Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer instructs his players during a Premier League match at Goodison Park in Liverpool on April 21. Photo: VCG

In football, there are many managerial jobs that are seen as a poisoned chalice. These are lose-lose. The team is destined to fail in meeting the expectations of the fans and the board, while you are also destined to make yourself less employable by the time you are inevitably sacked.

In the English Premier League that currently falls on Manchester United, where no one has succeeded in following in the footsteps of Sir Alex Ferguson. The veteran Scottish manager walked away with the club champions of England and they have been nowhere near that in the six years since. 

David Moyes was the man that Ferguson anointed to be his successor but the younger Scot was out on his ear barely six months into a six-year contract, with the club at sixes and sevens on and off the pitch. 

Dutch coaching legend Louis van Gaal, a man with a personality as big as the clubs on his CV, was next to try. He won the FA Cup but was sacked almost immediately to be replaced by Jose Mourinho.

The Portuguese was initially a great success. Victory over Ajax in the Europa League meant a return to the UEFA Champions League, while the League Cup saw the team win two trophies in his first year in charge. The following year he took them to an FA Cup final and second place in the Premier League - albeit some 18 points off the champions Manchester City. It was the closest the club had been to a 21st league title but a record distance away from winning it for a second placed team.

Poisoned chalice

That summed up the work that needed doing in the transfer market, at least in Mourinho's mind, but he was not backed and the team began to struggle as badly as they had at any point since Ferguson left the dugout. Last December, Mourinho was sacked and the list went on, with former striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer given the nod as the man to right the ship and right the wrongs at Old Trafford.

What the chipper Norwegian will not have failed to notice is that the men who have gone before him in replacing the man he still calls "boss" have one thing in common? None has got another job in football management since being handed their notice at Old Trafford.

That might be the very definition of a poisoned chalice, especially given the media scrutiny and social media mockery of the Manchester United regime's profligate spending on transfers and wages. The number of payoffs that they have made to managers and the lack of a director of football or visible recruitment policy, even now, is indicative of the lack of succession planning at Old Trafford.

No effect

Stamford Bridge on the other hand is the perfect place for a manager to go. They know that they will likely be sacked but they also know that it appears to have no effect on their reputation when it comes to getting another job.

Maurizio Sarri is the latest boss to find this out to his benefit. The new Juventus manager spent a solitary season at Stamford Bridge and cut a solitary figure as he chewed his cigarettes while those in the stands chewed their fingernails. "Sarri-ball," the style of play he perfected at Napoli, did not take on in West London but he reached the League Cup final and won the Europa League while also guiding the Blues to third in the league, the best of the rest behind Manchester City and Liverpool. That was enough to convince the team that has won the last eight Italian titles in a row that he was an upgrade on the man who has delivered five of them, Massimiliano Allegri.

Sarri is far from unusual. The man he replaced, Antonio Conte has just joined Inter Milan as head coach but has been linked to a number of high-profile managerial roles since leaving Chelsea in 2018. The man he replaced was caretaker boss Guus Hiddink and the Dutchman is now in charge of the China under-23 team, while no doubt being incentivised to deliver glory at the AFC Under-23 Championship and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Even the man who sat in the dugout as interim boss before Hiddink was employed to steer the club to the end of the season has benefitted from his time in the luckiest seat in world football. Steve Holland, who was given the role while employed as assistant manager, managed one game but his career has arguably reached a high point as assistant to Gareth Southgate as England manager. The pair masterminded the nation's best finish at a World Cup in more than 60 years in Russia last summer.

Better job 

Holland stepped in for Mourinho, who was sacked for the second time as Chelsea boss and is the ultimate proof that this might be the best job in the game - he has been linked to a third stint in charge of the Blues as they look to replace Sarri. Mourinho went to Manchester United, one of the biggest jobs in world football, while the first time he left Chelsea he went to Inter Milan and won the Champions League before taking over at Real Madrid.

Rafa Benitez was before Mourinho and the Spaniard is no exception to the rule. Currently at Newcastle United he has again been linked with Chelsea while also reportedly subject to an offer from Chinese Super League side ­Dalian Yifang. He also left Stamford Bridge for Napoli and then had a stint at Real Madrid.

Roberto di Matteo became Everton and then Belgium manager, Andre Villas-Boas went to Spurs, Shanghai SIPG and then Marseille, while also finding time for a sabbatical to drive at the Dakar Rally. It's perhaps the best advice you can get, to take the Chelsea job.

Even Claudio Ranieri, the first manager to be sacked by Roman Abramovich, has gone on to bigger and better things winning the Premier League with Leicester City.