In an official statement on Tuesday, the Portsmouth club abruptly announced the sacking of their leader Berger. The young coach became the first manager to be sacked in the Premier League this season, even faster than the likes of Chacin Houdy, Lambert and Rodgers, who have been in the limelight before him. The trigger for Berger's departure was undoubtedly the team's 9-0 defeat by Liverpool in the last round of matches. In the early hours of this coming Thursday morning, Brentwood will face the challenge of Premier League Express Battle Wolves, with Gary O'Neill acting as interim leader.
Berger started his coaching career at Fulham after his retirement. Last season, he was sacked after Fulham were relegated, and then moved to Championship side Fennymouth. Last season, he helped the team return to the Premier League and opened the season with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa in the first match of the new season. However, the team suffered a series of tough matches against Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool, losing three consecutive games and conceding a total of 16 goals in the three matches, which eventually led to his dismissal.
However, Berger seemed to have had a premonition of his demise after the 0-9 defeat to Liverpool. In a press conference, he reluctantly stated that the team had not added any players after the promotion, which might have angered the top brass. He said bluntly at the time, "Our players need help and they can only fight the air. There were many reasons why we didn't go for reinforcements and a lot of the problems were caused by circumstances. We can't find people or some players don't want to come."
Together with Berger, he becomes the sixth manager to be sacked after losing to the Reds since Gopp took charge of Liverpool. Before that, the other five were Swansea Gudaurian, Westham Bielik, Fulham Zukunovic, Manchester United Moleno and Ewarton Magoswitch. It seems that Gop could be called the "leader killer".
