← Back to all articlesThe 20 Greatest Premier League Managers of All Time
From Ferguson, the only man with 13 titles, to Wenger, Guardiola and Arteta, the 20 greatest Premier League managers of all time, ranked on trophies and tactical legacy.
Thirty-four completed Premier League seasons have produced just 13 different title-winning managers, and one of them has now won it six times. That scarcity is what keeps the argument alive: only one club can finish top each May, and a manager can build a brilliant squad and still finish runner-up three years running, as Arsenal did before Mikel Arteta finally got them over the line in 2025/26. This ranking weighs every Premier League manager against six criteria, from titles to tactical influence, and it stretches back to the competition's first ball in August 1992.
This debate never really settles, and the 2026/27 season will only add another chapter to it. If the title race has pulled you back in, seats for the season ahead are listed on the Premier League tickets hub, every order covered by Love1Ticket's buyer-protection guarantee.
How We Ranked Them
A single trophy-laden season can flatter a manager, so a ranking built on titles alone rewards a hot run of form as much as it rewards genuine greatness. We scored every candidate on six factors, weighted to reward sustained achievement over one golden year.
- Titles won (highest weighting) – Premier League championships as head coach
- Domestic and European cups (high) – FA Cup, League Cup and continental silverware
- Longevity (high) – seasons managed and consistency across them
- Era-adjusted record (medium) – points and win rate relative to squad resources
- Rivals overcome (medium) – quality of the opposition beaten to the title
- Tactical legacy (medium) – whether the manager changed how English football is played
One deliberate choice: never winning the title is not an automatic bar from this list. Three managers who never lifted the trophy make the top 20 on the strength of what they changed, while a handful of one-time champions sit further down than their medal alone would suggest.
Ranks 1 to 5: The Untouchables
1. Sir Alex Ferguson – Manchester United – 13 titles (1993–2013), 21 seasons in the PL era – Treble in 1998/99 (PL, FA Cup, Champions League)
Thirteen Premier League titles across 21 seasons of the competition, more than double the total of any other manager on this list. Ferguson won his first PL crown in 1992/93 and his last two decades later in 2012/13, rebuilding title-winning squads three or four times over without ever losing his grip on the dressing room. The 1998/99 treble, capped by Solskjaer's stoppage-time winner in the Champions League final, remains the high point of a managerial career nobody has come close to matching.
2. Pep Guardiola – Manchester City – 6 titles (2018–2024), 10 seasons and counting – Treble in 2022/23 (PL, FA Cup, Champions League)
Six titles in nine seasons at Manchester City, including four in a row between 2020/21 and 2023/24, a run of consecutive dominance the division had never seen before. His 2017/18 side set the still-standing records for points (100) and goals scored (106) in a single Premier League season, and the 2022/23 treble put him level with Ferguson on that measure alone. If City add another title, this ranking will need revisiting again.
3. Arsène Wenger – Arsenal – 3 titles (1998–2004), 22 seasons – Unbeaten title, 2003/04
The first manager from outside Britain or Ireland to win the English title, and the only one to do it unbeaten across a full 38-game season. Wenger's 2003/04 Invincibles remain the definitive answer to any "greatest Premier League team" argument, but his wider legacy is the diet, sports science and continental scouting network he imported into English football, changes every club in the division still relies on today.
4. José Mourinho – Chelsea – 3 titles (2005–2015) across two spells – Fewest goals conceded in a season, 2004/05
Won the title in his first season in England, 2004/05, with a Chelsea defence that conceded just 15 goals in 38 games, still the meanest defensive record the competition has produced. He retained the title in 2005/06, then returned for a second spell and won it again in 2014/15. Three titles with one club across two different eras is a level of repeat success only Ferguson and Guardiola have bettered.
5. Jürgen Klopp – Liverpool – 1 title (2020), 9 seasons – Also won the Champions League, 2019
Ended Liverpool's 30-year wait for the English title in 2019/20, a season in which his side wrapped up the trophy with seven games still to play. He had already delivered Champions League glory in 2019, and his gegenpressing style reshaped how a generation of English coaches think about pressing and transitions. One title undersells a manager whose Liverpool were genuine title contenders in four separate seasons.
Ranks 6 to 10: Champions Across Eras
6. Arne Slot – Liverpool – Title in 2024/25 – Won it in his first PL season, succeeding Klopp
Inherited a Liverpool side that had just lost Jürgen Klopp and turned it into champions in his very first season, 2024/25, a debut-year title win that ranks alongside Mourinho's and Ancelotti's for immediate impact. Doing it while replacing one of the most popular managers in the club's history made the achievement harder, not easier.
7. Mikel Arteta – Arsenal – Title in 2025/26 – Ended a 22-year wait, finished on 85 points
Finished runner-up in three consecutive seasons before finally getting Arsenal over the line in 2025/26, ending a 22-year wait that had followed the club since Wenger's Invincibles. Built around the best defensive record in the division and David Raya's three straight Golden Gloves, it is the patience of the project as much as the trophy that stands out.
8. Antonio Conte – Chelsea – Title in 2016/17 – Back-three switch after an early defeat to Arsenal
Lost 3-0 at Arsenal in September 2016, switched to a back three the following week, and did not lose again in the league until May. Chelsea won the title by seven points playing a system almost nobody else in the division was using, one of the most decisive mid-season tactical pivots English football has seen.
9. Carlo Ancelotti – Chelsea – Title in 2009/10 – 103 goals scored, still a PL-era high for a title winner
Delivered the domestic double in his first season in England, 2009/10, with a Chelsea side that scored 103 league goals, still the highest total by a Premier League champion. He remains the only manager to have won the league title in all five of Europe's major domestic leagues, a body of work no rival on this list can claim.
10. Claudio Ranieri – Leicester City – Title in 2015/16 – Won at pre-season odds of 5,000-1
Bookmakers priced Leicester at 5,000-1 to win the title before the 2015/16 season started. Built around Jamie Vardy's goals, Riyad Mahrez's creativity and N'Golo Kanté's tireless midfield work, Ranieri's Leicester remain the biggest outsiders ever to win an English top-flight title, and the story is unlikely to be repeated at this scale again.
Ranks 11 to 15: One Title, One Idea
11. Manuel Pellegrini – Manchester City – Title in 2013/14 – 102 goals, a PL record at the time
City's 2013/14 title came on the back of 102 league goals, a scoring record for the competition at the time and one that stood until Guardiola's side broke it four years later. Pellegrini's willingness to play with two out-and-out strikers and attacking full-backs made his City side one of the most entertaining, if defensively porous, champions the league has had.
12. Roberto Mancini – Manchester City – Title in 2011/12 – Won on goal difference after Agüero's 93rd-minute winner
City's first title in 44 years came down to Sergio Agüero's stoppage-time winner against QPR on the final day of 2011/12, snatching the trophy from Manchester United on goal difference. Mancini's willingness to spend big and back his squad's belief through a wobble in the run-in defined one of the most dramatic title races the division has produced.
13. Kenny Dalglish – Blackburn Rovers – Title in 1994/95 – Blackburn's first English title in 81 years
Blackburn's 1994/95 title, built on Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton's "SAS" partnership, was the club's first English championship since 1914. Dalglish proved a provincial club with ambitious owner backing could break the early duopoly of the Premier League's first two seasons, a template smaller clubs have chased ever since.
14. Rafael Benítez – Liverpool – Never won the PL – Delivered the 2005 "Miracle of Istanbul"
Never won the Premier League, coming closest in 2008/09 when Liverpool finished second with 86 points, beating Manchester United 4-1 at Old Trafford along the way. His lasting Anfield legacy is the 2005 Champions League final, a 3-0 half-time deficit against AC Milan turned into a penalty-shootout win still known simply as the Miracle of Istanbul.
15. Brendan Rodgers – Liverpool – Never won the PL – 101 goals in 2013/14, runners-up by 2 points
Liverpool's 2013/14 side scored 101 league goals behind Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge, and led the title race into the final weeks before finishing second by two points to Manchester City. Rodgers later won Leicester City their first-ever FA Cup in 2021, adding a trophy to a managerial career that has often threatened more silverware than it has delivered.
Ranks 16 to 20: Overachievers and Innovators
16. Mauricio Pochettino – Tottenham Hotspur – Never won the PL – 2019 Champions League final, built without major spending
Never won the title, but took Tottenham to four consecutive top-four finishes and a Champions League final in 2019, largely with a squad built around academy graduates and shrewd signings rather than outspending the division's biggest clubs. His high-press, high-intensity style influenced a generation of English coaches who came through under him.
17. Eddie Howe – Bournemouth, Newcastle United – Never won the PL – Took Bournemouth from League Two to the Premier League
Took Bournemouth from League Two to the Premier League inside five years, one of the fastest rises English football has seen, then rebuilt Newcastle United into Champions League qualifiers within two years of the club's 2021 takeover. Few managers on this list have overachieved relative to resources as consistently as Howe.
18. Harry Redknapp – Portsmouth, Tottenham – Never won the PL – 2008 FA Cup, Spurs' first Champions League qualification
Won Portsmouth the FA Cup in 2008, their first major trophy in 69 years, then took Tottenham to fourth place in 2009/10 to secure the club's first-ever Champions League qualification, following it with a run to the quarter-finals. Few managers have delivered bigger moments for smaller clubs.
19. Sam Allardyce – Bolton, Newcastle, West Ham, Sunderland, Crystal Palace – Never won the PL – Never relegated a club in a full PL season
Never relegated a club he managed for a full Premier League season, a survival record built on defensive organisation and set-piece coaching that rival managers spent years trying to solve. His Bolton side reached the UEFA Cup via a sixth-place finish in 2004/05, a high point few would have predicted for a newly promoted club a few years earlier.
20. David Moyes – Everton, Manchester United, West Ham – Never won the PL – West Ham's first European trophy, 2023
Everton's longest-serving Premier League-era manager, spending 11 years turning a mid-table club into a regular top-eight finisher on a fraction of his rivals' budgets. He later guided West Ham to their first major European trophy, the 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League, a rare piece of silverware for a club that had gone decades without one.
The Records That Frame the Debate
A handful of numbers anchor most arguments on this topic. Ferguson's 13 titles have gone unmatched for over a decade, and Guardiola is the only manager to have seriously threatened the total.
- Most titles: Sir Alex Ferguson – 13, with Manchester United, 1993 to 2013
- Most consecutive titles: Pep Guardiola – four in a row with Manchester City, 2020/21 to 2023/24
- Most points in a season: Pep Guardiola – 100, Manchester City, 2017/18
- Most goals in a season: Pep Guardiola – 106, Manchester City, 2017/18
- Longest unbroken tenure: Arsène Wenger – 22 seasons at Arsenal, 1996 to 2018
- First foreign-born title winner: Arsène Wenger – 1997/98, with Arsenal
- Biggest outsider champions: Claudio Ranieri – Leicester City, 2015/16, at 5,000-1 pre-season
- Most title-winning managers at one club: Manchester City and Chelsea, three each – Mancini, Pellegrini and Guardiola at City; Mourinho, Ancelotti and Conte at Chelsea
Champions Before the Premier League Existed
Four English title-winning managers sit outside this list entirely, and the reason is simple: their championships came before the old First Division was rebranded as the Premier League in 1992, so they fall outside the era this ranking covers.
- Bob Paisley – Liverpool – 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983 – Six English titles, the most by any manager, all won before the 1992 rebrand
- Brian Clough – Nottingham Forest – 1977/78 – Won the title a year after promotion, then retained the European Cup twice, but before the Premier League existed
- Howard Kendall – Everton – 1984/85, 1986/87 – Everton's peak years came just before the competition's relaunch
- George Graham – Arsenal – 1988/89, 1990/91 – Arsenal's title-winning manager immediately before Wenger, both old First Division crowns
FAQs
1. Who was the first manager to win the Premier League?
Sir Alex Ferguson, with Manchester United, in the competition's debut season, 1992/93.
2. Has any manager won the Premier League with two different clubs?
No manager has done this yet. Even Mourinho and Ancelotti, who won multiple titles, did it exclusively with Chelsea, and every other multiple-title winner has stayed with one club for all of their championships.
3. Which club has won the title under the most different managers?
Manchester City and Chelsea share the record with three each: Roberto Mancini, Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola at City, and José Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Antonio Conte at Chelsea.
4. Which manager won the Premier League title in his first season with a new club?
Several have. José Mourinho at Chelsea in 2004/05, Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea in 2009/10, and Arne Slot at Liverpool in 2024/25 all won the title in their debut Premier League campaign.
5. Has a newly promoted club ever won the Premier League?
No club has won the title the season immediately after promotion. Leicester City's 2015/16 triumph, the closest the division has come to that fairytale, arrived two full seasons after they returned to the top flight.
This ranking will be argued with, which is the point, and every title race between now and May adds another data point to the debate. If the 2026/27 season has you thinking about which grounds to visit, LOVE1TICKETS lists verified seats for every Premier League club, backed by a buyer-protection guarantee on every order.
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