We've survived another international break, and sweet, nourishing Barclays is back on the scene. Time, then, for a Premier League manager rankings update.
Well done, everyone. We’ve survived another international break. It’s been a tough one, but luckily there has been some very important and real news like Southgate-to-United, and flags, and pretending Man City might get punished to keep us all going. But now salvation is on the horizon. The Barclays is back, baby!
The widespread delusion – of which we must admit to being an enthusiastic contributor – was that Kompany knew Our League and thus Burnley would be fine. But he had no managerial experience of the Premier League and – this bit has turned out to be absolutely crucial – none of his extensive and impressive playing experience was in the relevant area of Barclays for a newly promoted team that likes to play its football The Right Way.
That’s fair enough, but we still think ‘being slightly better than this Sheffield United sh*tshow’ is a low, low bar and Luton’s competitiveness also casts Burnley’s campaign in a dim light.We still had him crazy high on the list as recently as November, barely a month before he was quite correctly if still upsettingly removed.
It’s hard to place Wilder. The improvements are minuscule and cannot be said to have turned Sheffield United into anything more than a very bad Premier League side, but it’s equally true that nobody could probably have done anything to save them.A 1-1 draw at Everton is definitely better than a 4-1 defeat at Arsenal. His next caretaker stint in charge of Palace will surely be a win.
Not winning a single league game in 11 since the last success of that four-match winning run against Burnley is just very silly indeed. Absolutely could go down and that would surely leave Nuno nursing another painfully short Barclays stay after all the Tottenham unpleasantness. They’ve lost only one of their last eight games, the ticklish thing being that game was the Carabao final. The Klopp’s Kids underdog narrative was extremely nauseating, of course, but it’s also true this was a pretty big opportunity missed for Pochettino to nab a first trophy in English football. An outside chance remains in the FA Cup, with the pair of league draws against City offering some hope that theirs is not as forlorn a semi-final quest as it might appear.
It is, though, three weeks since that Luton game. It’s not quite like a pre-season, but Glasner has had an unusual opportunity afforded by the schedule to have some time to impress his ideas upon his new charges even allowing for the international break taking some away for an extended period. The other good news is that Bournemouth have two wins and a draw from their last three games and have upcoming games against some proper humdrum Barclays outfits in Everton, Palace, Luton and Manchester United, so there’s every chance another good run is already underway.
We also know that recency bias is very much a thing, and any lack of whelm in how Brighton’s season finishes could have significant meaning for De Zerbi’s upcoming career path.He’s turned the corner! Again! The frantic, brilliant FA Cup tie with Liverpool was certainly something and there’s no point pretending the semi-final draw didn’t go their way too.
The summer probably does represent a time when it’s best for all concerned to move in a new direction, but it does feel mad to be saying that about a manager who could still deliver silverware in successive seasons at a club that had won nothing for 40 years before that.Luton may very well go down. Ultimately, all those late winners they concede might prove more significant than all those late equalisers they score. But what an addition to the Barclays Edwards and his team have been.
And now they’ve also announced plans to put a swimming pool on their roof. Sure, lads. Why not. Crack on.Mate. Fun manager, fun team. We love them until we hate them because they are a resoundingly and unstoppably unserious football club utterly incapable of escaping their own history. Postecoglou has been great, though.
Overall, though, O’Neil remains a clear leader in the ‘He’s My Manager Of The Year, Actually’ stakes and might even be the far less important Actual Manager Of They Year given where he and Wolves started it and where they might yet finish it. And yet. There is fragility there. You do have to squint, because we’re talking about fragility in a team that has won 17 and drawn two of their last 19 games – again, this is the level at which Guardiola is measured.
The Europa League should really be Liverpool’s to lose and he’s already ensured that his farewell season is going to give us a title fight for the ages. Even if he doesn’t actually win the Premier League title, he and his team have at least celebrated like they have a good few times in the last couple of seasons. And you know what? Quite right too.Just doing a brilliant job. Perhaps the most compelling part is how quickly he’s normalised Villa once again being this good.
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