Sports betting often focuses on outright title winners with Premier League odds given even before a ball has been kicked in anger. The managers below will have featured in many football betting coupons throughout the seasons, when football odds will fluctuate depending how well teams are doing.
Sir Alex Ferguson
The doyen of Premier League managers and one whose records will surely stand the test of time. After a rocky start to life at the helm of Manchester United, which pre-dates the Premier League by six years, by the time the footballing landscape changed in England, Fergie’s charges were top of the tree.
Having lost out to Leeds United in the race for the championship of the old First Division, the Red Devils began the Premier League era by winning the first two titles. By the time of his retirement in 2013, Sir Alex had racked up an astonishing 13 titles, not to mention a couple of Champions League wins and a handful of FA Cups. A knighthood for his services to football was the least that he deserved.
He oversaw the development of the ‘Class of 92’ and made Giggs, Beckham, Butt, Phil and Gary Neville into household names alongside the likes of Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Paul Ince et al. Somehow managed to ensure a consistent evolution of the side over the best part of two and a half decades and bowed out at the very top.
Simply the best, and the manager that all others aspire to.
Arsene Wenger
The Frenchman not only changed the face of Arsenal Football Club, he arguably shook up the whole of English football with his reliance on and expertise in sport science and nutrition. The way in which Wenger approached his work was revolutionary and despite initial reticence from his players, they soon learned to appreciate the studiousness with which the urbane manager applied his logic.
Although he would only win three Premier League titles, the Gunners never finished lower than second for eight years in a row. One of those seasons – 2003/04 – will remain the best ever seen in the top-flight because that was the season when Wenger guided Arsenal to an unbeaten season. Even now, ‘The Invincibles’ are lauded as one of the greatest Arsenal teams in history.
Petit, Vieira, Wright, Henry, Adams, Bergkamp… all of those household names and more will acknowledge a debt of gratitude to their manager, particularly Henry who was converted from a winger to one of the greatest centre forwards of the Premier League era.
Jose Mourinho
The Special One. At least he was at the time he bowled into Stamford Bridge as European champion and announced himself to the wider public with all of the confidence of a manager at the very top of his game. The Portuguese was the absolute master of mind games with players, other managers and the press, and it’s often forgotten too just how brilliant his first title-winning Chelsea squad was too.
They achieved the most away wins in a season during that campaign (15), most clean sheets kept in a season (25), fewest goals conceded away in a season (9), most wins in a season (29) and fewest goals conceded in a season (15). Some of those records have since been surpassed, however, Mourinho shook up the division like no other manager before or since. Even if his stock has slipped slightly after spells at Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, he remains one of the most memorable managers of the modern era.
Pep Guardiola
Mourinho’s nemesis in La Liga during some epic Barcelona v Real Madrid clashes, Pep Guardiola soon rekindled that particular footballing love affair in the Manchester derbies. And then some. Like some of those who had gone before him Guardiola is redefining the paradigm, but the Catalan has taken things to another level entirely. After having ripped up the record books in both Spain and Germany, the question was whether he could do the same in England. He’s answered that emphatically with three titles and one second-place finish in four seasons.
His style of play, ability to translate complex strategies – that often evoke a ‘chess match’ feel – into bite-size chunks of information for his players to understand, as well as his vision and ability to maximise the strengths of those players is second to none. A relentless perfectionist by nature, he too will go down in the Hall of Fame. Deservedly so.
Jurgen Klopp
When Jurgen Klopp joined Liverpool, he did so after the Reds had come oh so close to breaking their Premier League title duck under Brendan Rodgers. A Steven Gerrard slip and the squandering of a three-goal lead in the final 11 minutes at Crystal Palace saw Rodgers unable to get Liverpool to the promised land. It took the effervescent German a few seasons to get his team set up as he’d like, but Klopp was always going to deliver. It was only a matter of time.
Although Ralf Rangnick is known as the ‘Godfather of Gegenpressing,’ that’s a title that can also be applied to Klopp, who ensures that his sides are ferocious in and out of possession, hunting down the opposition in packs to regain control of the ball. His Liverpool have been a joy to watch for years now, injuries notwithstanding, and that the locals have a place for him alongside the legendary Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, shows the esteem in which he is held by the Anfield faithful.
Honourable Mentions
No one will ever forget the way in which Claudio Ranieri made the impossible possible at Leicester City. From 5000/1 outsiders for the Premier League title at the start of the 2015/16 season, the Italian guided his side to the promised land against all odds, and no one can argue that it wasn’t deserved.
The way in which Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City side won their maiden Premier League will also go down in history too. The club had endured a 44-year wait, and even on the final day they were losing at home to QPR after 90 minutes. Goals in injury time from Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero to secure the title will live long in the memory.
Thomas Tuchel is a recent addition to the English top-flight, but he looks on course to become one of the Premier League’s best. Watch this space.
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