When asked to write an editorial outlining the select band of managers who have won a Premier League title, before then narrowing it down further to the ‘crème da la creme’, it’s fair to say the creative juices of this SBOTOP correspondent were truly flowing.
Given I was asked to name the top five Premier League managers of all time, the initial question had an easy answer.
Number one spoke for itself – serial domination from a 13-time winner and the greatest manager the game has ever seen.
The next three were fairly straightforward too given Pep Guardiola (six titles), Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger (three apiece), each defined their own spells as champions of England in their own inimitable manner.
The order in which you place that trio will depend on which footballing style you preferred and how much you take into account the very different level of resources the bosses from Spain, Portugal and France had to play with.
That will vary from person to person.
Either way, though, the top four was unequivocal which left just number five as all to play for.
Kenny Dalglish (Blackburn), Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), Roberto Mancini (Man City), Manuel Pellegrini (Man City), Claudio Ranieri (Leicester City), Antonio Conte (Chelsea), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool) and Arne Slot (Liverpool) can all stake their claim but what does history show us.
It shows us that all bar the most recent winner, who delivered Premier League 2025 highlights but is too soon to judge longer-term, were not able to add to their tally.
In one case (Dalglish) they resigned immediately after their success, another (Klopp) went close a few times but couldn’t get his side over the line and the rest were sacked within two years (normally shorter) of their triumphs.
So who deserves to be number five?
To me that is obvious too.
For what Ranieri and his remarkable band of title winners in the east Midlands achieved in 2016 was a miracle which will never be repeated.
Just over nine months earlier, that scenario would have been deemed laughable. It was at a time when negatives were threatening to darken the mood after Nigel Pearson’s messy departure, the controversial appointment of Ranieri as his successor and the impending exit of player of the year Esteban Cambiasso.
Yet the fairytale was just beginning.
Ranieri turned good players into superstars. Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and N’Golo Kante figured on every wish-list among Europe’s top clubs and their emergence was a triumph for diligent recruitment, led by assistant manager Steve Walsh.
Somehow, just two years after being promoted, the Foxes were champions of England.
A group of players ignored or cast aside by big clubs; a 5,000-1 title shot with the Premier League betting odds, were the top team in the land.
On the afternoon the Italian was unveiled at the King Power Stadium, a week had passed since Leicester favourite Gary Lineker echoed the thoughts of many with a tweet that read: ‘Claudio Ranieri? Really?’
Club chiefs Susan Whelan and Jon Rudkin sat alongside the new Leicester manager in what felt like a show of support as much as anything. It was a measure of the mood at the time that Whelan asked the supporters to trust the board’s judgement when it came to their decision to sack Pearson and replace him with Ranieri.
The “Tinkerman”,as he became known during nearly four years in charge at Chelsea at the start of the millennium, became the “Thinkerman” and his warm, infectious personality captivated a city and pretty much anyone else who weren’t rivals of Leicester City.
‘Dilly Ding Dilly Dong’.
Incidentally, his inclusion on my list comes at a time when he is about to put on his carpet slippers and finally retire, after another fine achievement at his home club Roma.
For the final 22 games of the season, Ranieri’s Roma were statistically the best team in Serie A– taking 53 points. He bows out on a high.
Back to the initial question then and would the veteran Italian feature in your top five?
As for positions two to four, questions which may determine your order could range from whether Guardiola, with his four in a row,could achieve what he has at a club without untold riches, why was Mourinho never able to sustain his success at one club after move than three years and how Wenger never actually managed to secure back-to-back titles which is a sign of greatness.
Let the debate begin.
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