Premier League analysis: Ranking England’s top managers

Ronald Koeman (also posthumous)

Despite the fact that he has lost his job now it’s a testament to the fact that Ronald Koeman outlasted his arch-nemesis Louis Van Gaal while doing it with smaller clubs in a very hostile league.  Koeman’s management style  would best be described as minimalistic.

Koeman was a phenomenal footballer and managed to turn that career into a pretty darn good management career as well.  His current Everton side are struggling but that is more down to player recruitment than it is anything else. The replacement by platoon strategy never works.  Koeman will probably pay for the boards failure to replace Lukaku with his job at some point this year but that shouldn’t be held against him.

Koeman turned Everton into a solid side that challenged the top four every single year.  If he was able to keep Lukaku as well as recruit his own players this summer there’s no reason why they couldn’t be pu.shing up in the Champions League places.

Koeman’s firing is a story of a good manager who has been let down thoroughly by those who outrank him.  The fact that he has paid for it with his job is ultimately one that happens far too often in the world of football.  His team was coached to play with Lukaku not 10 mediocre replacements for him.