Official: Axing the boss DOES work

BLACKBURN face relegation if they do not sack boss Steve Kean — and that is official.

History shows teams in the bottom three on January 1 are far more likely to survive if they change their manager.

A report by the makers of the 'Football Manager' games shows that clubs who axed their boss last season did better after the sacking.

Liverpool won more than half a point extra per game after replacing Roy Hodgson with Kenny Dalglish.

But Hodgson almost immediately pitched up at West Brom to succeed Roberto Di Matteo and oversaw a similar upturn.

Newcastle fared very slightly better under Alan Pardew rather than Chris Hughton.

In fact every team who axed their boss last season averaged more points under their new boss — except Rovers when Kean replaced Sam Allardyce.

Under the Scot, Blackburn won 1.05 points per game compared to 1.22 in the 16 games Allardyce was in charge.

On average, a managerial change brought 4.7 extra points over the rest of the season.

Football Manager 2012 Studio Director Miles Jacobson said: "The possibility of an extra 4.7 points a season is a tempting carrot for any board but the ramifications of a managerial blood bath are far greater to football as a whole.

"With so many sackings on the cards, is it time to either have a manager transfer window or copy the Italian system where managers can only work at one club per season."

In the seven seasons up to 2009-10, at least one club has battled out of the New Year bottom three to survive and in every case bar one they changed their manager at some point in the season.