Most Successful Premier League Managers Ever
In the high intensity and competitive English football, who have been the most successful Premier League managers ever?! Let’s find out.
Premier League is notoriously tough for new comers, especially new managers, to be successful since the league is highly competitive and physical. There have been managers who have achieved a relative success but there are seldom managers who dominate the league and win back to back titles. so we have decided to take a look at these managers and see who are
the most successful Premier League managers ever
.
Obviously success as a manager can be interpreted in multiple ways but the ultimate success that a coach can achieve is winning titles, therefor we have decided to only mention managers who have won the Premier League at least once in our list of best Premier League managers of all time. so let us find out who made it into our list:
Greatest Managers in Premier League History
Something that you have to bear in mind is that although English Football League has been around for mor than 130 years, the Premier League as a competition has only been around since 1992, so all of the managers listed as the greatest Premier League managers ever below have worked in the league since then.
Sir Kenny Dalglish (Blackburn, Liverpool)
Liverpool and Scotland’s legend, Sir Kenny Dalglish is the first name on our list of
greatest managers in Premier League history
. Dalglish who is one of the greatest and most decorated British players of all time, started his managing career in mid-80s where he acted as a player manager at Liverpool and even won the league by doing so.
In fact, most of Dalglish’s managerial honors came before the Premier League however the Scotsman did have success in Premier League’s early years where he helped Blackburn first win a promotion to the Premier League in 1992 and then achieved an unlikely Premier League title with them in the 1994-95 season with players like Chris Sutton and Alan Shearer. After which he became the director of the club and then subsequently left Blackburn a year later.
After two relatively unsuccessful periods at Newcastle and Celtic, Dalglish returned to Liverpool in the January of 2011 and he led Liverpool to a League Cup victory in the 2011-12 season after which he left the club again. Although most of Dalglish’s achievements as a manager came before the Premier League, he is undoubtedly one of the most successful Premier League managers ever, having won one Premier League and a League Cup trophy.
Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea, Everton)
Carlo Ancelotti, who is one of the greatest Italian managers of all time, is the next one of
greatest Premier League managers ever
on our list. Ancelotti’s time in the Premier League has been relatively short, although he is currently managing Everton and may stay at that club for a while. His main success in the Premier League however came at Chelsea when he became their managers in 2009 and stayed with them for 2 years.
Ancelotti who is known to most football fans worldwide, left AC Milan in 2009, after winning 1 Serie A and 2 Champions League titles, and subsequently joined Chelsea, where he was mainly brought in for his expertise in Europe to fulfill the club’s goal of winning the Champions League. His first season at Chelsea was a great success, where despite being eliminated from the Champions League they went on to complete a domestic Double of winning the Premier League and the FA Cup.
However, in his second season at charge of the Blues, Ancelotti failed to win any silverware and ended up finished 2nd in the Premier League just behind Manchester United and was sacked hours after the last match of the league. He would later go on to win the Champions League again, this time with Real Madrid and despite his supposed failure to win the trophy with Chelsea he is still considered to be one of the most successful Premier League managers ever.
Roberto Mancini (Manchester City)
The man that made Manchester City fans’ 44-year long dream of winning the league a reality is none other than Roberto Mancini who because of his time with the
Cityzens
is considered to be one of
the best Premier League managers of all time
. In 2009, Roberto Mancini, who had a really successful time at Inter where he won 3 Serie A titles among several other trophies, was put in charge of the Manchester City project of turning them into title contenders under their new wealthy owners.
It took Mancini a few years before he was finally able to achieve Manchester City’s dream of winning the league title. In the 2011-12 season, both Manchester clubs were locked in the title race and it went up to the final match. Where his side won the league in the 94th minute of the final match week, with Sergio Aguero scoring the final goal of the season.
Although Manicini’s first silverware with Manchester City came a year before their Premier League win in the 2010-11 season where they won the FA Cup and those ended up being his two major silverware at the club. Despite winning only two trophies with Manchester City, Mancini’s work as he built that team from ground up and instilled a winning mentality at the club will be his legacy, which is arguably worth more than any silverware and which is also why he is one of the most successful Premier League managers ever.
Manuel Pellegrini (Manchester City, West Ham)
Manuel Pellegrini is certainly one of the more attack minded managers in our list of best Premier League managers of all time since the Chilean’s teams are usually famous for their attacking prowess. Despite the long list of teams that Pellegrini has managed throughout his career, he has only led two teams in the Premier League which are Manchester City and West Ham. But his success came at City where he was appointed the manager after Roberto Mancini’s departure.
Pellegrini, who made a name for himself in Spain by taking the relatively small club of Villarreal and making them into genuine title contenders and then had successful spells at Real Madrid and Malaga, took charge of Manchester City in 2013 and in his first season he took the league by storm as his side went on an unbeaten run of 20 games and in the end won both the Premier League and the League Cup. Manchester City broke the goal scoring record of English teams in all competitions by scoring 151 goals that season, thanks to Pellegrini’s attacking tactics.
However, he did not manage to repeat the success of his first two seasons and ended up underperforming a bit as he only won another League Cup in the following two years which made his overall trophy tally to 1 Premier League title and 2 League Cups. This however does not take anything away from the fact that Pellegrini’s brand of football was highly entertaining and that he was one of the most successful Premier League managers ever, despite his relative short time in England.
Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Everyone’s favorite German manager who is right now at the top of managerial world, is Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp who, despite his short time in the Premier League, has made himself into one of
the best coaches in EPL history
. Klopp’s successful time at Dortmund, where he challenged Bayern consistently for the title, made him a prime target for Liverpool when they were hunting for a new manager after the sacking of Brendan Rogers as a manager and he joined the Reds in 2015.
Club’s impact in the dressing room was immediate and he managed to take his team to the Europea League final, which they lost. His first full season at the club was more successful and his preferred style of high pressing was starting to produce results. Liverpool reached the Champions League final the following season which they lost to Real Madrid. Klopp was determined to win a trohy and despite leading a breathtaking chase in the Premier League they eventually lost the title just a point behind Manchester City’s 97 tally but they did manage to win the Champions League in their 2nd consecutive final appearance.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool got even better in the 2019-20 season as they went 27 games unbeaten and in the end became champions with 99 points, 18 points ahead of the 2nd place Manchester City. The title win was Liverpool’s 19th in their history but they had to wait 30 years until Klopp made their dream a reality and delivered the title.
Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool are in a good situation to win another Premier League this season and he may add several more silverware to his trophy cabinet. As it is, Jurgen Klopp with a Premier League Title and a Champions League title in his time at Liverpool is certainly one of the most successful Premier League managers ever.
Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)
Another serial winner on our list of most successful Premier League managers ever is the tactical mastermind, Pep Guardiola, who is undoubtedly known to many football fans for his time at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Guardiola, who joined, Manchester City in 2015, has since shown that no league is tough enough for him to win as he has continued his success in the Premier League which many claimed to be too tough for him.
Guardiola took charge of Manchester City at the beginning of the 2016 summer and set about the task of rebuilding a somewhat old Man City squad. His first season resulted in no trophies but his second season, backed by heavy investments from the owners, bore fruit for the club as Guardiola built an unstoppable team that won the league with 100 points, the only team to ever do so in Premier League history, and therefor were dubbed
the Centurions
.
Manchester City were not stopping anytime soon as they won the league again the following season as well as the FA Cup and League Cup and completed a domestic Treble, but this time Liverpool were inching closer to them and they were finally able to take over and knock Guardiola’s team to a second place finish last season, but Guardiola still managed to win his third consecutive League Cup trophy with Man City.
Despite the short time that Guardiola has had in the Premier League he has managed to win 6 major trophies with Manchester City, 2 Premier League titles, 3 League Cups, and an FA Cup, which makes him one of
the most successful Premier League managers ever
. Although it’s to be noted that he has had a far more investment from the owners into his team than the rest of the managers on our list, which makes one wonder if he can truly manage under tough circumstances or will his team falter, like last year, after losing several key players to injury.
Jose Mourinho (Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham)
The Special One has had several spells in the Premier League managing 3 teams but the bulk of his success in England has come in his time managing Chelsea. Mourinho, who is known for his eccentric personality and his disciplined style of management, just like Mancini was put in charge of a then-small club Chelsea to make their aspirations a reality and he delivered it in his first season at the club and has been winning trophies ever since.
Mourinho, who led Porto to an unexpected Champions League trophy, joined Chelsea in 2004 and delivered their first title after 50 years and also helped them win a League Cup. He then went on to win the league in the following season also before delivering 2 cup trophies in 2006-07 season, after which he left Chelsea.
After spells at Inter and Real Madrid where he won a Champions league and several league and cup trophies, he came back to Chelsea in 2013 to win yet another Premier League title and a League Cup trophy. But his second season was horrible and he was sacked after Chelsea dropped to the 17th place in the league.
He then joined Manchester United a year later where he helped them win a League Cup Trophy and a Europa League title but he was sacked from that job too. He agreed to join Tottenham last year to help the club with their trophy drought but has failed to deliver any silverware as of yet. Despite all of this, Jose Mourinho, with 3 Premier League titles, 4 League Cups, 1 FA Cup and a Europa League, is undoubtedly one of the most successful Premier League managers ever and his character as well as his brand of management will forever be remembered by football fans.
Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)
Arsene Wenger’s 22-year tenure as the manager of Arsenal can be split into 2 distinct periods, with the first decade of his management being where the bulk of his success at Arsenal came from and the second part being the years that club was under debt but Wenger still managed to make them competitive. Although the last years of his career at Arsenal did result in a number of cup trophies. Either way though he is one of the greatest Premier League managers ever as well as being one of
the most successful managers in English football history
.
Wenger became the Arsenal manager in 1996 after the club had been through a period of turmoil and at the time he was a complete unknown to many football fans in England. Yet Wenger’s blend of Total Football and scientific solutions to enhance player performance immediately made a huge impact on Arsenal players and the club’s whole culture in general. His strict diet and drinking restrictions allowed players like Tony Adams to have healthier lives and extended careers.
His rivalry with Sir Alex Ferguson led to them both winning several trophies, with Wenger achieving the FA Cup and Premier League Double in 1998 and 2001. But perhaps the highlight of his managerial career was in the 2003-04 season where he purposefully set out to win the league without losing a single match, which they did and even extended their run of unbeaten games well into the following season. This would have been the first time a team won the English top flight without losing a match since 1888.
That was also Wenger’s last Premier League trophy. Although he did manage to lead Arsenal to a Champions League final a couple of years later but in the end lost 2-1 to Barcelona. Arsenal moved to their new stadium the following season and would not see a trophy for 9 years after. But in in 2013-14 season, Arsene Wenger finally managed to lead his team to a FA Cup trophy.
He managed to do so twice again in the following years, bringing his personal tally of FA Cups to 7 which makes him the most successful managers in English football history in regards to winning the FA Cup. After 22 years of managing Arsenal, Arsene Wenger finally stepped down from his position in the end of the 2017-18 season, having won 10 major trophies during his career at Arsenal, with 3 Premier League titles and 7 FA Cup trophies and becoming one of
the most successful Premier League managers ever
.
Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United)
Sir Alex Ferguson is the most successful manager in English football history. It’s as simple as that. The man knew how to win trophies and had an insatiable hunger for it, right till the end of his 26-year tenure as Manchester United’s manager. Although Sir Alex took charge of Manchester in 1986, the majority of his success came in the Premier League era after 1992.
Ferguson’s career of 1500 games in charge of Manchester United really hit his stride when the Premier League started where he managed a team of young talented players mixed with some more experienced players which resulted in 7 Premier League titles in the first decade of the competition alone. The second decade proved to be harder as more and more teams were vying for the trophy, however Sir Alex managed to win 6 more Premier League trophies in that time.
Sir Alex was extremely good at winning European and cup trophies as well, where he won several cup trophies as well as 2 Champions League titles. in fact, the first of those Champions League trophies helped United complete a Treble, the first time any English team had done so, and that is undoubtedly one of the most important achievements of Sir Alex Ferguson’s career.
With 13 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cup trophies, 4 League Cups, 2 Champions League trophies and a European Cup Winners’ Cup as well as numerous other trophies, Sir Alex Ferguson is without a doubt the most successful Premier League manager ever as well as the most successful manager in English football history. With his closest rival having won 10 Premier League titles less than him, there is doubt that anyone will catch him anytime soon, if ever, and that is the best kind of legacy that any manager can leave behind.
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