All it took to make Claudio Ranieri roll his eyes skywards was mention of the P-word. "Look, every coach feels pressure," he sighed with irritation, eyes scouring the ceiling of the Golden Horses hotel in Kuala Lumpur. "I like it and, you know what, I'm ready for it."
Unfortunately the bookies appear ready too. Having busied himself lavishing new signings upon an already impressive squad, Ranieri is 5-2 favourite with Paddy Power to be the first Premiership manager shown the door this season. The Italian's rhetoric may be bullish but the sack race is ready to kick off again.
For Ranieri, with £34m spent and two further major signings expected before the deadline for European competition on August 7, the writing is on the wall. There may have been regular denials from the club's owner Roman Abramovich, a known admirer of Roma's Fabio Capello, and from the former major shareholder Ken Bates but the suspicion lingers that a sloppy start would make Ranieri's position untenable.
And this for a man who spent next to nothing last season hoisting Chelsea back into the Champions League. Now flush with more money than any other manager - albeit to spend on players apparently handpicked by Sven-Goran Eriksson - he is threatened by the club's lofty ambition. These days, nothing short of an immediate challenge for honours is good enough.
The irony is that outside Stamford Bridge job security has never been so good in the Premiership. Aside from the shambolic merry-go-round at Sunderland last season - where Peter Reid made way for Howard Wilkinson, who made way for Mick McCarthy - only Terry Venables at Leeds, Graham Taylor at Aston Villa and Fulham's Jean Tigana were out of work by the end of the campaign. More pertinently, Reid was the only managerial casualty until El Tel's spell was cut short towards the end of March.
There was a 50% reduction in the number of dismissals across the divisions during the season, even if the sudden late flurry ensured the Premiership average of five a season over the past five years was maintained. Yet of the quartet fired since March, only Venables' sacking smacked of the trigger-happy boardroom panic of old. "The figures were absolutely astounding, but was it because the boards were suddenly more sympathetic to the manager and the job he was doing?" asked John Barnwell, chief executive of the League Managers' Association. "The clear answer from the managers was 'definitely not'. As ever, it all boils down to finances."
Managers are harder to sack these days, with the cost of paying up contracts concentrating chairmen's minds given the parlous nature of most club's finances. David O'Leary's departure from Elland Road eventually meant £4m com pensation, money Leeds struggled to muster. The panic at the Stadium of Light last year saw Reid paid a similar amount and, later, Wilkinson and his assistant Steve Cotterill another £1m. Considering the Wearsiders still owed Stoke about £250,000 for luring McCarthy from the Britannia, it is clear why he was asked to accept a contract offering minimal compensation should he ever be sacked.
"It's going to take the best part of three years for football's finances to settle down," added Barnwell. "Everything will be dictated by what a club's board feels they can afford, and that generally is not very much. You only have to look at the appointments that are made these days; they are not made on the ability of managers but as financial decisions.
"Some managers would have been dismissed a long time ago but instead they stick by them. They can't afford two wages, one on the former manager in compensation, the other for the new manager."
The transfer window has also stayed the executioners' hand. The traditionally dicey period around October, when early-season optimism gives way to depressing reality, is no longer as perilous, with chairmen aware that any new manager would be unable to bring in his own reinforcements straight away.
West Ham's Glenn Roeder publicly stated he hoped to tinker with his team when the window opened last January, by which time he had earned yet more time. Reid, allowed a desperate £10.5m outlay on Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart on the eve of his departure, was the exception that proves the rule.
Instead it is managers such as Ranieri, with money to spend, who have most to lose. Glenn Hoddle is second favourite at 4-1, the Tottenham board aware that he has spent heavily over the summer. At 9-1 Gérard Houllier, for all the faith shown in him at Liverpool, knows he must qualify for the Champions League this term.
In contrast the likes of Micky Adams (10-1), Harry Redknapp (22-1) and Dave Jones (25-1) hardly appear to be at serious risk. Not so Ranieri.
There was no little relief in the Italian's expression as he turned to glance up at Bates in the stands yesterday after Chelsea thumped Malaysia 4-1. "I feel like the luckiest football manager in the world at the moment," added the Blues manager, "but Ken Bates says the pressure is on me to be successful, and I know he's right."
Who will be first to get his P45?
Claudio Ranieri Chelsea 5-2 Glenn Hoddle Tottenham 4-1 Chris Coleman Fulham 6-1 Gérard Houllier Liverpool 9-1 Micky Adams Leicester 10-1 Peter Reid Leeds 12-1 David O'Leary Aston Villa 14-1 Kevin Keegan Man City 16-1 Alan Curbishley Charlton 20-1 Harry Redknapp Portsmouth 22-1 Sam Allardyce Bolton 22-1 Steve McClaren Middlesbro' 25-1 David Jones Wolves 25-1 Graeme Souness Blackburn 25-1 Steve Bruce Birmingham 33-1 Gordon Strachan Soton 33-1 Arsène Wenger Arsenal 33-1 David Moyes Everton 40-1 Sir Alex Ferguson Man Utd 40-1 Sir Bobby Robson Newcastle 50-1
Odds courtesy of Paddy Power
