The average time that the current crop of Major League Baseball coaches have been in charge of their respective teams is nearly four and a half years. In the Premier League the average length of time for managers is less than two, and that's with some generous calculations.
The life span of a top division manager is remarkably low in English football, and it's getting shorter. Seven of the 20 sides have sacked at least one manager this season while the bottom four all have. Brighton have also changed manager, though that was necessary after Graham Potter left to join Chelsea.
Some will say it's the nature of the beast, the financial gains of survival and success are just too much to risk on managers failing for even the shortest periods of time. When it comes to the top four there is no difference.
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The Champions League is the cash cow for world football and Chelsea, in particular, have been ruthlessly efficient in ensuring that they get into it consistently. Having spent over £100m on sacking managers under Roman Abramovich - with each pay-off getting steadily more and more lucrative for the coaches - they have comfortably earned far more by finishing in the top four.
The current prize money offers £12m for group stage qualification, winning the entire thing can be worth up to £85m. Chelsea have been crowned European champions twice in the past 11 years, more than making up for their decisions to sack managers, often at the first sign of bad results.
That is not the method by which Todd Boehly is used to. Everything about the current state of Chelsea is telling him, screaming at him, to pull the trigger and to sack Potter. The run is the worst since Glenn Hoddle's in 1993, 30 years ago. Some of the goalscoring numbers behind the form are frankly staggering for a squad so expensively assembled.
The new owners have also already shown their willingness to move on a coach that hits certain elite criteria. Thomas Tuchel fell down in areas that Boehly-Clearlake have added more value to than the previous regime. Abramovich was less worried by the relationship he had with the manager, their workings with the club as a whole or much outside of the pitch if it meant that winning was ensured.
Boehly, the owner of LA Dodgers, is very much different. He values the respect of Potter within the squad, understands and puts stock in the mitigating factors making life tough at Stamford Bridge and is more patient than his Russian predecessor. Whether this is right or wrong there is no telling, but fans have made their voices clear.
Potter is an unpopular manager so far and admits he has done little to have any credit in the bank. This has left Boehly with a tough decision. His own wisdom would indicate that affording time, as he has done with Dodgers coach Dave Roberts, is the best way to go but football is a different animal to baseball and the very structure of domestic sport creates new demands.
Even the most patient owner will be perturbed by the threat of relegation posed by form as bad as Chelsea's, and this is now a very new situation for the owner to navigate. Chelsea's hopes of getting into the top four are all but gone, their season relies upon turning around the 1-0 first-leg defeat to Borussia Dortmund next week. Outside of that, there are a lot of unknowns.
What does stand is that for Boehly to sack a manager he appointed within nine months would be truly unprecedented and it would go further than even Abramovich ever did. If he wants to create a true rumble in English football then what must be done is clear, every bit of evidence so far shows that he would rather afford more time than not enough time to decision-making.
With little at risk here perhaps biding the time and affording Potter every inch of possible leeway is a good choice. It won't impress fans that have seen enough but it also doesn't abandon the ownership's very established style either.
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