Premier League Manager of the Year: Ranking every coach from the 2025-26 season, from Andoni Iraola and Mikel Arteta to Igor Tudor and Ange Postecoglou

Despite his reputation in Italy for ferrying under-performing sides to safety, Igor Tudor looked a strange appointment by Tottenham when he was hired in February, and the Croatian did little to prove his doubters wrong in north London as a struggling Spurs team suddenly looked nailed on for relegation amid some absolutely listless performances.

A 4-1 defeat in the north London derby saw Tudor get off to a rotten start, and things did not improve from there as he earned just one point from his five Premier League games in charge. Further heavy home defeats at the hands of Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest left fans feeling hopeless, and there was a sense of relief when Tudor was relieved of his duties after a shambolic, 44-day tenure.

Sacked by Spurs despite winning them the Europa League, Ange Postecoglou wasn't out of work for long as he took up the reins at Nottingham Forest in September. However, if the Australian was hoping to improve his flailing reputation at the City Ground, things could barely have gone worse for Postecoglou on the banks of the Trent.

Forest earned just a single point from their five league games during Postecoglou's 39-day tenure, and he was relieved of his duties less than 20 minutes after October's home loss to Chelsea. Where he heads for his next coaching role will now be fascinating.

Despite an underwhelming start to his tenure during the second half of the 2024-25 season, there was hope around West Ham that Graham Potter would rediscover some of his old magic in east London as he aimed to bounce back from his chastening spell at Chelsea. Instead, things went from bad to worse - and fast.

Potter was sacked in September after the Hammers lost four of their opening five games, conceding 14 goals in the process as they suffered heavy home defeats to local rivals Chelsea and Tottenham after being swatted aside by newly-promoted Sunderland on the opening day. That set the tone for a miserable campaign at the London Stadium, though Potter has since moved on as he plans to lead Sweden at the World Cup.

Though Liam Rosenior had done a fine job in charge of Strasbourg during his 18-month spell in France, his 'promotion' to BlueCo's top job in January left many Chelsea fans underwhelmed. But despite facing ridicule for some of his LinkedIn-esque language, Rosenior made a strong start, winning each of his first four Premier League games in charge.

Things soon spiralled out of control, however, as the Blues won just one of their nine subsequent league games under the ex-Hull City boss. Rosenior was eventually sacked in April after a run of five straight league defeats without scoring a goal - the club's worst run for 114 years - as Chelsea's hopes of Champions League qualification went up in smoke.

Hopes were high at Tottenham following the appointment of Thomas Frank, and the Dane got off to a strong start as his side followed up a spirited showing against Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Super Cup with victory over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium. It soon became clear, however, that Frank's Spurs were built on weak foundations, and a hapless autumn turned into an utterly miserable winter in north London.

By the time Frank was eventually sacked in February, Tottenham had fallen to 16th in the table after run of just two wins from 17 Premier League games. And so while the ex-Brentford boss became a cult hero among Arsenal fans, he was an unmitigated disaster for Spurs.

Scott Parker entered the season with the reputation for being able to get teams promoted out of the Championship but not being capable of keeping them afloat in the Premier League, and nothing has changed following a forgettable campaign for Burnley.

The Clarets let Parker go once their relegation was confirmed with four matches still to play as they paid the price for winning just one of their final 29 games of the campaign. Parker may well point to Burnley's poor recruitment when compared to their fellow promoted sides, but he showed little in the way of tactical acumen to lift them out of trouble once the rot set in.

Compared to what Manchester United showed during Ruben Amorim's first half-season in charge, their Premier League performances were, on the whole, drastically improved through the first half of the 2025-26 campaign. But when compared with what they produced after he was sacked in January, it's clear that the Portuguese was massively underperforming at Old Trafford.

Amorim's insistence on playing a 3-4-3, thus deploying Bruno Fernandes in a deep midfield role and not having room for Kobbie Mainoo, proved to be his downfall as he rowed with director of football, Jason Wilcox, over his tactical plan and January transfer plans. He was thus sacked following a draw at Leeds that meant he won just three of his final 11 games in charge.

Having begun his playing career in the Nottingham Forest academy, Sean Dyche was keen to bring the good times back to the City Ground upon his appointment in October. He only lasted four months, however, before becoming the latest of victim of Evangelos Marinakis' itchy trigger finger.

Dyche did manage to win six of his 18 Premier League games in charge, but fans were not a fan of his pragmatic football, while a defeat Leeds before a goalless draw with Wolves suggested Forest were unlikely to pull themselves clear of relegation danger without a change of coach. Dyche was therefore gone, but surely he will be back again next season when a club somewhere gets off to a dreadful start.

To say Calum McFarlane was on a hiding to nothing would be an understatement, given the youth coach did not possess anything like the experience required to manage a club the size of Chelsea during his two interim stints. It showed, too, as he won just one of his six league games in charge of the Blues.

He did earn creditable draws away at both Manchester City and Liverpool, but dreadful defeats against Nottingham Forest and Sunderland during his second tenure confirmed that the Blues would miss out on European qualification all together.

Rob Edwards wasn't given much hope of saving Wolves from relegation when he took over in November with the club bottom of the league and without a win from their first 11 games, and so it proved as the former Luton Town boss failed to lift the doomed Molineux outfit from 20th position.

There were some encouraging moments, such as home wins over Aston Villa and Liverpool, as well as a dramatic draw with Arsenal that threatened to spark the greatest of great escapes. In the end, though, they fell into the Championship with barely a whimper after another eight-game winless run to end their campaign. Edwards did enough, however, to be the man to lead Wolves' efforts to bounce back at the first time of asking.

Nuno Espirito Santo's stock had never been higher than it was entering the season following Nottingham Forest's qualification for Europe in the previous campaign. However, things soon turned sour at the City Ground as the Portuguese revealed his relationship with owner Marinakis had deteriorated, and he was sacked just three games into the new season.

He wasn't out of work for long, however, as Nuno took the West Ham job in September with the task of leading them away from relegation trouble. He made a pretty dreadful start in truth, but found a winning formula shortly after the turn of the year that looked like it may carry the Irons to safety, only for dismal defeats at Brentford and Newcastle in May to plunge them back into the mire.

Nuno's side did get the victory they needed on the final day against Leeds, but results elsewhere condemned West Ham to the drop, with the ex-Tottenham boss almost certain to part ways with the club in the coming days.

This time last year, many in Newcastle believed that Eddie Howe could walk on water. Having ended their 70-year wait for a domestic trophy and led the Magpies back into the Champions League, Howe could do no wrong on Tyneside - or so many believed.

The 2025-26 campaign was a chastening one for Howe and his team. Only the three relegated sides lost more Premier League games than Newcastle (17), while they almost got themselves sucked into the relegation battle in the closing weeks of the campaign. A 12th-placed finish was thus well below-par, and looks likely to cost them the services of some of their best players during the upcoming transfer window.

When Liverpool spent their summer splashing out £450 million on new signings to improve their title-winning squad, it would have been fanciful to believe that Arne Slot would end the season fighting to save his job, and yet the Dutchman has seemingly been in that position for months on end now.

The Reds won fewer than half of their games during their uninspiring title defence, and while they suffered more than most with conceding late goals, they were also fortunate to steal plenty of points back during stoppage time over the course of the campaign. Their football was difficult to watch, Slot fell out with star player Mohamed Salah and only snuck back into the Champions League via a fifth-placed finish.

Expect Slot to be on a very short leash at Anfield to start next season - presuming he isn't let go before then.

Talk about a season of two halves! Vitor Pereira had become a cult hero at Wolves after guiding them to safety in entertaining fashion last term, but things soon turned sour as an opening-day thrashing at the hands of Manchester City was the first of 10 winless games Pereira oversaw in the Premier League before he was sacked in November.

He returned to the dugout three months later, however, when he was appointed as Nottingham Forest's fourth manager of the campaign. And though Pereira lost his first two league games in charge, he then oversaw an eight-game unbeaten run that dragged Forest away from relegation trouble.

Heavy away wins at Tottenham, Sunderland and Chelsea got the job done, and the Portuguese will now be hoping to avoid a repeat of his Wolves tenure at the City Ground.

It's difficult to gauge how good of a job Enzo Maresca did at Chelsea. He (expectedly) won the Conference League and (very unexpectedly) won the Club World Cup during his one full season in charge of the Blues, while his side got themselves as high as second in the Premier League table to spark talk of a title challenge in both of the campaigns that he began at Stamford Bridge.

On both occasions, however, things fizzled out, and though Maresca was able to recover things to finish fifth in 2024-25, he was this time let go on New Year's Day following a run of just one win in seven league games amid claims of a fall out with the Chelsea hierarchy that centred on Maresca holding talks with Manchester City regarding him eventually replacing Pep Guardiola.

The way that the Blues have fallen apart since the Italian's departure, he was probably just about holding things together. We should get a better idea of coaching chops once he takes over at City in the coming days and weeks.

Oliver Glasner will leave Crystal Palace this summer as the club's most successful manager, and could yet add to his legend if he brings home the Conference League trophy on Wednesday. But from a solely Premier League perspective, this was an underwhelming campaign at Selhurst Park.

Last season's FA Cup winners were expected to be in the mix for European qualification, though the sales of Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi did admittedly put a ceiling on their aspirations. Glasner made his feelings clear when the latter left for Manchester City in January, and there was some concern that the Austrian's bad attitude and a knowledge that he would not face the consequences of relegation could lead to a fight against the drop through the second half of the campaign.

That did not materialise, though Palace's 15th-placed finish is their lowest for a decade. Quite how much blame Glasner should take for that remains up for debate.

David Moyes will end the season thinking about what could have been for Everton. The Toffees emerged from the March international break well in contention for European qualification, with even Champions League football well within their grasp after Moyes had overseen a difficult transition to life at Hill Dickinson Stadium and got things pointing in the right direction once more.

However, Everton then conspired to go on a seven-game winless run, during which they four times threw away leads and on three occasions lost points in second-half stoppage time, leaving them to finish a disappointing 13th in the table. Moyes has some work to do, then, to win over growing number of doubters among the Toffees' fanbase.

For the fourth successive season since promotion back to the Premier League, Fulham were comfortably midtable, securing an 11th-placed finish following a final-day win over Newcastle. Whether that will go down as Marco Silva's final game in charge remains to be seen, with the Portuguese coach yet to commit to a new deal at Craven Cottage while his current contract expires in June.

Silva can be content with another job well done, albeit he will be disappointed to have finished just a point off European qualification given the opportunities Fulham down the stretch, most notably dropping two points at Wolves on the penultimate weekend.

Roberto De Zerbi was given seven matches in charge of Tottenham and one aim: Avoid relegation. The Italian came through, winning three games - including the crucial, final day victory over Everton - while losing just twice as Spurs edged out West Ham to claim the coveted 17th place in the Premier League.

De Zerbi's typical, free-flowing football was put on the back-burner to get Tottenham over the line, and the ex-Brighton boss will now have a full pre-season to properly put his stamp on the club as belief returns to this corner of north London following two seasons of domestic misery.

Fabian Hurzeler was facing some calls for him to be sacked in early February as Brighton edged closer and closer towards the relegation battle amid a run of 13 Premier League games that included just one win. However, the division's youngest manager was able to rally the troops just in time, and a subsequent sequence of seven wins from 10 games meant that the Seagulls were able to secure European qualification despite losing their final two matches.

That's back-to-back eighth-placed finishes for Hurzeler since he arrived at the Amex Stadium, and so while playing in the Conference League could prove to be a distraction next term, there will be a belief that he and his team can kick on again in 2026-27.

Daniel Farke's failure to adapt to life in the Premier League during his time as Norwich City manager led to Leeds considering replacing the German in the days that followed their promotion from the Championship. It looked like they were going to be made to pay for their loyalty, too, when the Whites dropped into the relegation zone in November ahead of a daunting run of fixtures.

By all accounts, Farke was a dead man walking, but a half-time tactical switch to a back three against Manchester City changed everything. Though Leeds ultimately lost at the Etihad, Farke had seen the light and stuck with the formation thereafter.

The result? Leeds lost only five of their remaining 25 games, and secured safety with three matches to spare amid an eight-game unbeaten run that included a first league win at Old Trafford, the home of their hated rivals, Manchester United, since 1981.

Michael Carrick might not have been everyone's first choice to become the next Manchester United manager following Amorim's sacking in January, but the former midfielder could barely have done a better job since arriving back at Old Trafford. Carrick kicked-off his interim tenure with wins over Manchester City and Arsenal, and went on to record further victories over Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa to easily secure a third-placed finish.

Putting right the wrongs of the Amorim era, with Fernandes positioned further forward and Mainoo back in the line up, Carrick oversaw 17 games during which United picked up more points than any other Premier League side (39). Now the hard work starts, however, as the new permanent boss looks to repeat the trick while juggling Champions League commitments next term.

This was not a vintage Manchester City side - they dropped points in 15 different games - but Pep Guardiola certainly still got plenty out of a team in transition during what was ultimately his final campaign in charge at the Etihad. The legendary coach successfully integrated new signings Rayan Cherki, Gigi Donnarumma, Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi, while promising youngsters Jeremy Doku, Nico O'Reilly and Abdukodir Khusanov took positive strides forward.

Given how dramatically they fell away last season, that Guardiola was able to push Arsenal so close for so long should be celebrated, and he bows out having left a strong platform on which Enzo Maresca can build a successful era upon.

Brentford were a popular pick for relegation ahead of the new season, with rookie manager Keith Andrews tasked with stepping into Thomas Frank's shoes while dealing with the sales of club captain Christian Norgaard and star forwards Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, who scored 39 goals between them the previous campaign.

You would hardly have known when watching the Bees, however, as Andrews led his team to a ninth-placed finish, matching the best that they achieved under Frank. The only disappointment will be that they missed out on European qualification for the first time in the club's history on goal difference, with a run of just two wins from their final 13 games ultimately proving costly.

When Aston Villa kicked-off the season by failing to win or score in their opening five games, there were genuine concerns that Unai Emery had taken the club as far as he could, with a lack of transfer activity in the summer causing things to go stale at Villa Park.

Fans need not have been worried, though, as Emery once again showed why he is regarded as one of the very best coaches in Europe. A dramatic upturn in results led to Villa forcing their way into the title picture around the turn of the year, and though they eventually fell away amid some disappointing winter results, they recovered to secure a fourth-placed finish and a return to the Champions League.

Throw in yet another Europa League triumph, and Emery continues to prove those who doubted him wrong over and over again.

Yes, Sunderland spent big for a newly-promoted side last summer, with the majority of their new arrivals proven commodities, but the Black Cats were still ticketed for relegation by most onlookers heading into their first top-flight campaign since 2017. That they never even flirted with the bottom three, then, was a huge feather in Regis Le Bris' cap. But for them to end the season sat in seventh and with Europa League qualification secured goes beyond anything anyone on Wearside could have reasonably expected.

Le Bris' side showed no fear upon their return to the big time, and their safety was all-but secured by the halfway point of the season. Some disappointing results in the early spring led to reports the Frenchman could still be replaced at the end of the summer, but he emphatically clapped back with wins over Everton and Chelsea to close out the campaign and spark wild scenes at the Stadium of Light.

Oh, and they beat Newcastle home and away... What a season on Wearside!

After three successive runners-up finishes, and five seasons without a trophy, Arsenal and Mikel Arteta finally got over the line this time around and earned a well deserved Premier League title. Arteta has gradually edged away from the Guardiola-esque football his Gunners side played upon his arrival at the Emirates, and deserves credit for the way he anticipated the league's switch to a more physical, set-piece-led style and built a team capable of lasting the course.

There were, of course, bumps along the way, but Arsenal were the outstanding team of the campaign. Given where they were when Arteta took over, that is some journey that the Spaniard has taken them on, and he has earned the plaudits that are now rightly coming his way.

Bournemouth came into the season having lost their goalkeeper and three-quarters of their starting defence, and subsequently sold their best attacking player, Antoine Semenyo, in January. A lesser manager would have been forgiven, then, for making excuses if the Cherries had fallen into the lower reaches of the table. But Andoni Iraola is no ordinary manager.

Iraola quickly rebuilt his backline while sprinkling in quality elsewhere, and Bournemouth found themselves as high as second in the table after losing just one of their opening nine games. That bright start threatened to become a distant memory, however, as an 11-match winless run dropped Bournemouth back down to the edge of the relegation battle.

With Semenyo about to be sold, some at the Vitality Stadium feared the worst. However, they need not have worried, as the Manchester City-bound winger's stoppage-time winner against Tottenham in his final appearance sparked what became an 18-match unbeaten run that lasted through to the very end of the campaign and secured a sixth-placed finish and European qualification for the first time in the club's history.

Put simply, no one did a better coaching job than Iraola in the 2025-26 Premier League season. Marco Rose has some act to follow...

Click here to read article