Best Managers of the Premier League Era

[3 Stacks]

What would your ranking be? I'd go with:

 

1. Ferguson - Pretty self-explanatory. Won so much and for such a long period of time. 

 

2. Wenger - Didn't have the success Ferguson had throughout his tenure but was probably the most influential manager of his era in England. 

 

3. Mourinho - Wins stuff but hasn't stuck around long enough in one spot to make a true impact on a football club.

 

4. Klopp - Turned a club who was consistently average over half a decade into one of the best teams in the world with low net spend.

 

5. Guardiola - Dominant, but superficial success. 

[VladimirIlyich]

Wenger and Klopp stand out as the best 'value for money' managers in that list but the criteria shouldn't just be trophies(No Everton puns please) but managers who revitalised clubs and sold players on while bringing through newer players almost as good or better. 

[Ron B]

Guardiola is maybe edging out José for me - both of them have had virtually bottomless wads of cash handed to them but City were arguably transformed more radically than Chelsea. We’ll see how next season goes; I think the ‘Fraudiola’ schtick is overplayed, but if the side does start to fall apart (particularly with no Champions League football to keep the likes of De Bruyne around) then he could lose a lot of kudos.  
 

Kloppo will be third soon enough. Hoping he’ll stick around long enough to top the poll. 
 

Difficult to think of anyone else who challenges that big five. 

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

Ferguson.

Wenger

Klopp

[aRdja]

7 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

What would your ranking be? I'd go with:

 

1. Ferguson - Pretty self-explanatory. Won so much and for such a long period of time. 

 

2. Wenger - Didn't have the success Ferguson had throughout his tenure but was probably the most influential manager of his era in England. 

 

3. Mourinho - Wins stuff but hasn't stuck around long enough in one spot to make a true impact on a football club.

 

4. Klopp - Turned a club who was consistently average over half a decade into one of the best teams in the world with low net spend.

 

5. Guardiola - Dominant, but superficial success. 

Klopp needs to win the PL and Guardiola needs to with the CL, so I’ll wait til the end of the season to give you my final verdict.

[Bjornebye]

9 hours ago, Ron B said:

Guardiola is maybe edging out José for me - both of them have had virtually bottomless wads of cash handed to them but City were arguably transformed more radically than Chelsea. We’ll see how next season goes; I think the ‘Fraudiola’ schtick is overplayed, but if the side does start to fall apart (particularly with no Champions League football to keep the likes of De Bruyne around) then he could lose a lot of kudos.  
 

Kloppo will be third soon enough. Hoping he’ll stick around long enough to top the poll. 
 

Difficult to think of anyone else who challenges that big five. 

City had already been Champions when Guardiola took over. The building job there was done. I know Mourinho took over a Chelsea side that had started spending already but he made a bigger impact IMO. I'd like to see Pep manage someone like Roma or Spurs. Then you'd really see how good he is. 

[Jairzinho]

2 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

City had already been Champions when Guardiola took over. The building job there was done. I know Mourinho took over a Chelsea side that had started spending already but he made a bigger impact IMO. I'd like to see Pep manage someone like Roma or Spurs. Then you'd really see how good he is. 

Personally I'd like him to manage in the Conference North.

 

Partly because it would fascinating to see if any of his methods worked, but mainly just so he'd fuck off.

[Bjornebye]

1 minute ago, Jairzinho said:

Personally I'd like him to manage in the Conference North.

 

Partly because it would fascinating to see if any of his methods worked, but mainly just so he'd fuck off.

Yeah agree with this fully. 110%. With bells on. The bad bell. 

 

[Rotpeter]

8 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

Personally I'd like him to manage in the Conference North.

 

Partly because it would fascinating to see if any of his methods worked, but mainly just so he'd fuck off.

And miss the "two meltdown"?

 

[Ron B]

1 hour ago, Bjornebye said:

City had already been Champions when Guardiola took over. The building job there was done. I know Mourinho took over a Chelsea side that had started spending already but he made a bigger impact IMO. I'd like to see Pep manage someone like Roma or Spurs. Then you'd really see how good he is. 

Aye, it’s a close run thing between Guardiola and Mourinho. I think the level of improvement from Ranieri to Mourinho, and from Pellegrini to Guardiola, is very similar. 
Guardiola probably benefits from having only managed the one side and having been inarguably successfully with them (and yes, that is with the help of an open chequebook and an unflinching approach to FFP). Mourinho was a qualified success when he returned to Chelsea, fair-to-middling at Man Utd, and hasn’t blown me away so far at Spurs. 

[Bjornebye]

1 minute ago, Ron B said:

Aye, it’s a close run thing between Guardiola and Mourinho. I think the level of improvement from Ranieri to Mourinho, and from Pellegrini to Guardiola, is very similar. 
Guardiola probably benefits from having only managed the one side and having been inarguably successfully with them (and yes, that is with the help of an open chequebook and an unflinching approach to FFP). Mourinho was a qualified success when he returned to Chelsea, fair-to-middling at Man Utd, and hasn’t blown me away so far at Spurs. 

Still managed some silverware after inheriting a god awful Utd team. No Spurs side is getting close to us or City no matter who is in charge. 

[Guest Alex_K]

Mourinho was far worse than fair to middling at United. Blew up the spend (370+ mil), blew up the wage bill, isolated the squad .. for what? Topping out at an 81 point season and a Europa League via knockout matches of Rostov/Anderlecht/Celta Vigo/Ajax. Klopp & Mourinho respective performances over past 5 years have been absolutely light years apart.

 

Wenger also doesn't merit inclusion with some of the other names. Just didn't do it in Europe. 22 years and .. one Uefa Cup final, one CL final and no victories? Way more thrashings and embarassments in European competition for them than highlights. Doesn't hold weight with Klopp/Guardiola/Mourinho/Ferguson.

[ZonkoVille77]

Pardew 

Kinnear 

Hughes 

[TheHowieLama]

2 hours ago, Ron B said:

 Ranieri 

Built that Chelsea side and led Leicester to the title. 

[Jimmy Hills Chin]

The winner of this is the winner who doesn’t have to be a winner.

[KMD7]

Roy Hodgson

[Bjornebye]

If were talking about just the perm itself then Wenger is rightly 2nd. He built two superb sides there. Should have left years before he did though. 

[Dr Nowt]

16 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

If were talking about just the perm itself then Wenger is rightly 2nd. 

Fucking right.

 

[Guest Alex_K]

If we win the league season and our form is remotely similar to pre-lockdown then Klopp surpasses Wenger no questions asked. Just far more accomplishments across the board & no spend argument to fall back on as may be the case with Guardiola/Mourinho. Not sure you can discuss domestic form in vacuum - how good can a side be that makes no impact on the European stage? Certainly by definition not a great one. If anything Wenger as a coach fluffed his lines and should have got way more out of those players in Europe (the way United bombed them out in the CL semis was particularly humiliating .. Arsenal were generally just a complete non-entity in European competition throughout the years)

[Jairzinho]

 

 

[3 Stacks]

39 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

 

 

Tactical Timmy would have been on my list of a "Best Managers of the Premier League Era To Have Never Won The League" thread. Right alongside BRodge, Rafa and Pochettino. 

[Tony Moanero]

1 hour ago, Alex_K said:

If we win the league season and our form is remotely similar to pre-lockdown then Klopp surpasses Wenger no questions asked. Just far more accomplishments across the board & no spend argument to fall back on as may be the case with Guardiola/Mourinho. Not sure you can discuss domestic form in vacuum - how good can a side be that makes no impact on the European stage? Certainly by definition not a great one. If anything Wenger as a coach fluffed his lines and should have got way more out of those players in Europe (the way United bombed them out in the CL semis was particularly humiliating .. Arsenal were generally just a complete non-entity in European competition throughout the years)

Arsenal probably should have done better in Europe over the years, but Wenger did come close to winning a Champions League Final with ten men. From memory, Barcelona equalised with about fifteen minutes to go.

[Guest Alex_K]

14 minutes ago, Tony Moanero said:

Arsenal probably should have done better in Europe over the years, but Wenger did come close to winning a Champions League Final with ten men. From memory, Barcelona equalised with about fifteen minutes to go.

Yep that is the final that got away (also losing to 10 man Gala in the UEFA Cup final). Lehmann sent off early on at 0-0 to stop Eto'o scoring and Campbell then headed them in front with 10 men. Backs to the walls then a couple of late goals gave Barca the game. Lots of great players in that side (Fabregas, Henry, Pires, Campbell, Toure, Ljungberg, Cole, Gilberto etc.).

 

Little bit fortuitious to get to that final as Villareal missed a last min pen in the semi to send them through. That group of players really should have achieved more though. In some respects that final was the beginning of the end for Wenger: Viera had left the previous summer, Henry left the following summer and the rest is history.

[Jairzinho]

They've also been knocked out by us, Manchester United, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich (about a hundred times). So it's not like Wenger's Arsenal were regularly getting turned over by shite in Europe, or as tactically inept/naive as the perception of them probably is/was.

 

Like Ferguson, he was definitely a manager better at building teams than the minutiae of individual games like Mourinho and Benitez were.

[Guest Alex_K]

26 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

They've also been knocked out by us, Manchester United, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich (about a hundred times). So it's not like Wenger's Arsenal were regularly getting turned over by shite in Europe, or as tactically inept/naive as the perception of them probably is/was.

 

Like Ferguson, he was definitely a manager better at building teams than the minutiae of individual games like Mourinho and Benitez were.

Yes recruitment was his defining quality until it fell of a cliff in the early 10s. Ferguson is probably pretty under-rated for his game management / tactical nous.

Wenger made 2 CL semi finals in 19 attempts, w. 1 of those reaching the final. Ferguson made 7 semi finals in the same number of tries, w. 4 finals and 2 wins. Big gap. Our record vs. number of attempts is unparalleld.

Would be interesting to hear continental fans' perception of Wenger. Left in the shade by the great German (Heynckes; Hitzfeld) & Italian (Lippi; Ancelloti; Capello) managers of his time.