Gary Lineker pinpoints lesson that Leicester City, Leeds United and Southampton have served Premier League clubs | OneFootball

Pundit Gary Lineker believes the managerial instability at Leicester City, Leeds United and Southampton last season has acted as a warning to Premier League clubs.

There were 14 sackings in the top flight last season, but it has taken until early December for a club to make a change this campaign, with Sheffield United reportedly set to sack Paul Heckingbottom after the 5-0 defeat at Burnley on Saturday.

The three clubs relegated from the Premier League, Leicester, Leeds and Southampton, all changed managers with little success last season.

Leicester parted company with Brendan Rodgers in April, but Dean Smith was unable to keep the club in the division after arriving on a short-term contract.

Leeds sacked Jesse Marsch in February, replacing him with Javi Gracia, but after the Spaniard struggled to make an impact, Sam Allardyce was brought in for the final four games of the season.

Southampton dismissed Ralph Hassenhuttl in November, appointing Nathan Jones as his successor, but the Welshman was sacked in February after a disastrous three-month reign, and Ruben Selles took charge for the rest of the season.

After appointing Enzo Maresca, Daniel Farke and Russell Martin this summer, stability has been restored at Leicester, Leeds and Southampton, and all three clubs are currently sitting in the top four of the Championship.

What did Gary Lineker say?

Lineker believes that the struggles of Leicester, Leeds and Southampton after changing manager last season have resulted in more patience at Premier League clubs this campaign.

"I said at the end of last season that it seemed to me, it's obvious that's where most managers will lose their job if their in the bottom half of the table, but pretty much every club that sacked a manager, didn't really do much better," Lineker said on The Rest Is Football podcast.

"The teams that actually stuck by theirs, one was Gary O'Neil at Bournemouth and Sean Dyche at Everton, the teams that stayed up were the ones that actually stuck with them.

"Whereas Leicester with Brendan Rodgers, I think Brendan had done enough at the club to at least deserve the right to try and keep them up, and the other two that were relegated as well both changed their managers.

"I think perhaps the owners were looking at that and thinking 'well maybe we can learn a lesson'. "There's always that thing, the grass is greener on the other side, you think you're going to get somebody a little bit better, but you've got to change the way you play and reintroduce someone. "Sometimes there's a little bounce, but I think statistically if you look at it, that's a little bit of a myth and doesn't necessarily happen overall.

"Obviously we're not going to go through the whole season without anyone losing their job, that would be remarkable, but I think it's quite good and a positive."

Have Premier League clubs learned from Leicester City, Leeds United and Southampton?

Lineker is right that Premier League clubs have given more time to managers this season.

The likes of Vincent Kompany at Burnley, Rob Edwards at Luton and Andoni Iraola at Bournemouth have all been under pressure at times this season, but with the form of all three clubs improving in recent weeks, they are seeing the rewards of being patient.

Heckingbottom is set to become the first managerial casualty in the top flight, but the Blades did give him plenty of time to turn around their fortunes, sticking with him after the 8-0 home defeat to Newcastle United in September.

It is difficult to disagree with Lineker that the failed managerial changes at Leicester, Leeds and Southampton last season are a lesson for top flight clubs, and it seems certain there will be significantly fewer sackings this campaign.