Top Managers of 2010 according to F365

F365`s Top Ten Managers Of 2010



It's easy to write the achievements of some managers off on the basis of the last few weeks, but as the year comes to a close, we salute 2010's top ten managers in the Premier League...


10) David Moyes (Everton)
Look at the league table now and you will wonder what on earth Moyes is doing on this list. But look at the statistics for the calendar year and you will see that only five teams have done better in 2010. A Toffees team back to full strength galloped through the second half of last season in phenomenal form - only Manchester United and Chelsea picked up more points and both those title rivals were defeated at Goodison Park. Unfortunately for Moyes, the budget at Everton does not match his ambitions and he could only bring in a League One striker to boost his attacking options in the summer. Even by Everton standards, this has been a woeful start to the season.


9) Roberto Mancini (Manchester City)
'But he's had shedload of money to spend' is one easy riposte to the Italian's inclusion in this list. 'But his side plays dull football' is another. But money brings its own pressure and Mancini has been unfailingly calm and utterly impossible to ruffle. He has a mission to take City into the Champions League and he is so far delivering on that mission while chaos seemingly erupts around him. And he deserves a round of applause for bringing the beguiling David Silva to these shores.


Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United)
Purely in terms of points picked up in the Premier League in 2010, Ferguson should be far, far further up this list. And unlike five of the names above him, he at least picked up silverware. But a year which featured embarrassing cup defeat to Leeds, a schooling by Bayern Munich and title-losing surrender to Chelsea cannot be hailed as a vintage year. The fact that they are unbeaten in the league this season gets him onto this list in the lower reaches - especially when that feat has been achieved without the stylings of his star player. Nani and Anderson are belatedly proving that his judgement may not have gone completely to cock.


7) Sam Allardyce (Blackburn)
Those who are surprised not to see Steve Bruce in this list might be surprised to learn that Allardyce did appreciably better than Bruce in 2010 without spending even half the money. Blackburn amassed 29 points from their final 18 games of the 2009/10 season - a run that saw them welcome Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea to Ewood Park and deny them all victories - to secure a top-half finish, while the first 17 games of the new season did little to suggest that was a one-off. You may not like his 'style' of football and you may laugh at his talk of being more suited to Real Madrid, but you would find it difficult to argue that Allardyce is an ineffective manager. The problem? Football is also an entertainment business.


6) Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea)
It's easy to allow the final few weeks of 2010 to colour the way you view the Italian's calendar year. But this has still been a year in which the Blues held off a strong challenge from United - traditionally handed the title in the New Year if they are in touching distance of top spot - with the high point a 2-1 win at Old Trafford in April when Florent Malouda more or less ended Gary Neville's top-flight career. The FA Cup final victory was easier and the Double was secured. Despite a summer when the outgoings were more harmful than the incomings were inspirational, Chelsea began the new season at a goal-hungry canter. There have since been trouble afoot but Ancelotti has still won more trophies in 2010 than any other Premier League manager.


5) Owen Coyle (Bolton)
The year began with Bolton in the relegation zone playing a brand of uber-dull football that had long since bored the fans away. It ends with the Trotters firmly ensconced in the top half of the table with the ability to mix the long-ball option with intricate, passing football. Coyle has been a revelation at Bolton, where he has found the £8m player hidden inside Johan Elmander, made Kevin Davies an England international and introduced the impressive Stuart Holden to the Premier League. Bolton had long been a byword for boring but in just 12 months, Coyle has changed everything. Bolton's only worry should now be keeping him at the Reebok.


4) Chris Hughton (Newcastle)
It's pretty sodding difficult to achieve anything when your owner clearly doesn't want you in charge, and is patently waiting for the slightest excuse to punt you out of the club. There were whispers in February that the end may be nigh for one of football's quietest men but a 17-game unbeaten run to ease away with the Championship title put paid to Mike Ashley's crazy ideas of replacing the man who had made the likes of Joey Barton, Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll look like Premier League footballers again. Little did we know that Ashley's determination was such that Hughton would be ousted at the slightest sniff of a bad spell. But with Newcastle in 11th on the day he left, he walked out of St James' Park with his head (presumably shaking in disbelief) held high.


3) Roberto Di Matteo (West Brom)
On the evening of January 8, you could have offered any Baggie bottom place in the Premier League at the end of 2010 and they would have gladly taken the offer. They had just lost 3-1 at home to promotion rivals Nottingham Forest and the top flight suddenly seemed an awful long way away. A seven-match unbeaten run made things look better and then a 12-match unbeaten spell at the end of the season sealed a place amongst the elite. Again. An opening-day 6-0 trouncing by a flying Chelsea elicited groans of 'here we go again' but since that day, thinks have mostly been rosy in the Roberto Di Matteo garden - helped by a couple of shrewd moves for Paul Scharner and Peter Odemwingie. All that and the man never, ever moans.


2) Harry Redknapp (Tottenham)
Tottenham might have been leading the pack chasing fourth place at the onset of 2010, but there were few who made them favourites with Manchester City, Aston Villa and Liverpool breathing heavily down their necks. And as March became April and a nightmare sequence of games against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United loomed, few people gave Tottenham a chance of staying there. But wins over the London clubs - inspired by the rejuvenated Gareth Bale - and a crucial 1-0 win at Eastlands over City saw Harry Redknapp's Tottenham end the season in a Champions League place. Two astute bits of summer transfer business later (William Gallas for nothing and Rafael van der Vaart for £8m) and Spurs reached the knock-out stages of the Champions League. A truly phenomenal year to be a Spurs fan.


1) Ian Holloway (Blackpool)
As 2009 became 2010, Ian Holloway's Blackpool were in eighth place in the Championship. As 2010 becomes 2011, Ian Holloway's Blackpool are in the mid reaches of the Premier League. This despite the club spending the square root of bugger all on new transfers and setting a £10,000-a-week wage cap that would be broken by some League One sides. There was talk of limbo-ing under Derby's 11-point Premier League haul but instead the Seasiders have been a revelation - playing attacking, passing football in a 4-3-3 formation that belies the notion that you need to adopt rough-house, agricultural tactics to survive in the Premier League. And although his well-rehearsed 'I'm a character, me' schtick is not to everyone's taste, he's anything but forgettable.