30 Best Premier League Managers
I got thinking about managers a little bit lately, so I've made a list of the Best of the Premier League era.
It was pretty interesting, actually, going through the long list of all the managers there've been, at times a real rogue's gallery of forgotten failures, from Jacques Santini to Steve Wigley to Velimir Zejic, but there were also a fair few more who did, at some point, for a significant stretch of time, do a pretty job, than you might remember.
There are those who rather lost their reputation who actually did a great job for a while, the likes of George Burley, Joe Kinnear, Steve Coppell - winners of the LMA Manager of the Year award include all of the above (Coppell twice), Dave Jones, Frank Clark, David Moyes three times (I should say that's the overall award - the divisional award is much more dominated by the big guns).
My list is pretty arbitrary - I didn't want to be guided by win percentage, for obvious reasons. Number of games is in itself a great indicator, as you're not going to keep on getting positions unless you keep on making a good impression. Beyond that, I simply tried to think of who always made a club better than it was before or after, who was reliable, who never lost the knack, avoided controversy, just seemed like they were in charge and knew what they were doing.
Some of those I've included at the expense of others, they may have somewhat lost their status, but if you look closely, they didn't lose their reputation by virtue of terrible results, more by clearly struggling with the whole football business and leaving management prematurely. (eg Keegan)
There are only a handful who are hard to judge - I don't think Klopp and Guardiola are near inclusion yet - so Conte, Pocchetino and Eddie Howe are the ones you look at and think, in a few years they could be solidified as truly great Premier League managers, or they could be out on their ear.
I also had to give thought to what factors to consider - do you include years outside the Premier League with the same clubs (which would lift Eddie Howe even higher)? I decided not. But I did consider non-PL achievements in the same seasons. After all, it's all the same week-in, week-out job. So Benitez is higher than he would be if it was just league.
The Top 3 speak for themselves, though there's an argument over the placing of 2 and 3 - but I think Mourinho has already hit lower lows than Wenger has ever hit.
So, here we are:
It was pretty interesting, actually, going through the long list of all the managers there've been, at times a real rogue's gallery of forgotten failures, from Jacques Santini to Steve Wigley to Velimir Zejic, but there were also a fair few more who did, at some point, for a significant stretch of time, do a pretty job, than you might remember.
There are those who rather lost their reputation who actually did a great job for a while, the likes of George Burley, Joe Kinnear, Steve Coppell - winners of the LMA Manager of the Year award include all of the above (Coppell twice), Dave Jones, Frank Clark, David Moyes three times (I should say that's the overall award - the divisional award is much more dominated by the big guns).
My list is pretty arbitrary - I didn't want to be guided by win percentage, for obvious reasons. Number of games is in itself a great indicator, as you're not going to keep on getting positions unless you keep on making a good impression. Beyond that, I simply tried to think of who always made a club better than it was before or after, who was reliable, who never lost the knack, avoided controversy, just seemed like they were in charge and knew what they were doing.
Some of those I've included at the expense of others, they may have somewhat lost their status, but if you look closely, they didn't lose their reputation by virtue of terrible results, more by clearly struggling with the whole football business and leaving management prematurely. (eg Keegan)
There are only a handful who are hard to judge - I don't think Klopp and Guardiola are near inclusion yet - so Conte, Pocchetino and Eddie Howe are the ones you look at and think, in a few years they could be solidified as truly great Premier League managers, or they could be out on their ear.
I also had to give thought to what factors to consider - do you include years outside the Premier League with the same clubs (which would lift Eddie Howe even higher)? I decided not. But I did consider non-PL achievements in the same seasons. After all, it's all the same week-in, week-out job. So Benitez is higher than he would be if it was just league.
The Top 3 speak for themselves, though there's an argument over the placing of 2 and 3 - but I think Mourinho has already hit lower lows than Wenger has ever hit.
So, here we are:
- Alex Ferguson
- Arsene Wenger
- Jose Mourinho
- Sam Allardyce
- Harry Redknapp
- Kenny Dalglish
- Roberto Mancini
- Claudio Ranieri
- Rafael Benitez
- Mark Hughes
- Carlo Ancelotti
- Manuel Pellegrini
- Martin O’Neill
- David O’Leary
- Kevin Keegan
- Tony Pulis
- Antonio Conte
- Brendan Rodgers
- Alan Curbishley
- Mauricio Pocchetino
- Bobby Robson
- Gerard Houllier
- David Moyes
- Eddie Howe
- Gordon Strachan
- John Gregory
- Roy Hodgson
- Joe Kinnear
- Steve Coppell
- Roy Evans
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