Premiership's most disturbing trend

While the debate over whether Jose Mourinho should ever have been allowed to leave Stamford Bridge rages on, the muscle-flexing of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has highlighted a more worrying trend that is strangling the English Premier League.

Put simply, the Premiership is in the ever increasing and dangerous grip of out-of-control boardroom egos.

Chairmen and owners with big mouths and even bigger self-esteems are running amok with their power-crazed schemes, and they're running the risk of ruining their clubs.

Mourinho is just the latest manager to fall victim to this phenomenon, paying the price for overshadowing Abramovich, who never speaks publicly but seems to want and need the adoration to accompany his bulging bank account. The controversial decision could lead to an implosion at Chelsea, which slipped further down the league standings after Saturday's 0-0 draw with bottom-feeder Fulham.

Chances are, total disaster will probably not come to pass at Stamford Bridge, but there are better examples of decisions fueled by boardroom testosterone that can jeopardize the stability of a well-established EPL club.

Take Bolton Wanderers, for example.

Phil Gartside, the chairman at the Reebok Stadium, was feted for making the shrewd appointment of Sam Allardyce and what followed would have been beyond his wildest dreams. Regular top-10 finishes and even a place in the UEFA Cup would have been pie-in-the-sky stuff for their long-suffering fans a decade ago. Yet that did not stop Gartside from replacing Allardyce, without whom none of the achievements would have been possible, with Sammy Lee before the end of last season.

The rumor around Bolton last weekend was that if Lee had lost to Tottenham he would have lost his job, too. How can that be progress when you have allowed a wonderful relationship with Allardyce to sour and placed your club in serious danger of relegation, especially when you compound that error by continuing the fallout with petty backstabbing in the national media?

It just seems that these owners and chairmen just want managers who have a lower profile than themselves.

Just ask Dave Whelan, the chairman at Wigan Athletic. How can he allow Paul Jewell, the best manager his club has ever had, to leave and replace him with Chris Hutchings? Even if Wigan had a reasonably decent start, largely because of the legacy left behind by the chronically underrated Jewell, there is still no way anyone can view that appointment as moving the club forward.

And Milan Mandaric, who started the whole ball rolling with his on-and-off appointments of Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth, is still hiring and firing with an alarming regularity at Leicester City, where he's on his fourth manager in six months.

It's hardly stabilizing stuff and you have to wonder what might happen to Arsene Wenger at Arsenal if the Russians arrive at the Emirates Stadium.

Despite all of these happenings, the Glazers at Manchester United, Tom Hicks and George Gillett at Liverpool and Aston Villa's Randy Lerner have been shining lights in the sensible running of their clubs.

Every Manchester United fan lived in fear of how the Glazers would run their beloved club when they took control in such hostile fashion. The cry from the regulars in the Theatre of Dreams was a unanimous "What do Americans know about football?"

That particular takeover – the first of the "Yank Invasion" – was an easy target for columnists and bar-room comedians. Maybe the Glazers would be in the market for quarterbacks and starting pitchers instead of center-halves and fullbacks. At the very least, they were expected to haul their weary players back to the States every summer on promotional trips.

Of course, the Glazers have been relatively fortunate that they have inherited the best manager the Premiership has ever seen in Sir Alex Ferguson and the most successful club in the league's history. They have also been shrewd enough to let him do what he does best – sign top players and win trophies. Last season's Premier League title and further investment of 70 million pounds this summer must have convinced all the skeptics.

Up to now, the Glazers have been a model in hands-off management. There is no meddling from them in the affairs of Ferguson and chief exec David Gill, and you barely hear a cynical word about them from anyone who matters.

Hicks and Gillett may have been a little more hands on at Liverpool, but they have put their money where their mouths are and backed Rafa Benitez with the finance he has been crying out for. They helped deliver the Champions League final within months of their arrival (always a good move in the public relations arena). Furthermore, they have been sensitive to the club's rich heritage, ensuring that its new stadium will retain all the special magic of Anfield – including the name.

Lerner has operated largely under the radar at Aston Villa, too, apart from the odd intervention from his right-hand man, General Charles Krulak. But what Lerner has done is appoint one of the best managers he could find in Martin O'Neill and made good on his promises to have Villa moving in the right direction once again after years of stagnation under former chairman Doug Ellis.

The anti-American movement that greeted the arrival of the Glazers, in particular, has now been completely, and conveniently, forgotten. You might never have expected to see this sentence in print but, compared to a lot of their fellow owners, the Glazers and company are model bosses.

Far from knowing little about the game, its history, subtleties and intricacies, the American invaders seem to know plenty. A few chairmen and owners around England ought to take a good look at how they are going about their business.

It could help them save their own clubs.

Ian Edwards of the Wardle Agency has covered English football for 18 years.