Worst Premier League Managers of all time (100 games min)

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Who's down there? I'm not talking about the Ali Dia's who got one shot and then got ran out of the job straight away. I'm talking about those who got long enough to comprehensively display their incompetence over a good amount of time.
 

Paxi

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Quick wiki check:
Alan Curbishley
Joe Kinnear
 

Majima

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Ole's high up on the list. The fortune he's spent and time here, for what he's actually produced in return has been staggering levels of incompetence. It takes a special quality to be this bad with one of the best and deepest squads in European football.
 

Frosty

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Games​
Manager​
% Correct​
828Arsene Wenger99.3%
810Alex Ferguson99%
526David Moyes96.5%
641Harry Redknapp94.1%
512Sam Allardyce92.8%
305Jose Mourinho91.3%
156*Jurgen Klopp90.7%
340Rafa Benitez90.3%
466Mark Hughes89.9%
126*Pep Guardiola85%
322Tony Pulis85%
404*Steve Bruce84.9%
320Alan Pardew83.2%
182*Brendan Rodgers80.7%
300*Roy Hodgson79.4%
164*Sean Dyche79%
164*Eddie Howe77.7%
256*Mauricio Pochettino76.4%
238Kenny Dalglish76%
225Claudio Ranieri75.5%
359Martin O'Neill74.9%
265Roberto Martinez73.3%
287George Graham67.9%
167Chris Hughton67.8%
328Alan Curbishley67.8%
164*Manuel Pellegrini66.1%
267Kevin Keegan65.9%
249Gerard Houllier65.6%
188Bobby Robson63.1%
232Bryan Robson62.7%
133Roberto Mancini62.1%
280Graeme Souness59.8%
260David O'Leary57.9%
112Neil Warnock56.7%

Games​
Manager​
% Correct​
298Joe Kinnear54.1%
202Martin Jol51.6%
123Ronald Koeman49.6%
256Glenn Hoddle49%
197Jim Smith48.1%
143Walter Smith48%
184Roy Evans47.9%
138Mick McCarthy47.9%
271Gordon Strachan47.2%
104Ruud Gullit46.7%
138Paul Jewell46.1%
218Steve McClaren45.9%
219Joe Royle45.7%
154Paul Lambert45.6%
114Gareth Southgate40.7%
104Stuart Pearce40.6%
227Peter Reid40.2%
138Alex McLeish39.7%
152Chris Coleman38.2%
204Ron Atkinson37.5%
116Owen Coyle36%
146Steve Coppell35.4%
136David Jones31.5%
162John Gregory30.2%
139Gary Megson30.1%
217Gerry Francis28.6%
126Trevor Francis28.5%
189Howard Wilkinson27.3%
126Glenn Roeder25.4%
105Danny Wilson23.3%
131Dave Bassett23%
144Brian Little20%
127David Pleat17.2%
102John Lyall6.4%

Take your pick.
 

paulscholes18

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Neil Warnock- good at getting teams to the premiership but useless at keeping them their.
 

Dumbstar

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Ole's high up on the list. The fortune he's spent and time here, for what he's actually produced in return has been staggering levels of incompetence. It takes a special quality to fail this hard with one of the best and deepest squads in European football.
Ole is terrible for sure. But this self perpetuated myth is the best thing about Utd in the last decade. From Moyes being handed "a league winning squad" from Ferguson to a squad containing Lindelof, Maguire, Lingard, Martial, Fred, Mata, Shaw being called "best" and "deepest". :lol:

Anyhow I'm not complaining, please bring in Zidane so he can win 4 CLs on the trot again with this brilliant Utd squad. :cool:
 

Hisha

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PL or not, I personally haven't watched a more inept manager than Ole (with 100+ matches). The guy has no clue on what he is doing and what he is supposed to do.
 

Rhyme Animal

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The players at their disposal have to be taken into account…

Finishing 6th or 7th with a squad full of absolute top level players is worse than being relegated with this current Norwich or Newcastle squad.
 

Majima

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Ole is terrible for sure. But this self perpetuated myth is the best thing about Utd in the last decade. From Moyes being handed "a league winning squad" from Ferguson to a squad containing Lindelof, Maguire, Lingard, Martial, Fred, Mata, Shaw being called "best" and "deepest". :lol:

Anyhow I'm not complaining, please bring in Zidane so he can win 4 CLs on the trot again with this brilliant Utd squad. :cool:
The past is irrelevent. I'm talking about now. Man Utd's squad depth now rivals any team in Europe.

We paid £85m for Sancho, one of the best in Europe, he's on the bench 90% of the season. Paid £35m for van de Beek, he's benched 100%. Even Pogba is benched many times, Greenwood too. Martial can't get a look in, 2 years ago scored 20+ goals. Lingard was on fire for West Ham last season he too can't get a look in either. Mata is semi retired and never plays not sure why you're bringing him up? Shaw's in terrible form now I agree, but he was excellent for England in the summer, & Utd last season. He rivals any full-back in Europe when on form. If you've seen Fred for Brazil just once recently, you would see he's not actually this bad.

This squad is made to look a lot worse than it actually is, because we have an incompetent manager and coaching team, who are making it up as they go along from one week to the next. If a top manager came in, people would see how strong this squad really is.
 
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FeedTheGoat

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Can't be bothered to check whether they reached 100 games in the PL but I would nominate Neil Warnock and Alan Ball.

Neil Warnock is obviously a decent manager, a great Championship manager even, but every time he got to the promised land it became clear he was levels below what was needed. Didn't manage the best teams of course but there is a reason for that.

Alan Ball is the worst manager City ever had. Fantastic player, totally inept manager

Stuart Pearce must have come close to 100 games, which is insane to think about. When he almost got into europe in his first half season based on the new manager bounce, he took the opportunity in the penultimate game of the season to obliterate the dressing room by putting David James up top and leaving strikers on the bench when we had to score (worst part is it almost worked!)
No goals at home for his last 6 months of his tenure. Did have to paper the cracks Keegan had left in the squad with very little resources though (because Keegan spent every last penny) so in hindsight the fact that he kept us up was a good achievment.

Ole belongs here as well. Completely out of his depth. Did well to win the Norwegian league twice early in the decade, got a go at a Premier League job. Was sent back to where he belonged after doing nothing but losing matches at Cardiff for 8 months, did nothing at Molde for a couple of seasons then got the United gig under special circumstances. Outside of some good signings and some good results here and there he has underachieved in line with the strengthening of the squad, and he has failed the eye test for years now. He can't set up a team. Elsewhere, Molde has been better every time he left

Edit: Based on the wikilist posted above Glenn Roeder might deserve a mention for taking that West Ham side down. Also was completely uninspiring at Newcastle. Alex McLeish maybe as well
 
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Lay

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Pearce put David James up front, so him.
 

Hound Dog

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Ole is terrible for sure. But this self perpetuated myth is the best thing about Utd in the last decade. From Moyes being handed "a league winning squad" from Ferguson to a squad containing Lindelof, Maguire, Lingard, Martial, Fred, Mata, Shaw being called "best" and "deepest". :lol:

Anyhow I'm not complaining, please bring in Zidane so he can win 4 CLs on the trot again with this brilliant Utd squad. :cool:
Well, if you pretend that Ronaldo and Cavani are still in their prime and judge Maguire and Pogba by their FIFA ratings... You still have Fred, McT and the likes starting so yeah, I really cannot see how this myth persists.
 

Lecland07

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I think 100 games min cuts out too many managers.

Farke - Does not seem to have learned from the last time
Derby manager? - It could be that the team was just too bad to compete, and I don't even remember who he is.
Solskjaer - I'm going to say it. He has a great squad playing absolutely terribly. I think he has massively underachieved.
Kinnear
 

Cascarino

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I think 100 games min cuts out too many managers.

Farke - Does not seem to have learned from the last time
Derby manager? - It could be that the team was just too bad to compete, and I don't even remember who he is.
Solskjaer - I'm going to say it. He has a great squad playing absolutely terribly. I think he has massively underachieved.
Kinnear
Billy Davies and Paul Jewell, they desperately needed reinforcements which didn't come so bit of a thankless job. Derby were a bit of a surprise promotion iirc.
 

Cascarino

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If any amount of time is allowed I'd put forward Bob Bradley. An American appointed by the New American owners, without consulting the supporters trust (own a quarter of the club). Just a disaster.

I felt some of the media coverage he faced was disrespectful (stuff about his accent was shitty) but he was pretty dreadful.
 

Lay

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Billy Davies and Paul Jewell, they desperately needed reinforcements which didn't come so bit of a thankless job. Derby were a bit of a surprise promotion iirc.
Yep, Chris Perry who lost in that playoff final said this immediately after the game

"Derby have got no quality apart from Giles Barnes.

"And as far as I am concerned, if they defend like they defended against us they will not survive in the Premiership.

"I think they will come straight back down."
 

JB08

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Neil Warnock has always been pretty crap at the top level.
 

FootballHQ

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Chris Hutchings basically did the same job at two clubs. Took over at Bradford and Wigan from Paul Jewell who've massively overachieved, started off with some good wins at both (Bradford beat Chelsea 2-0 in his second game in charge) before quickly things went wrong and he got sacked from both jobs in the October of those seasons.

Edit: Having a can't read day. Perhaps Alex McLeish. Birmingham relegated twice in his three prem seasons there (although he did also finish 10th there and win the cup) and he had a really good go at relegating us in 11/12 aswell.

Need I say more on Paul Lambert. Awful football for 2 and a half of his three seasons in charge yet somehow stayed up and then incredibly Stoke decided he was the man to keep them up in January 2018. Think he won his first game and the next game Stoke won was in May and they were down before the final game.
 

Gio

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Games​
Manager​
% Correct​
828Arsene Wenger99.3%
810Alex Ferguson99%
526David Moyes96.5%
641Harry Redknapp94.1%
512Sam Allardyce92.8%
305Jose Mourinho91.3%
156*Jurgen Klopp90.7%
340Rafa Benitez90.3%
466Mark Hughes89.9%
126*Pep Guardiola85%
322Tony Pulis85%
404*Steve Bruce84.9%
320Alan Pardew83.2%
182*Brendan Rodgers80.7%
300*Roy Hodgson79.4%
164*Sean Dyche79%
164*Eddie Howe77.7%
256*Mauricio Pochettino76.4%
238Kenny Dalglish76%
225Claudio Ranieri75.5%
359Martin O'Neill74.9%
265Roberto Martinez73.3%
287George Graham67.9%
167Chris Hughton67.8%
328Alan Curbishley67.8%
164*Manuel Pellegrini66.1%
267Kevin Keegan65.9%
249Gerard Houllier65.6%
188Bobby Robson63.1%
232Bryan Robson62.7%
133Roberto Mancini62.1%
280Graeme Souness59.8%
260David O'Leary57.9%
112Neil Warnock56.7%

Games​
Manager​
% Correct​
298Joe Kinnear54.1%
202Martin Jol51.6%
123Ronald Koeman49.6%
256Glenn Hoddle49%
197Jim Smith48.1%
143Walter Smith48%
184Roy Evans47.9%
138Mick McCarthy47.9%
271Gordon Strachan47.2%
104Ruud Gullit46.7%
138Paul Jewell46.1%
218Steve McClaren45.9%
219Joe Royle45.7%
154Paul Lambert45.6%
114Gareth Southgate40.7%
104Stuart Pearce40.6%
227Peter Reid40.2%
138Alex McLeish39.7%
152Chris Coleman38.2%
204Ron Atkinson37.5%
116Owen Coyle36%
146Steve Coppell35.4%
136David Jones31.5%
162John Gregory30.2%
139Gary Megson30.1%
217Gerry Francis28.6%
126Trevor Francis28.5%
189Howard Wilkinson27.3%
126Glenn Roeder25.4%
105Danny Wilson23.3%
131Dave Bassett23%
144Brian Little20%
127David Pleat17.2%
102John Lyall6.4%

Take your pick.
Not sure if that Brian Little % is correct. His mid-90s Villa side were pretty competitive in league and cups from what I remember.
 

Frosty

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Not sure if that Brian Little % is correct. His mid-90s Villa side were pretty competitive in league and cups from what I remember.
Sorry I lifted this from the first source I could find which was a quiz site. The % relates to the number of people who could successfully identify the manager as having 100+ games.
 

GuybrushThreepwood

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For a minute I completely forgot that Megson was the Bolton manager a couple of years, as I was initially surprise to see him in that 100 game list based on his West Brom record.

That was a bizarre appointment. The Bolton fans pretty much were universally against appointing him right from the moment that the rumours first surfaced, and he only been in charge at Leicester for 7 league games (winning 1).

Megson at Bolton, Kean at Blackburn, and McLeish at Villa, must be 3 of the most unpopular managerial appointments in Premier League history.
 

Bale Bale Bale

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Not sure if that Brian Little % is correct. His mid-90s Villa side were pretty competitive in league and cups from what I remember.
I like how you picked out Brian Little's % out of that list when you have Arsene Wenger up there with 99.3%.

In fairness I had no idea what it meant either.
 

AndySmith1990

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This is a good example of where stats fail due to lack of context (when using a wiki as reference)

The managers in the bottom half would have been managing smaller clubs with little budget. Put them in charge of United for 3 years and hand them £400m and their win percentage will shoot up. Doesn't mean they're any better though.
 

Gio

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Sorry I lifted this from the first source I could find which was a quiz site. The % relates to the number of people who could successfully identify the manager as having 100+ games.
I like how you picked out Brian Little's % out of that list when you have Arsene Wenger up there with 99.3%.

In fairness I had no idea what it meant either.
:lol: Right enough. My own fault for jumping straight to the dregs of the list.
 

Chipper

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I think 100 games min cuts out too many managers.

Farke - Does not seem to have learned from the last time
Derby manager? - It could be that the team was just too bad to compete, and I don't even remember who he is.
Solskjaer - I'm going to say it. He has a great squad playing absolutely terribly. I think he has massively underachieved.
Kinnear
Agreed. To reach 100 I wouldn't say you have to be good, but most of them will be decent or at least looked ok for a while. Rules out most of the genuinely terrible ones.

Being hyperbolic it's a bit like "Worst professional footballer of all time? (must have been top 3 in balon d'or)"

As already said by others it was Jewell at Derby that season, but he did a good job with Wigan. 2 promotions and the 10th place finish in their first season in the PL was/is their highest position ever then he just kept them up the following season too before resigning. Previously got Bradford to the top flight too for the first time in 77 years and kept them up before resigning there as well after the chairman called it an underachievement to finish 17th.
 
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Oranges038

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Why only 100 games?
Why only the PL era?

Any Villa fans remember Dr. Jozef Venglos? The first top flight manager from outside the UK and Ireland in English football. First is the worst was probably right in his case.
 

golden_blunder

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Ole's high up on the list. The fortune he's spent and time here, for what he's actually produced in return has been staggering levels of incompetence. It takes a special quality to be this bad with one of the best and deepest squads in European football.
Was wondering how long it would take
 

GlasgowCeltic

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The Prem will never see a worse manager than Stuart Pearce unless Tony Adams gives it another go
 

Carolina Red

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This breaks it down based on games per club, so there’s only 4 guys on there that meet the 100 games threshold, but based on that metric at a min 100 games, John Lyall’s time at Ipswich.