Top 10 Most Iconic English Premier League Managers

We know them by one name. We know them by the silhouette they cast along the touchline. We know them like they're members of our own family.

Ferguson. Wenger. Mourinho. The English Premier League has seen its share of iconic managers, past and present, and those are only three of them.

In the Premiership, iconic managers have taken varying forms, from the all-time greats wrapping up storied careers, to the legends in their primes, to brash upstarts making their name on the biggest stage, to formerly outstanding players trying their hand at the management game.

This is a list of the 10 most iconic. It's sure to spark a few debates, so feel free to have your say in the comments.

Future: Roberto Mancini

Team(s): Manchester City

Credentials: Three Serie A titles; four Coppa Italia titles; 2011 FA Cup

Why he's almost iconic: The moment Manchester City win the Premiership, he will be. Until then, he's in the on-deck circle.

Mancini won Serie A three times in a row with Inter from 2006-08. He also captured the Coppa Italia twice with Inter and once each with Fiorentina and Lazio.

That kind of success is starting to translate to England. City won the FA Cup last spring and currently lead the Premier League by two points (as of this writing) over rivals Manchester United.

With a league title this May, Mancini would enter the top 10.

Honorable Mention: Sam Allardyce

Team(s): Bolton, Newcastle, Blackburn

Credentials: His waistline; his sound bytes

Why he's almost iconic: Big man, big personality.

Sam Allardyce is instantly recognizable, not for winning titles, or even necessarily for the football his teams play (unless you're a big fan of ugly football).

But Allardyce did bring Bolton to the Premiership through the playoffs in 2001, and since then, he's become one of England's most recognizable managers. Now with West Ham in the Championship, he could be back in the top flight next season.

That's not enough to make it into our top 10, but if Allardyce followed through on his promise to "walk over burning coals to get the England job," he might rocket into the top five.

Future: Martin O'Neill

Team(s): Leicester City, Aston Villa, Sunderland

Credentials: Continual status as the next big thing in management; three Scottish titles, three Scottish Cups, one Scottish League Cup, two English League Cups.

Why he's almost iconic: O'Neill has always done well wherever he's managed, and his success has usually come on a fraction of the big clubs' budgets.

At Leicester he guided the Foxes to two League Cups. With Celtic, he won the league and cup three times apiece. That kind of success often places him in the discussion for some of England's biggest jobs, but so far his most prestigious post has been at Aston Villa.

Walking out on Villa last season probably won't help his chances of snaring one of the biggest jobs. But if O'Neill ever does find himself at the helm of England's biggest clubs—and with his 60th birthday looming this year, it'll have to be soon—it seems likely he'll have success.

10. Gerard Houllier

Team(s): Liverpool, Aston Villa

Credentials: UEFA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, FA Cup, English League Cup and FA Community Shield all in 2001; English League Cup in 2003; three French titles.

Why he's iconic: It didn't end well with Liverpool, but Houllier delivered one of the Reds' most memorable seasons in 2001. And if nothing else, his haul of silverware is impressive.

Liverpool won a historic treble of the UEFA Cup, FA Cup and League Cup during the 2000-01 season. Later in 2001, they added the UEFA Super Cup by beating Bayern Munich and the Community Shield by defeating Manchester United.

Say what you will about Houllier. He probably deserves much of the criticism that's directed his way. But unpopularity and criticism can actually make a manager iconic, in their own way.

Regardless, Liverpool's 2000-01 season was one for the ages.

9. Kevin Keegan

Team(s): Newcastle, Manchester City

Credentials: The perm, the rant, the meltdown and the old Wembley finale

Why he's iconic: Like Houllier, Keegan's iconic status isn't entirely a positive thing.

Keegan finished an excellent playing career in 1984 and entered management eight years later. By February 1996 his team held a massive lead atop the Premier League table and looked set for their first title since the 1920s.

But you know what happened next. Newcastle melted down, Keegan unleashed an epic rant and Manchester United laughed all the way to the title with a more-comfortable-than-it-sounds-four-point final margin.

And then he got the England job. The less said about that, the better.

No matter. He's still an icon as long as pictures of his poodle perm survive.

8. Harry Redknapp

Team(s): West Ham, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur

Credentials: Various lower-league titles; 2008 FA Cup with Portsmouth; wheeling and dealing

Why he's iconic: Don't call him a wheeler-dealer. But he is one.

In addition to his reputation as a transfer-market maestro, Redknapp is well-known for a bunch of different things.

At West Ham, he developed players like Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard (his nephew), Joe Cole and Michael Carrick. At Portsmouth, he secured promotion to the Premiership. At Southampton…well, Southampton wasn't his best hour. And at Spurs, he qualified for the Champions League.

Wheeler-dealer or not, 'Arry is one of a kind.

7. Rafa Benitez

Team(s): Liverpool

Credentials: Champions League 2005, FA Cup 2006

Why he's iconic: The moment you win the Champions League, you're an icon. Rafa Benitez is an icon, whether or not Liverpool fans or the media want to admit it.

Benitez won the Champions League in 2005. That's something Arsene Wenger has never done. In addition, he and Liverpool hoisted the FA Cup a year later.

No matter how it ended, Liverpool's triumphant night in Istanbul won't soon be forgotten. Neither will Benitez.

6. Kenny Dalglish

Team(s): Liverpool, Blackburn, Newcastle

Credentials: Four English titles, two FA Cups, one Scottish League Cup.

Why he's iconic: He's Kenny Dalglish for one thing. Back in his day, he was among the world's best players. And as a manager, he's had a bunch of success too—just not recently.

As a player, Dalglish helped Liverpool win six titles. The last came in 1985-86, when he served as player-manager. Two more titles followed, before the inception of the Premier League, in 1988 and 1990, with FA Cup triumphs in 1986 and 1989.

Then, after taking over the managerial reins at Blackburn, he guided Rovers to their unlikely Premiership title in 1995, only three years after promotion from the old Second Division. Dalglish announced his retirement after the season but returned to lead Celtic for part of one season and Liverpool again starting in January 2011.

5. Sir Bobby Robson

Team(s): Newcastle

Credentials: FA Cup and UEFA Cup with Ipswich; various other trophies with Barcelona, Porto and PSV.

Why he's iconic: That's Sir Bobby Robson to you. Robson only managed in the Premier League for a few years, and he didn't win anything with Newcastle.

But he's iconic for other reasons, from his playing career to managerial stints with Barcelona, Porto, PSV, England, Fulham, Ipswich and others.

4. Brian Clough

Team(s): Nottingham Forest

Credentials: Boatloads of wins, accolades and trophies; being the main character in a book and movie.

Why he's iconic: Brian Clough was one of the all-time greats. He and assistant Peter Taylor worked the system brilliantly to win on the cheap with Derby County and Nottingham Forest.

Their genius yielded a pair of league titles, four League Cups and two European Cups. Both of the latter came with Nottingham Forest, undoubtedly the unlikeliest of all European champions.

All of Clough's success came before the Premier League era, but he did manage Forest for one season in the Premiership—the league's inaugural campaign in 1992-93.

3. Jose Mourinho

Team(s): Chelsea

Credentials: Champions League titles in 2004 and 2010; six league titles; four domestic cups.

Why he's iconic: He's the Special One. Players, fellow managers and media agree: Mourinho is already one of the best of all-time.

Mourinho arrived at Chelsea in the summer 2004 with a lot of hype after winning the Champions League and Portuguese Primera Liga the previous May. He delivered with league titles in 2005 and 2006 and the FA Cup in 2007.

Equally as important, he went toe-to-toe with Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson and often came out on top.

If he returns to England one day—and that remains possible—Mourinho could feasibly challenge for the top two spots on this list.

2. Arsene Wenger

Team(s): Arsenal

Credentials: League and FA Cup doubles in 1998, 2002; league title and undefeated season in 2004; FA Cups in 2003 and 2005; extensive player development and talent identification

Why he's iconic: He's Le Professeur.

Arsenal fans might not love him so much these days, but there's a reason Arsene Wenger once inspired the expression "Arsene knows."

It's because he usually does.

Wenger has an unprecedented record of unearthing obscure talents and turning the raw, young players into international superstars. Thierry Henry is the best and most successful example, but Cesc Fabregas, Patrick Vieira, Samir Nasri also qualify—with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as a potential candidate for the future.

And that's not even mentioning his success. Wenger and Arsenal haven't won a major trophy since 2005, but that shouldn't diminish the run they experienced from 1998-2005, a stretch that included three league titles, four FA Cups and two doubles.

The only trophy missing from Wenger's resume is the Champions League. Arsenal reached the final in 2006, and after the horrors of the current season, Wenger would probably be elated to get another chance.

1. Sir Alex Ferguson

Team(s): Manchester United

Credentials: Almost too many titles to count; the treble; two Champions League titles.

Why he's iconic: Sir Alex Ferguson has won 12 Premier League titles. No one else has won more than two.

Ferguson and United won a treble of the league, FA Cup and Champions League in 1999. They also took Europe's top prize in 2008.

Then there are the five FA Cups, four League Cups, 10 Charity/Community Shields and even a Club World Cup in 2008. It all adds up to a resume that no one else in the history of English football—maybe even world football—can approach.

Once Fergie retires, it's likely we'll see his name popping up on football-related structures around England and his native Scotland. For now, though, there's the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand at Old Trafford.