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English football on course for record number of sackings

LONDON (Reuters) - More managers will be sacked in the Premier League and Football League than ever before if current trends continue, according to the League Managers Association's (LMA) quarterly report.

As of the end of December, 27 managers -- more than a quarter of the Premier League and Football league's 92 clubs -- had been dismissed from their clubs. The tally is three more than at the same stage last season.

A further seven managers resigned or departed by mutual consent.

"If the trend continues we are on course to exceed the total dismissal record of 46 set in 2006-2007," the LMA report stated.

"The managers dismissed so far this season have been in post for an average of only 1.04 years."

Premier League dismissals are down six from last season, however, as only Crystal Palace's Neil Warnock and West Bromwich Albion's Alan Irvine were sacked by the New Year.

Twelve clubs in the Championship (second tier) dismissed managers up to Dec. 31, with the average tenure of current managers in the division standing at an alarming 0.82 years.

Leeds United are on their third permanent manager of the season having appointed Neil Redfearn in November after the sackings of David Hockaday and Darko Milanic.

Five managers were sacked in League One (third tier) and eight in League Two (fourth tier).

Arsenal's Arsene Wenger remains the longest serving current manager at 18.26 years, while West Ham United's Sam Allardyce is the second longest serving Premier League manager at 3.5 years.

Queens Park Rangers boss Harry Redknapp, who has spent time in charge of West Ham, Portsmouth and Tottenham Hotspur, holds the record for most games managed by a current manager at 1,383 matches.

(Reporting By Tom Hayward; Editing by Michael Hann)