Premier League manager power rankings: All 20 coaches ranked

Each coach in the top flight ranked in terms of how they performed relative to budget and expectations

Monday 22 May 2017 07:44 EDT
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The Premier League is over and the league table is done and dusted.

And while Antonio Conte is almost certain to win the manager of the year award from his contemporaries when the LMA announce their vote on Monday night, how have they fared as a whole this season?

We compared final league standing, points, overall performances and successes to expectation, wage bills and supporter happiness.

And this is how they panned out.

Send us your lists at the Independent Football Facebook page.

20. David Moyes

Moyes said he was proud of his players despite defeat - ad nauseum. All season.
Moyes said he was proud of his players despite defeat - ad nauseum. All season. (Getty)

David Moyes' season summed up in the first utterance from his final-day press conference - "I thought we were unlucky today, the fifth goal was offside."

Sunderland were utterly dreadful. Not only were they relegated, they finished bottom and were miles from safety.

The speed with which Moyes' career has unwound since becoming 'the Chosen One' is startling.

19. Arsene Wenger

Wenger is still to commit his future to Arsenal
Wenger is still to commit his future to Arsenal (Getty)

You could make an argument that Arsenal's biggest issue was the other big clubs returning to form this year, because their points total last season (71) saw them finish second while 75 this year was only enough for fifth.

But there's so much more to this disastrous campaign than that. And while it starts with Wenger dipping below the high standards he's set for this team and missing the Champions League, the way he has let the atmosphere around the club become toxic is the biggest issue facing Arsenal.

Wenger's future has become the main topic of every press conference as his contract divided the fanbase. All is not well.

18. Slaven Bilic

West Ham have found it tough at their new home
West Ham have found it tough at their new home (Getty)

West Ham took a massive step back this season, and while it's not all the Croat's fault he has been completely unable to rouse them from their slumbering campaign.

The Irons have the seventh-biggest wage bill in the league and they finished closer to relegation than that position. Inuries plague the squad. The Davids in the boardroom want answers.

17. Jose Mourinho

Mourinho was expected to challenge for the title and came nowhere near
Mourinho was expected to challenge for the title and came nowhere near (Getty)

Manchester United may emerge from this season with two cups - the Europa League and League Cup - and yet this should have been a season they were challenging for the Premier League title rather than the sort of silverware considered the poor relation. They have spent incredible amounts on players, both wages and world-record transfer fees, and finished in sixth position. That was seven points off the Champions League. That was 17 points off second. They were 24 off the top.

Fans seem ready to give Mourinho a pass on this but he has admitted this season will be a "failure" unless his side beat Ajax on Wednesday. Even beating them only just hauls their season above disaster but it will be his Get Out Of Jail Free card.

16. Mark Hughes

Stoke disappointed with a bottom-half finish
Stoke disappointed with a bottom-half finish (Getty)

Stoke City have a better squad and bigger wage bill than you'd think, and should be pushing up towards the European places. But Hughes confessed this week that the campaign was "disappointing" as they fell back to the pack mostly comprised of clubs happy to avoid relegation.

The Potters didn't beat a single side worth writing home about all season and discarding Bojan, a fans' favourite and difference-maker, in January was a bizarre move.

15. Pep Guardiola

Pep has disappointed in his first Premier League campaign
Pep has disappointed in his first Premier League campaign (Getty)

Manchester City built their whole project around Pep Guardiola and have the players and coaching staff to be challenging for the Premier League title. Indeed, when the season started they were favourites and what unfolded, a campaign where they finished 15 points off the top, was unacceptable.

There are strides that have been made, and with Chelsea expected to come back to the pack next year, City should be in the title mix.

If they're not, big questions will be asked about Mr Guardiola.

14. Walter Mazzarri

Mazzarri failed to win over the Wafford support
Mazzarri failed to win over the Wafford support (Getty)

Having alienated the squad and fans, Mazzarri leaves Watford.

With his pedigree, he was expected to take them onwards but the Hornets fell backwards into the lower mid-table clan.

Final-day humiliation at home to Manchester City was an embarrassing way to go out.

13. Claude Puel

Puel's league position flattered his work
Puel's league position flattered his work (Getty)

While the final league position makes Puel's season look more impressive than it was, the Saints finished 15 points off seventh place.

The Frenchman was expected to help pull them closer to that leading group after a summer where they had broken the club transfer record and taken their wage bill north of £110million.

Should he stay, he will be on shaky ground for the first few months of the season.

12. Steve Agnew

Middlesbrough manager Steve Agnew was virtually impossible to grade
Middlesbrough manager Steve Agnew was virtually impossible to grade (Getty)

It's hard to know where to put Agnew, who took over a sinking ship.

Boro can be expected to replace their caretaker with a proper candidate in the coming weeks.

11. Ronald Koeman

Koeman's side have impressed at home this season
Koeman's side have impressed at home this season (Getty)

Koeman did well with Everton but his angling for other jobs didn't go down well at board level and his side fell away from the European chase a bit.

With Romelu Lukaku scoring so many goals, however, there's an argument this was their chance to break the top six. Now he has to reshape this team without Ross Barkley and probably Lukaku too.

That will be a far greater challenge.

10. Marco Silva

Marco Silva shone brightly but briefly in the Premier League
Marco Silva shone brightly but briefly in the Premier League (Getty)

Marco Silva is a talented young coach, though you wouldn't have known it from the embarrassing reaction to his hire by some of Britain's best-known television pundits.

He proved his worth by improving Hull and almost keeping them up. Other top-flight jobs will follow.

9. Sam Allardyce

Big Sam kept Palace up - his first objective on replacing Alan Pardew
Big Sam kept Palace up - his first objective on replacing Alan Pardew (Getty)

After losing the job of his dreams, Allardyce bounced back in a big way in south London.

Though he took some time to get going, Big Sam led his side to impressive wins at Chelsea and Liverpool and then a humiliation of Arsenal at Selhurst Park that will live long in the memory.

Survival is done. Now the (re-)building job must begin.

8. Craig Shakespeare

Shakespeare immediately turned Leicester's awful form on its head
Shakespeare immediately turned Leicester's awful form on its head (Getty)

While the way he took the job off Claudio Ranieri was not so popular among the fans, Shakespeare ultimately proved his worth by turning the team's form around and pulling them comfortably clear of the relegation battle.

Shakespeare looks likely to keep the job, and will be judged on next season.

7. Tony Pulis

Pulis applauds the travelling support (Getty )
Pulis applauds the travelling support (Getty ) (Getty)

Once again, the brain under that baseball cap helped a middling team overachieve.

The way they fell off after securing survival was laughably bad, but hiring Pulis remains the number one way of guaranteeing that your low-budget team can remain in the Premier League, taking in another year of broadcast money.

6. Jurgen Klopp

(Getty
(Getty (Getty)

Liverpool haven't been in the Champions League all that often over the last few seasons and, with Klopp having a head-start on some of the other illustrious coaching talent arriving last summer, the expectation was that he returned the Reds to European football's top table or he would have failed.

It was close, but Klopp's side secured fourth place on the final day and that will go down as a season of progress, especially given how many points they racked up.

If they can keep Sadio Mane fit and fix this defence, they're going to be an interesting proposition next year.

5. Paul Clement

Paul Clement's side finished in 15th but it felt a lot closer than that (Getty )
Paul Clement's side finished in 15th but it felt a lot closer than that (Getty ) (Getty)

Clement saved Swansea from relegation, pulling from the mire by shoring up a leaky defence that had appeared to worsen under Bob Bradley.

While the experiment with Bradley passes into Premier League history as a brief but fairly resounding failure, Clement's hire goes down as a gamble that paid off and he's completed the transition from number 2 to the stars to a number 1 in his own right.

Next season will define what sort of coach he becomes known as.

4. Eddie Howe

Eddie Howe keeps taking Bournemouth upwards
Eddie Howe keeps taking Bournemouth upwards (Getty)

With the second-smallest budget in the league, Eddie Howe managed to guide Bournemouth to their highest-ever league finish, ninth.

While that slightly flatters them - they were, after all, only six points better than 17th - it is an achievement that will further pad the coffers on the south coast and fund their third consecutive Premier League campaign.

Howe finishes as the best British manager in the league - but not in our rankings.

3. Sean Dyche

Dyche's side are Premier League survivors
Dyche's side are Premier League survivors (Getty)

The smallest budget in the league, one of the biggest profits in European football and a survival that was guaranteed with games to spare.

Burnley could have hoped for little more. Where they go from here is anyone's guess, perhaps a cup run to go with a lower mid-table finish next season?

For now though, the Clarets of Turf Moor can glory in staying in the Premier League.

2. Mauricio Pochettino

Pochettino has taken Spurs to a new level
Pochettino has taken Spurs to a new level (Getty)

Tottenham had the best attack in the league, the best defence in the league and the best goalscorer in the league.

But they still came up just short where it mattered most - silverware.

1. Antonio Conte

John Terry and Antonio Conte may prove to be icons of the old and new Chelsea
John Terry and Antonio Conte may prove to be icons of the old and new Chelsea (Getty)

In his first season in the Premier League, with minimal English and having arrived late after the Euros, Antonio Conte got to work.

The result is an utterly dominant title win and, likely, an FA Cup to go with it.

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