Premier League Managers: The Good, The Bad & The Lucky

Top Half

It's not often I find myself in agreement with Peter Kenyon, but when Chelsea's chief executive said recently that Luiz Felipe Scolari had made the Blues more likeable, he had a point. The big Brazilian with the even bigger reputation breezed into the Bridge after Euro 2008, and things could hardly have gone much better for him in his first few months in English football. Chelsea are top of the Premier League table, level on points with Liverpool but with a goal difference that's currently superior to the Reds' by 15, which must be worth a few more points.

Scolari has been a tonic after the egocentric posturing of Jose Mourinho and the grouchy defensiveness of Avram Grant. The Brazilian has the charisma of Mourinho without the
abrasiveness, the confrontational edge and the playing to the gallery of the Portuguese. On the pitch his team - enhanced by the creativity of Deco and Jose Bosingwa's contribution along the right flank - has impressed. Yes, they have suffered un-Mourinho-like set-backs against Liverpool, Roma (when the defence was uncharacteristically careless) and, er, Burnley.

But generally Chelsea's football under Scolari has been expansive and entertaining, with panache finally elevated above the merely pragmatic. He greeted those three defeats philosophically, without producing a litany of excuses, and with only one of the coming in the League he's put his team in a strong position to go on and reclaim the title. At the same time he's almost single-handedly improving the image of his club.

Rafael Benitez got the better of Scolari at Stamford Bridge to end Chelsea's long unbeaten home record, which was one of the highlights of what has been Liverpool's best start to a Premier League campaign. The Spaniard also finally claimed the scalp of Manchester United earlier this season, and the only blemishes on his record to date are two defeats at White Hart Lane by Harry Redknapp's Spurs. In one of those (the League game), Liverpool dominated but didn't take their chances; in the
other (a Carling Cup tie), Rafa fielded a shadow eleven whose performance confirmed that the competition is a distant fourth on the Anfield list of priorities.

Apart from the wholesale changes he made for that game, Benitez seems to have ditched his notorious rotation policy, and it's reflected in results. The jury is still out on some of his transfer dealings, and the Reds have enjoyed a few generous slices of luck; but there is a resilience, a focus and a determination about Liverpool this season that was missing in earlier campaigns. Benitez may still seem uncomfortable and sensitive in his post-match interviews, like a man who suspects you're trying to rob him; but he's got Liverpool players and fans believing the title may finally be coming back to Anfield.       
    
Manchester United will, of course, have something to say about that; they will do all they can to prevent their arch-rivals from winning a record 19th league championship by claiming their own 18th - and with it a second hat-trick of titles. Their manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, has just celebrated 50 years in the game, and 22 as the boss at Old Trafford. Defeats at Anfield and the Emirates apart, he will be reasonably pleased with his team's position: eight points behind the leaders but with a game in hand, all three of the Big Four to visit Old Trafford and the knowledge that United always improve in the second half of the season.

The question of the managerial succession at Old Trafford is inexorably moving up the agenda, though Fergie's appetite for the job, his passion for staying top of the heap, and his paranoia about perceived injustices are not only undiminished but sharper than ever, even if he has shown signs of mellowing towards Arsene Wenger.

The Arsenal boss is enduring his most uncomfortable season since arriving in North London. Lambasted by pundits for not spending big money on one or more established defensive midfielders in the summer after Mathieu Flamini and Gilberto Silva flew the coop,  Wenger finds himself in a struggle between his footballing principles and the need to put more silverware on the sideboard - something he hasn't managed to do since 2005. In his first nine years at the club Wenger's principles and winning of trophies went happily hand in hand.

But the Midas touch has been decidedly more elusive since he started lowering the average age of his squad. Now it's more about potential than prizes, and his insistence that the current squad is  capable of clinching the title is greeted by widespread scepticism, especially as Arsenal have  collected only four of the last 12 points on offer. Indeed, Wenger is experiencing something of a roller-coaster ride. Howls of anguish after defeats by Hull and Stoke have been punctuated by times when he could bask in the glory of vindication as his first-team beat Manchester United and his youngsters beat Wigan's best. Then Aston Villa delivered another blow to the solar plexus, inconsistency underlining how far the Gunners still have to go to close the gap between promise and delivery. With many Arsenal fans becoming more vocal in their reservations about the way things are going at the Emirates, the next six months will be a critical test of the Frenchman's mettle.

Villa's victory over Arsenal at the weekend put Martin O'Neill's men fifth, and the Ulsterman  is able to point to a steady progression at the West Midlands club since he took over as manager in August 2006. Although their 2-0 win at the Emirates was only their second in 36 attempts against Big Four opposition since April 2004, it was convincing, ended a run of two consecutive defeats, and put Villa level on points with the Gunners. O'Neill is slowly turning Villa into contenders with the enlightened support of club owner Randy Lerner, and the contrast with the tail-end of the David O'Leary regime is a sharp one that has brought optimism back to the Holte End. Further evidence of O'Neill's impact and growing influence is the presence in Fabio Capello's latest England squad of four Villans: Gareth Barry, Curtis Davies, Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor.

Hull, in sixth place, have been a revelation this season, and much of the credit for that must go to their Geordie manager Phil Brown, long associated with Bolton Wanderers as both player and coach. His brief stint as Derby's manager a steep and harsh learning curve, but the lessons learned have been put to good use at the KC Stadium, and the fact that he has built a team that plays as a unit, without obvious egos, is doing Brown's CV no harm at all.

David Moyes has got Everton heading in the right direction again after a disappointing start that partly reflected a difficult summer in the transfer market and behind the scenes at Goodison. The Scot has been in the job since March 2002 and has guided the Toffees to three top-six finishes in the last four seasons, so there was relief when he recently agreed another contract with the club. Before this season he was seen as the manager most likely to break the Big Four's dominance, and he'll be keen to re-assert his credentials, though to do that he must quickly improve Everton's home form.

Middlesbrough were the most recent visitors to leave Goodison with something - a point from Sunday's 1-1 draw that put them eighth in the table and suggested that Gareth Southgate is finding answers to Boro's chronic inconsistency. They're unbeaten in five since being filleted 5-0 at home by Chelsea a month ago.

Southgate was the League's rookie manager, but that mantle passed to Tony Adams when the ex-Arsenal and England captain took over at Portsmouth at the end of October. Two defeats in his first two games, when luck was certainly not on Pompey's side, have been followed by a win and a draw away from home. Adams faces six testing months at Fratton Park, and his success will depend in part on keeping his best players at the club beyond January, and gaining acceptance of his own managerial approach.

In contrast to Adams, Roy Hodgson has bucket-loads of experience, and his Fulham side have been to suggest that the radical changes he's made to the squad he inherited from Lawrie Sanchez last December are beginning to pay dividends. After losing three League games on the trot, Fulham have now lost just one of their last six, and last weekend's win over Spurs was hailed by Hodgson as their best performance of the season. However, five home wins and none away so far highlights where the need for improvement lies.  

Bottom Half
   
With only four points separating Sunderland in 11th place and West Bromwich Albion in 20th, the lower half of the League is exceptionally tight this season, meaning that a win can take a team soaring up the table - and vice-versa. Sunderland jumped several places by ending a losing sequence with Saturday's win at Blackburn, and dispelling speculation that manager Roy Keane's time on Wearside might be coming to a close. The Irishman confirmed this week that he'll be staying to continue his plan for developing the club. His management style is a characteristically steely combination of no-nonsense plain-speaking and strict discipline. Keane's players have often struggled to meet his exacting standards, but they are certainly getting the message.

One of his team-mates at Manchester United was Mark Hughes, who has enjoyed a particularly interesting first five months as manager of Manchester City. Expectations - and with them pressure - have exploded since City became nominally the world's richest club and underlined it by out-bidding Chelsea for Robinho. So far the Brazilian is proving a big hit at Eastlands, though unsurprisingly Hughes has not found an overnight cure for the inconsistency that has been City's trademark for years. With the media linking big names with City on an almost daily basis, there will be huge interest in how Hughes acts when the January transfer window opens. So far, four wins, two draws and seven defeats has been a disappointing return, but the second half of the season is likely to be the proving time for Hughes as City boss.

Bolton Wanderers have as many points as City (14), but the pressure on their manager Gary  Megson is greater, and of a different kind. Megson's problem is that - although he saved the  seemingly doomed vessel piloted by Sammy Lee from sinking - he is unpopular with his own club's fans. Whether they are still nostalgically hooked to the Sam Allardyce era, dislike the present brand of football or just harbour antipathy towards ginger-haired bosses, Megson is struggling in vain to win over the Bolton public. He says the criticism doesn't get to him, but it must sap morale. The club have gone backwards since Allardyce, and Megson is identified as the scapegoat, however unfairly. Only good results will raise his stock, and they are easier to wish for than achieve.

Gianfranco Zola is also in need of good results, and fast: Saturday's goalless draw at home to Portsmouth was welcomed for being the first clean-sheet of the season, which underlines one of the tasks confronting the Sardinian. Like Adams, Zola is new to Premier League management, though not its demands. His inexperience in this role - which he assumed when Alan Curbishley quit the club on a point of principle - has seemed apparent at times. And with no win since 27 September, Zola could use a break.    

Tony Pulis has been pragmatic and played to prosaic Stoke's strengths, the most potent of which has proved to be the long throws of Rory Delap and the panic they spread among those Premier Leagues defences unused to and uncomfortable with aerial bombardments. The realistic target for Pulis is to ensure Stoke finish no lower than 17th. He's built a strong team spirit at the Britannia Stadium and could yet achieve his aim.

Steve Bruce is consistently regarded as a good manager, even if results are unconvincing. Only this week his chairman Dave Whelan was praising his managerial skills to the heavens. Taking over at Wigan a year ago, on leaving Birmingham, Bruce did a good job last season, but progress this term has been fitful. After the Latics beat Manchester City on 28th September, he declared that they were now an established Premier League side. Since then they've won once in eight attempts: a classic case of counting chickens before they've hatched. Amr Zaki has been a real bonus, even if the question of his future threatens to become a distraction from Bruce's primary aim: accumulating more points.

He's been tipped by Whelan to become Newcastle's manager, but that post is currently held, somewhat precariously, by interim boss Joe Kinnear. The Irishman was owner Mike Ashley's stop-gap solution between Kevin Keegan's walk-out and the club's sale. The Magpies remain unsold and Kinnear, between rants, has made it clear he'd like to stay for as long as possible. With seven points from the last 12 things could have been worse for the caretaker; but will he be deemed good enough by the eventual new owners?

It's been a tough Premier League baptism for Paul Ince, whose Blackburn Rovers are currently 18th and without a win since 27th September. There has been persistent press speculation about player unrest and possible departures from Ewood Park since the season began, though as Ince has pointed out, he's been booed for most of his professional life so the criticism doesn't really wound him. What will upset a natural-born winner, though, is lack of points on the board. He is probably due a change of fortune.

Harry Redknapp is the only man to have managed two different Premier League clubs during the course of this season. After a so-so start with Portsmouth he answered Tottenham's call when Juande's day came, and appeared to have mastered the knack of walking on water in his first six games. He transformed Spurs, getting five wins, one draw, and 18 goals in six games from the same bunch of players who'd mustered a mere two points from eight League games under Ramos. The bandwagon was halted at Fulham last weekend; but Redknapp has reminded his squad that they are good players, and is now confidently expected to lead them to safety.

Whether Tony Mowbray can do the same at West Bromwich Albion remains to be seen. They won the Championship title last season but have again found the Premier League a difficult environment in which to glean points. Mowbray is sticking to his principles: Albion play an attractive, passing game; but he knows that points are the currency that matters, and quickly needs to add to the Baggies' 11.

 
Will all 20 managers still be in their current jobs come May, bearing in mind that a fifth of the clubs have already made a change? Should any more be dismissed, it is worth reflecting on the availability of managerial talent. There are four sources of managers.  

Firstly, there are those already at a club and (presumably) doing well.  They are the prime targets for whom vast sums of compensation must be paid to the surrendering club, and in the pursuit of whom strict protocol is supposed to be followed.  

Then there is the reservoir of sacked and otherwise out-of-work managers.  They were once good somewhere, failed to sustain it somewhere else, were shown or walked out of the door but are still considered worth a try by those clubs outside the elite. They currently include Curbishley, Allardyce, O'Leary, Roberto Mancini, Ramos...?

The third source is found abroad – tried and tested coaches like Scolari, Benitez and Wenger, who see the Premiership as the ideal arena for their latest challenge.  

Finally, there are the untried novices. Keane and Southgate have blazed this trail; Adams and Zola are the newest such recruits. It is, course how every manager actually starts off - though not usually at a top-flight club...

Graham Lister