Be Sacked, with the team struggling on the pitch and off it. After their limp defeat at home to Blackburn the Manager himself admitted there was some unrest with certain players behind the scenes. We are unsure at this stage who the players in question are but it will be a major worry for Bolton fans as they look set for a relegation battle over the coming months. All of this has seen Bolton lose their first three matches in November which have included heavy losses to both Aston Villa and Chelsea, this means that Megson is starting to find himself under intense pressure and speculation at the Reebok Stadium.

The same can be said of Mick McCarthy and Wolves who after a bright start to the season have also slipped into the relegation zone following some poor results, Wolves have a good young squad but they are leaking goals at an alarming rate which is a bad sign for their chances. In terms of football ability Wolves seem to be the best of the three promoted sides, however that may well be their downfall in looking to attack the better opposition in search of goals they are also leaving themselves open in defence. McCarthy is well aware that Wolves will not want to get relegated and the board will not hesitate in acting should the team continue to struggle.

However both Megson and McCarthy can relax as it is Rafa Benitez of Liverpool who has claimed the Sack Race "Turnip Head" Manager of the Month Award and this is one trophy that the Spaniard did not want to win we can assure you. Prior to the start of the season Liverpool were well fancied for the title after finishing second last term but it has not worked out for Rafa and November has just seen the pressure build match-by-match. The trouble started this month when they conceded a last minute goal in Lyon to deny them the win which effectively knocked them out of the Champions League, it is the first time they have not gone beyond the group stages since 2002 and they will now have to settle for Europa League Football. It has not been much better in the league drawing at home to both Birmingham and Man City in matches they should win and perhaps more worryingly for Benitez is their leaky defence, this is something that Rafa always prides himself on and when the defence gets shaky then they are in real trouble.

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