Every Premier League boss ranked on this season's performance
With the season drawing to its conclusion and Manchester City finally being crowned champions, it's time to take a look at this season's offerings from the managers of Premier League clubs. West Brom's Darren Moore has been excused - the mess at the Hawthorns clearly isn't his fault - but nobody else gets a free ride as the work of the last nine months is ranked in order for your reading pleasure. Which bosses have overachieved and which clubs might be looking for a new leader for next season?
19. Mark Hughes
It’s been a sensationally bad season for former Blackburn, Wales and Manchester City boss Mark Hughes, who looks increasingly likely to end the campaign having had a hand in two relegations. A terrible first half of the season with Stoke City saw the Potters concede seven to Manchester City, five against Spurs and nine in two matches against Chelsea and ended with his sacking.
His employment by a desperate Southampton to try to keep them in the Premier League looks set to fail, with the Saints having gone from just outside the relegation zone when he joined to now sitting inside it, five points from safety.
18. Sam Allardyce
Big Sam came out of retirement to take over from Ronald Koeman at Goodison Park and may be beginning to wish he hadn’t bothered. The ex-England boss has had a dismal six months pockmarked with soundbites that have only harmed his cause – the latest being his attempts to paint Everton’s season in a good light by comparing it to West Brom’s – serving to provoke rather than soothe an increasingly hostile fanbase.
Allardyce was brought in with the team sliding swiftly towards the bottom three, his chief remit being to keep the side in the division. In that regard, he’s done the job asked of him but the fact that no set of supporters are closer to open mutiny speaks volumes.
17. Arsene Wenger
The Emirates has become a depressing place this season with the Arsenal supporters becoming increasingly vocal about their desire for change at the club. The empty seats point to apathy from those fans that more recently backed the manager and the air of fatalism around the ground is palpable, with audible exasperation whenever a player puts a foot wrong.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been a morale-boosting addition and Jack Wilshere’s revival has been nice to see. Other than that, there’s been endless pitiful defending, a goalkeeper in steep decline, a desperately underwhelming £46.5m centre-forward, more ground lost to Spurs and yet another star player defecting to Manchester.
Arsenal are falling further behind England’s best teams, despite their run to the semi-finals of the Europa League, a competition they didn’t really want to be in to start with.
16. Paul Lambert
Lambert was on a hiding to nothing when he took over from Mark Hughes at Stoke in January. The Potters had conceded more goals than any other team in any of Europe’s big five leagues and were firmly entrenched in the relegation zone. The ‘new manager bounce’ that may have been expected didn’t last long – Stoke won Lambert’s first game, a home encounter with Huddersfield, but haven’t taken three points since.
His side have gone from 18th to 19th, from a point below the dots (with a game in hand) to six points off the necessary pace. Lambert’s first three months in the job may not have been a disaster, but nor has he cajoled much quality from a squad specked with decent international players, and one far from the three worst in the league. They shouldn’t be going down. They almost certainly will.
15. Roy Hodgson
Some managers are a hard act to improve upon, but Frank De Boer wasn't. The Dutchman was sacked and replaced by former England boss Hodgson after Palace lost each of their first four Premier League games of the season without scoring a goal. Since then, Palace have improved – but it was hard not to, and their survival will owe as much to the Premier League’s excess of dross than to any sizzling managerial magic on Hodgson’s part.
He has neither made Palace impregnable (during his time they've conceded one fewer than West Brom) nor got his forwards firing (Christian Benteke's ongoing decline has been painful to watch). Yet he has coaxed career-best form from the team's most gifted player in Wilfried Zaha, invigorated Andros Townsend and had the guts to promote Aaron Wan-Bissaka at the campaign's business end. It might just be enough – and Palace fans aren't complaining.
14. Antonio Conte
It’s been an unhappy season for the Premier League’s reigning champions. Chelsea set numerous records on their way to the title last time out but find themselves falling further behind for a spot in next season’s Champions League with every passing week. Conte has spent the season bemoaning his plight and apportioning blame but the facts suggest that much of Chelsea's bizarre unravelling has been Conte's doing.
The alienation of Diego Costa, the unnecessary tinkering with the central defensive partnership of David Luiz and Gary Cahill and allowing Michy Batshuayi to move to Dortmund after ignoring him for the first half of the season have all contributed. It’s been a baffling regression for a coach who was so masterful last year as he guided the Blues to the title.
13. David Moyes
David Moyes has exceeded expectations at the London Stadium, which probably says more about the endemic misery in East London than his achievements in charge of West Ham since replacing Slaven Bilic in November. It could still all end horribly for the Hammers but Moyes has made a difference with a few smart moves since coming in, most notably the rejuvenation of Marko Arnautovic whose goals have steered West Ham up the table, drawing comparisons with Zlatan Ibrahimovic from his manager. It's been far from plain sailing – the defeat to Burnley was a nightmarish low point –but it could have been plenty worse.
12. Jose Mourinho
The truth is that even a vintage Manchester United – or, indeed, a vintage Mourinho side – would have struggled to keep pace with a sensational Manchester City this season. Second place is no failure for United but the way Mourinho has his side playing is a huge cause for concern for the supporters, particularly given the lavish outlay on players since Mourinho took the reins at Old Trafford.
In this regard, the season’s last derby was the exception: there has been City at Old Trafford ("Park the bus, Man United!" trilled the away end), an out-of-form Liverpool at Anfield and, of course, Sevilla home and away. Factor in the treatment of some employees that would, in most other professions, prompt a stern word from HR and an increasingly disenchanted fan base and the verdict is clear: must do better.
11. Javi Gracia
The Marco Silva situation was bizarre. When the Portuguese was sacked and replaced by Javi Gracia in January, Watford claimed the reason for the club’s decline was a lack of focus following Everton’s unwarranted approach for their manager. Silva hasn’t worked since and his replacement, Spaniard Javi Gracia, has restored Watford’s quiet consistency.
On the face of it, he hasn't tangibly improved the side he took over (he's taken them from 10th to 12th, and as of mid-April they still hadn't scored away for him), yet there can be little doubt that he has calmed the turbulence which coloured the latter stages of Silva's reign – not least by arresting the pitiful slump that got his predecessor the sack. Gracia has extracted excellence from the former prodigy Will Hughes, who couldn't get a look-in under Silva, though has failed to do the same with the gifted Richarlison.
10. David Wagner
Amiable German-American coach David Wagner may have the most limited squad in the Premier League, making their current status – seven points clear of the drop with only four matches left to play – very impressive indeed.
As unlikely as it may be, there's still time for a fatal twist with a particularly difficult run-in for the Terriers, but zoom out and you'll see a side that will overachieve regardless of how the final month plays out, and who can thank their coach for that.
Wagner will not get the credit he deserves, mainly because his side were at their most impressive in the season's early stages, before storylines kick in and end-of-term report cards are given any thought.
9. Chris Hughton
Few Premier League managers are as averse to blowing their own trumpets as Chris Hughton. Seven points clear of the relegation zone and with a game in hand on most around them, Brighton’s first season in the top division since 1982/83 will go down as a success and they have their coach to thank for it.
Hughton kept faith with Shane Duffy and Lewis Dunk despite the pair having 213 minutes of top-flight experience between them; he has turned Glenn Murray into a genuinely menacing Premier League striker and in Pascal Gross, picked up for just £3m from Ingolstadt, he has made one of the signings of the season.
8. Claude Puel
Frenchman Puel has done an outstanding job at Leicester City. When he took over from Craig Shakespeare in October, the Foxes were at the wrong end of the Premier League table with just two wins from their opening nine matches. With a month of the season remaining, Leicester are comfortably inside the top half of the table, they managed to keep hold of their best player in the face of bids from newly-crowned champions Manchester City and Puel has revived the goal threat of Jamie Vardy.
He’s done it all with no little style, too, placing the emphasis firmly back on the side’s jet-heeled attack (Leicester have only failed to score on two occasions under his stewardship, against Chelsea and Man City). Brought in to dodge the drop, Puel has gone above and beyond his remit – and it's still a work in progress.
7. Eddie Howe
Eddie Howe has constructed a team in the truest sense of the term, with his Bournemouth side devoid of any genuine star player but capable of playing sparkling football on a very modest budget. They have rarely looked like being sucked into a relegation battle and have taken the odd scalp too – most notably that 3-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in January.
Howe has consolidated his status as the Premier League’s quiet overachiever, his team the epitome of one that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. The tendency to become mired in spells of poor form – they took one win from 12 in late autumn – remains an Achilles’ heel, but they have grit too: for all their technical distinction, Bournemouth have won the league’s most points from losing positions.
6. Jurgen Klopp
It’s difficult to give a true assessment of Jurgen Klopp’s second full season in charge when there’s still so much to resolve. They could be domestic runners-up and Champions League winners, but they could also go out of Europe and slump back down to fourth, which would be hugely anti-climactic. What’s clearer is that this season has shown that Liverpool are making progress.
Not only has Klopp allied another impressive league season with a long European campaign, he has done it while fine-tuning a menacing frontline despite the loss of a key player, tackling the longstanding goalkeeping crisis and (whisper it) transforming the defence into something resembling a dependable entity. Consistency is better but remains something of an issue: Klopp engineered two of the outstanding Anfield performances of modern times in defeating Manchester City, but suffered damaging defeats to the other top-four teams as well as, erm, Swansea.
5. Carlos Carvalhal
When Swansea hoofed Paul Clement in late December, few Swans fans can have wanted the Portuguese coach recently axed by second-tier underachievers Sheffield Wednesday. Fast forward a month and he had masterminded Premier League wins against Watford, Arsenal and Liverpool and had been nominated for Manager of the Month and has overseen a revival in South Wales.
Carvalhal has lost just four of the 20 matches he's overseen: a league table from then to now would have the Swans in seventh place. He has made a porous defence resolute, drawn career-best form from Ki Sung-yueng and Sam Clucas in his engine room, and paired the Ayew brothers in attack to fine effect – all while giving the impression of a man who is greatly enjoying his job. Fine work.
4. Rafa Benitez
It’s not been an easy season at St. James’s Park, particularly for the man in the dugout, but Benitez has alchemised Premier League gold from a Championship-level squad – and one glaringly lacking that most fundamental of parts: a reliable goalscorer. The Spaniard has turned Jamaal Lascelles into one of the top flight’s outstanding defenders, Jonjo Shelvey into the player he has spent half a decade hinting at, and Ayoze Perez into an elusive, between-the-lines playmaker. He also made some very astute January loan signings, and at the time of writing has Newcastle in the top half.
If Mike Ashley is loathe to spend while a takeover is possible, the owner has to be very careful to keep his manager sweet: the Spaniard is a loyal man, but other clubs will have noticed his overachievements.
3. Sean Dyche
Many clubs would’ve fired Sean Dyche when Burnley were relegated from the Premier League in 2015. The Clarets stuck with him, and their reward may well be European football at Turf Moor next season: currently the ‘best-of-the-rest’ in seventh place, they're only two points behind an Arsenal side with European distractions ahead.
There’s no shortage of old-fashioned muscle in Dyche’s side, not least among his frontmen, but the summer addition of Jack Cork – yet to miss a minute of league football – has significantly tweaked the team’s brains/brawn ratio. Burnley have been all the better for it. Could Dyche do more at a better-resourced club? There’s no reason to think not – but he may also prefer the stability he enjoys in Lancashire.
2. Mauricio Pochettino
Pochettino’s real triumph at Spurs has been to keep pace with those around them while spending considerably less in the transfer market. That Tottenham are now a regular fixture in the Champions League and could still conceivably finish second in the Premier League is a huge achievement. Pochettino has allied substance with style and his team are easy on the eye – riveting when in full flow – catering for all types of taste, equal parts steel and silk.
These achievements, already impressive, grow enormously once it’s factored in that the Argentine has done all this while his side spend the season in an alien stadium, while overseeing a splendid Champions League campaign, and while fighting – and winning – power battles with two standout senior players in Danny Rose and Toby Alderweireld.
1. Pep Guardiola
Guardiola has put together one of the best football teams England has ever seen, won the title with weeks to spare, coupled it up with a domestic cup and improved just about every single player in the Manchester City squad. It’s been a sensationally good season for City but there is still considerable room for improvement, particularly on the psychological side of things: City have shown a tendency to fold at the really crucial moments, namely against Liverpool in the Champions League and against United when they had the chance to seal the title in record time in front of their own supporters.
But history will regard that nightmarish week in early April as an aberration from a phenomenal season in which City have smashed opponents and records alike, with a brand of swashbuckling football involving several eye-rubbing moments of brilliance. If he can finally overcome the ‘typical City’ tendency, next season may be the best in the club's existence.
