Saturday, August 8, 2009

How Many World Class Managers Are There In The English Premier League?

There is no denying that a high caliber manager moulds and develops a winning football team. A team with world-class individuals but without a master to harness the individual strengths into a collective force, that team is never going to achieve anything significant. Just ask Liverpool during the "Spice Boys" era. Great team, poor manager quality.

The way I see it, there are four levels of management expertise within the Premier League at this moment.

These are,
World Class Managers
  • Sir Alex Ferguson
  • Arsene Wenger
Ferguson and Wenger - Image from The Sun UK

European Level Managers
  • Roy Hodgson
  • Rafa Benitez
  • Carlo Ancelotti


Premiership Level Managers

  • David Moyes
  • Steve Bruce
  • Martin O' Neill
  • Harry Redknapp
  • Sam Allardyce
  • Mark Hughes
  • Gianfranco Zola
  • Roberto Martinez
  • Alex McLeish
Championship Level Managers
  • Mick McCarthy
  • Gary Megson
  • Owen Coyle
  • Paul Hart
  • Tony Pulis
  • Phil Brown
So this means, Bolton, Wolves, Burnley, Portsmouth, Stoke City and Hull City will be fighting it out to avoid the drop in the upcoming season. These clubs have managers who are ill-suited for the technical and tactical rigours of the Premiership.

Don't just let me "frame" your opinion on this, do let me know what you think.

Do you think Gary Megson, dubbed the "Ginger Mourinho" is really a Premiership-level manager?

Perhaps the fact that Hull City's amazing early season form last year elevated Phil Brown's status to Premiership-level manager?

I have one final list that I would like to share and it's a list of managers that I would like to see returning to Premiership management.

If Only They Would Come Back to The Premiership
1. Jose Mourinho
2. Alan Curbishley
3. Steve McClaren
4. Carlos Quieroz
5. Guus Hiddink

We have all missed Mourinho's prickliness and media eloquence. Perhaps if Inter does not progress far in the Champions League and Rafa Benitez stutters in Liverpool, we could hear about a potential managerial switch. Now THAT would be great news!

5 comments:

nate said...

I'm not a Premier expert but Ancelotti isn't world class? A coach that won countless titles as a player and then as coach of AC Milan? And yes, well as miss Mourinho and his antics but maybe that's because I don't understand his press conferences in italian :S

Nate said...

*we all miss Mourinho

TheFlatBackFour said...

Hi Nate,
Ancelotti is a great coach. To be considered world class, I would need to see signs of Ancelotti building and developing a team...he has not done that with Milan and therefore Milan is struggling with an aging squad.

Anonymous said...

I think Ferguson should be in a class of his own

TheFlatBackFour said...

@Anonymous,
the geriatric club? :-)

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