IYHO: Top 10 Managers in Premiership This Season, and Why

Past midway of the season, transfer window almost closed, thought it would be an interesting topic. Me first.

1. Ferguson / Man. U - Simple, they are #1 (at least for now), and regardless of how talented, that is not an easy task.

2. Coppell / Reading - Their first time ever in The Premiership, and no other team dare take them for granted.

3. Allardyce / Bolton - Big Sam's got them top five and nipping the heels of the big boys for Champions League competition.

4. Benitez / Liverpool - Slowly and quietly resurrecting their season. Question is, why did it get that bad in the first place?

5. Redknapp / Portsmouth - Experience over potential has to be theme down there. Will other Clubs take notice? Yep.

6. Mourinho / Chelscum - The circus is in town, and he still manages to remain fairly cool and even keel. 2nd in the table not too shabby considering everything else going on.

7. Coleman / The Fulham Football Club - Manager, picked as odds on favorite at the beginning of the season to get sacked, has his team, picked at the beginning of the season to go down, believing in themselves and each other, after shipping out some of the dead weight. Transfers with little money have been and will be key contributors. Sniffing top ten and possible spot in Europe.

8. Moyes / Everton - Top ten for now. But wherever they are in the table, Fulham should always be at least one spot above.

9. Warnock / Sheffield United - Pompous ass with shiit eating grin, but has his mugs playing good enough to get out of the drop zone.

10. Southgate / Middlesborough - Managing newbie nearly saw a short lived career smashed against the rocks, but he showed his competitive spirit by staying in the game and improving.

That's my quick and dirty summation. Yours?

 

RE: IYHO: Top 10 Managers in Premiership This Season, and Wh

Arsenal. Attractive, yes. Always winning, welllll, two words, Sheffield United. And as far as Wenger, two words, Alan Pardew. With that squad, they should be #1 in the world, much less in The Premiership.

Sorry, we can't agree on everything I guess, pard.

Good explanations though. Hey, wasn't that 11!?!? Oh, and thanks for making me look like an ass for making Cookie 7th. Still, top seven is respectable. And, of course we reserve the right to move him and others up or down at the end of the season.

 

RE: IYHO: Top 10 Managers in Premiership This Season, and Wh

Apart from #1 these are in no particular order.

1. Stevie Coppell is a master coach. It is not the first time he has taken a rubbish team and made them play. He did the same with Palace.

2. Jose - I don't care what anyone says, he gives it to Fergie and makes a 2 horse race more interesting. Especially as he is being kneecapped by his own board.

3. Big 'Bung' Sam. Bolton play crap football. My choice for England manager. If you ever get the opportunity to hear him speak about football then LISTEN! I love it when he commentates on Sky - he see's things I don't think about.

4. Arse'W. Football is not always about results. Arsenal play the beatiful game better than any current team. Maybe the best English/French team ever.

5. Paul Jewell - Wigan are not in the relegation zone yet, the second season is the hardest. If they don't finish 19th it will be a great acheivement.

6. Mark Hughes - After a terrible start he has turned around a Blackburn team with nothinhg but coaching.

7. Glenn Roeder - The worlds unluckiest manager still keeping his head above water.

8. Cookie - We are not in the relegation zone. Strength and depth in midfield!!!

9. Hasom Harry Rednapp - The pin-up of the premier league. The dogest bloke since George Graeme took a wad of fivers in a service station. Pompey are punching well above their weight. West Ham tumbled when they got rid of him.

10. Fergusonofa.... - Man U are playing good football, a mixture of good buys and good coaching have made them a force despite spending little compared to the Russian revolution in West London.

 

Re: RE: IYHO: Top 10 Managers in Premiership This Season, an

Just remember this about Arsenal, they do not have nearly the budget of a Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool. In fact, they sign players at a fraction of the prices that those other clubs do.

Their budget is huge compared to Fulham's, but then again, so is every other teams in the Premiership.

Yes, do they do make some big signings like Theo Walcott, Alexander Hleb and Jose Antonio Reyes, but these were all signings in the 10-13 million pound range and have happened over a period of three years.

The point I am making is that when it comes to finding talent and developing talent there is no other manager in the world I would rather have than Arsene Wenger. The man can spot talent and develop it like no other.

On top of that, with the limited budget over the past few seasons because of the new stadium construction, Wenger has been forced to buy young and develop and that is exactly what he is doing. In fact, I believe in their regular starting XI, Arsenal is easily the youngest team in the Premiership.

Talent wise this team is not nearly as good as Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal, but Wenger is putting these youngsters in position to be successful right now and grow in confidence for years down the road.

Wenger is developing a young team to grow together not for a title this season, but for perhaps the 2008-2009 season. If Wenger is able to keep these players along with the young crop of players in the reserves we have not even seen, Arsenal will be a force to deal with in the very near future.

Wenger has his faults as a manager, as all do, but there is no other manager I would want than him. For a "big club" Arsenal has not been able to compete financially with the three other big clubs the last decade or so and the only reason Arsenal has had the success they have had is because of Wenger.

 

RE: Re: RE: IYHO: Top 10 Managers in Premiership This Season

As for my top ten this season and the jobs they have done:

1. Chris Coleman - Cookie has taken a team filled with very little flare and world class talent to the brink of the top ten in the Premiership. I actually think the best is yet to come of Coleman and this Fulham team. On paper, they are less superior than most every team in the league, but somehow, Coleman manages to get the best out of his players on the pitch and has instilled a great attitude and belief amongst this group of players. That is a hard thing to do in this day and age of money and ego-driven players. See Alan Pardew if you do not believe me.

2. Steve Coppell - he basically took the same team from the Championship and has gotten him team into the top ten of the Premiership. Yes, there was a signing or two this past summer, but nothing that broke the bank. He has proved a lot of doubters (myself included) wrong and has made Reading a Premiership force to reckon with this season. His biggest challenge as Paul Jewell can atest to will be the second season.

3. Sam Allardyce - Year after year this guy gets it done. He does not have the biggest budget, but he plucks players out of nowhere and get his team to perform at a high level.

His team is currently in 5th place and over the past two and a half seasons, Bolton has gone from a relegation contender to a shoe-in for a top-ten finish. This is because of good managing and good player evaluations. The Bolton model is one smaller clubs should try to emulate. I am not saying go buy all old, washed up players, but Sam has been doing something right. It is a combination of older veterans plus younger talent. Fulham looks to be moving in this direction.

4. Sir Alex Ferguson - Yes, I know he has loads of money to spend on players, but what he has been able to do with his players and his purchases the last twelve months is quite astonishing. Last January, Ferguson quietly signed Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra to very little fanfare. These two have changed the dynamic of the United back four and made them one of the most airtight defenses in the league.

On top of that, the way Ferguson handled the Ronaldo fiasco after the World Cup was pure class. He has meshed players well and combined his younger stars like Ronaldo, Rooney and others with veterans Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and others to form a title contender when many thought the wheels were falling off the past two seasons.

5. Neil Warnock - between Sheffield United and Watford, these two clubs have the least talent of any other club in the Premiership. Currently, Sheffield United sits 16th in the table on 24 points, three clear of the drop zone. Warnock has definitely made something of nothing and might actually steer his team clear of relegation which would be just short of a miracle looking at his roster.

Like Coleman and Allardyce above, Warnock has maximized the talent he has in the squad and made his team tough to beat and one can be sure they play hard every single match. That is credit to Warnock and his coaching style.

6. Arsene Wenger - per my last post, please see that description of why I think he is doing well. He is only #6 on this list, but year in and year out, this is the manager I would want running my club. He is class. He may not handle losing well, but he can sure find and nurture young talent.

7. Harry Redknapp - A great job thus far with a Portsmouth team that has been in the thick of the relegation battle the last few seasons. Instead of battling the drop, Pompey is battling for a UEFA Cup spot. Few would have expected that at this time last season when Portsmouth was in major trouble.

I must say though that Redknapp has had the luxury of some deep pockets from owner Alexader Gaydamak over the past year. Money can do a lot to help a team.

Regardless, Harry has done well putting this talent together and making them play well as a team. Credit to him and his staff for a job well done.

8. Martin O'Neil - Has taken a difficult situation at Villa and has started turning it around. He has basically taken the same team David O'Leary had and has gotten some positive results this season. The start of the season was fantastic and Villa has slid a bit since then, but O'Neil has restored excitement and energy to the fans and players there and will push this team up the table the rest of this season and next. Remember, other than the ludicrous Ashley Young buy last week, he has had no new signings this year.

9. Mark Hughes - Since taking over two seasons ago, Hughes has developed a team of hard-nose, physical players that make it tough on opponents to beat. This season Blackburn sits 10th in the table and has looked great at times and poor at others.

He seems to be bringing in the right players to succeed. He will have to continue to mesh the class players like Benni McCarthy and Morten Gamst Pedersen with the physical players like Ryan Nelsen and Robbie Savage (despite his injury). Overall, Hughes has done a nice job at Blackburn.

10. In my book there are no other managers worthy of consideration this season.

Underachievers in no order:

Jose Mourinho - all that talent and still six points back? Players do not seem happy and there seems to be some friction with the upper brass at the club and Jose. Also, this team is just plain boring to watch. Not that the entertainment value wins titles, but with the loads of world class players on the team, you would think there would more action and excitement in their matches.

Martin Jol - Tottenham has spent loads of cash this season in the hopes of pushing for a Champions League spot and instead they are pushing for a UEFA Cup spot. Jol can't seem to get this team on the same page and at the same time can't seem to figure out which strike partnership he likes. He needs to sort out this mess in a hurry, just not before the 5th round of the FA Cup!! LOL!

Rafa Benitez - Beating Chelsea two weeks ago it was evident this team has talent. However, they are 11 points behind Manchester United. This team has more talent than any club but Chelsea in my opinion. Yet, once again this season they are underachieving in the league and have been knocked out of the League and FA Cups already. Benitez will get a free pass from Liverpool fans because of his Champions League and FA Cup titles, but his managing in the league has been suspect to say the least. His rotation policy is bizarre and does not seem to be liked my a lot of the players at Liverpool. Very few players have gotten better under the direction of Benitez from what I can see.


That is all. Just my two cents. Sorry for the book.

 

RE: Re: RE: IYHO: Top 10 Managers in Premiership This Season

All good stuff, as usual, Tom. I agree with most of what you said. Your scope went beyond just this season, but that shows how much you have been following everything in the Premiership. Doubt there are any writers in any rags who could claim too much more of an understanding than you.

Let's hear from some more people though!!!

 

RE: Re: RE: IYHO: Top 10 Managers in Premiership This Season

Thanks for the comments FFCinPCB! I appreciate them. Other than Wenger and a few other comments I tried to stay within this season. Those rankings are for this season alone.