Where do Managers Come From?

As part of a much bigger project, which may or may not come to fruition, I needed to figure out where BPL managers came from both in terms of Nationality and prior jobs.  After finishing that task I realized I needed to figure out the same information for Championship managers.  (It might have been helpful to figure it out for League One and League Two managers, but enough was enough).  Rather than publishing this information as part of the larger project, I decided to publish it now and, if I finished the larger project, I could just refer back to it.

As my primary reference I used the Wikipedia articles on BPL managers and Championship managers.  I realize that Wikipedia is not perfect and I did catch several (five) errors of omission which I corrected.  If anyone spots any errors feel free to bring them to my attention.

This information is based upon each hiring decision since the Summer of 2009.  As a result many managers are counted more than once because they were hired by more than one team or, in some cases, by the same team more than once.  I am interested in the hiring decision itself so that is how I chose to do things.  This means, of course, that the prior job changes with each new hire while, of course, the nationality does not.

I did not include caretaker and interim managers although I went back and forth as to whether Rafael Benitez at Chelsea should be put into this category.  Eventually, I decided to go with what he called himself and exclude him from my charts.

PRIOR JOB

In creating this chart, I looked at every BPL manager since the Summer of 2009 and determined his immediately prior job in football.  Because the purpose of my project was to figure out how people become BPL managers, I counted being promoted as the prior job rather than looking for the job the manager held before being hired by the team he led to promotion.  I included everyone who was managing as of the summer of 2009 so Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson were included in the chart, even though they were hired many years earlier.

BPL MANAGERS PRIOR JOBS

BPL Manager                                                               23        28%

Promoted with team                                                     16        19%

Championship Manager                                              8          10%

Spain Div. 1 Manager                                                  6          7%

Coaching Staff Same Team                                         6          7%

International Management or Coaching                       4          5%

Netherlands Div. 1 Manager                                        3          4%

Italy Div. 1 Manager                                                    2          2%

Scotland Div. 1 Manager                                             2          2%

League One Manager                                                   2          2%

Player Same Team                                                       2          2%

BPL Assistant Manager Different Team                     2          2%

Japan Div. 1 Manager                                                  1          1%

France Div. 1 Manager                                                1          1%

Norway Div. 1 Manager                                              1          1%

Portugal Div. 1 Manager                                             1          1%

Russia Div. 1 Manager                                                1          1%

German Div. 1 Manager                                              1          1%

Championship Coach                                                  1          1%

TOTAL                                                                                    83

CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGERS PRIOR JOBS

Championship Manager                                               27        20%

Promoted with Team                                                    17        13%

BPL Manager                                                               15        11%

League One Manager                                                   13        10%

Coaching Staff Same Team                                         13        10%

Relegated with Team                                                   11        8%

Scotland Div. 1 Manager                                             5          4%

League Two Manager                                                  5          4%

Conference Premier Manager                                      4          3%

International Management or Coaching                       4          3%

Player Same Team                                                       3          2%

Germany Div. 1 Manager                                            3          2%

Coach Staff Other Championship Team                     2          2%

Belgium Div. 1 Manager                                             2          2%

Coach BPL Team                                                        2          2%

Norway Div. 1 Manager                                              1          1%

Israel Div. 1 Manager                                                  1          1%

Spanish Div. 2 Manager                                              1          1%

Spanish Div.1 Coach                                                   1          1%

USA Div. 1 Coach                                                       1          1%

Qatar Div. 1 Manager                                                  1          1%

Italy Div. 1 Manager                                                    1          1%

TOTAL                                                                                    133

NATIONALITY

BPL MANAGERS NATIONALITY

England                                  26                     31%

Scotland                                 11                     13%

Wales                                      8                      10%

N. Ireland                                6                      7%

Italy                                         5                      6%

Spain                                       5                      6%

Ireland                                     4                      5%

The Netherlands                      4                      5%

Portugal                                   3                      4%

France                                      2                      2%

Israel                                        2                      2%

Argentina                                 2                      2%

Germany                                  1                      1%

Chile                                        1                      1%

Denmark                                  1                      1%

Uruguay                                   1                      1%

Norway                                    1                      1%

TOTAL                                    83

CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGERS NATIONALITY

England                                  71                    54%

Scotland                                 23                    17%

Ireland                                     9                      7%

Wales                                      8                      6%

N. Ireland                                3                      2%

Norway                                    3                      2%

Belgium                                   3                      2%

Italy                                         3                      2%

Spain                                        2                      2%

Germany                                  2                      2%

Portugal                                   2                      2%

Uruguay                                   1                      1%

Finland                                    1                      1%

Sweden                                    1                      1%

The Netherlands                      1                      1%

TOTAL                                    133

Clearly there is a pronounced preference for hiring English in both leagues, but it is significantly greater in the Championship.  Equally clear is the fact that the best way to become a BPL manager is to already be a BPL manager.  The second best way is to be a Championship manager (including being promoted).

The best way to become a Championship manager is to already be one.  Next best is to be a League One manager (including being promoted) and then a BPL manager.

This suggests that, despite what might be said about there being too many foreign managers, the leagues are primarily English or British or United Kingdomish (assuming that retains any meaning in the future).  There appears to be a clear line of promotion from the lower leagues to the BPL.  Of the 80 Championship managers who had not already managed in the BPL or the Championship, 30 had just managed in League One and nine more managed in lower English leagues.  If you add in the 15 who had coached in England and the three who were hired as players that makes 57 or 71% of the Championship managers who were promoted from within English football.  I assumed that the numbers for League One and League Two would be even more English football centric.

The figures for the BPL are less overwhelming, but still 37 out of 60 or 61% of the new BPL managers who have not managed in the BPL before were internal English football promotions.

In other words, if you want to manage in the BPL, get yourself a job coaching in English Football and starting working your way up the system.  It also helps to be from the UK or Ireland.