By Robbie Butler
Jose Mourinho was recently sacked by Turkish club Fenerbahçe after just over a year in charge. The Portuguese manager is no stranger to the sack — Chelsea (twice), Real Madrid, Manchester United… he’s been here before.
By September 2025, Mourinho has reportedly pocketed close to £100 million in pay-offs. Which raises the question: in football today, is there actually an incentive to get sacked?
The modern game chews through managers. Few survive longer than three or four seasons at one club. Pep Guardiola, appointed in 2016, is the longest-serving boss in the Premier League. Next comes Mikel Arteta (2020), then Marco Silva, who’s only been at Fulham since July 2021.
Stability is rare. And yet, instability can be lucrative. Had Silva been sacked in 2022 or 2023, for instance, Fulham would have been forced to pay off his contract — and another club would almost certainly have snapped him up.
Just look at Ange Postecoglou. Spurs let him go this summer, he cashed his pay-off, and now he’s landed on his feet at Nottingham Forest. In the space of a few months, his earnings have jumped simply because he was fired and re-hired.
Mourinho is the best example of this. Hard Jose survived in his role at Chelsea since 2004 it is extremely unlike he would have accumulated the same level of wealth. His sackings have allowed him to earn money for seasons that he already been paid for by the sacking club. Essentially getting paid twice for the same season by two different clubs – his current club and the previous one.
So maybe the quickest way for a manager to get rich isn’t by staying loyal to one club — it’s by being sacked, paid off, and then hired all over again.
Jose Mourinho was recently sacked by Turkish club Fenerbahçe after just over a year in charge. The Portuguese manager is no stranger to the sack — Chelsea (twice), Real Madrid, Manchester United… he’s been here before.
By September 2025, Mourinho has reportedly pocketed close to £100 million in pay-offs. Which raises the question: in football today, is there actually an incentive to get sacked?
The modern game chews through managers. Few survive longer than three or four seasons at one club. Pep Guardiola, appointed in 2016, is the longest-serving boss in the Premier League. Next comes Mikel Arteta (2020), then Marco Silva, who’s only been at Fulham since July 2021.
Stability is rare. And yet, instability can be lucrative. Had Silva been sacked in 2022 or 2023, for instance, Fulham would have been forced to pay off his contract — and another club would almost certainly have snapped him up.
Just look at Ange Postecoglou. Spurs let him go this summer, he cashed his pay-off, and now he’s landed on his feet at Nottingham Forest. In the space of a few months, his earnings have jumped simply because he was fired and re-hired.
Mourinho is the best example of this. Hard Jose survived in his role at Chelsea since 2004 it is extremely unlike he would have accumulated the same level of wealth. His sackings have allowed him to earn money for seasons that he already been paid for by the sacking club. Essentially getting paid twice for the same season by two different clubs – his current club and the previous one.
So maybe the quickest way for a manager to get rich isn’t by staying loyal to one club — it’s by being sacked, paid off, and then hired all over again.
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