How Many World Class Managers are There in the English Premier League?

There is no denying that a high-caliber manager moulds and develops a winning football team. A team with world-class individuals but without a master to harness the individual strengths into a collective force is a team that is never going to achieve anything significant.

Just ask Liverpool during the "Spice Boys" era. Great team, poor manager quality.

The way I see it, there are four levels of management expertise within the Premier League at this moment.

These are:

World Class Managers

1. Sir Alex Ferguson
2. Arsene Wenger

European Level Managers

1. Roy Hodgson
2. Rafa Benitez
3. Carlo Ancelotti

Premiership Level Managers

1. David Moyes
2. Steve Bruce
3. Martin O' Neill
4. Harry Redknapp
5. Sam Allardyce
6. Mark Hughes
7. Gianfranco Zola
8. Roberto Martinez
9. Alex McLeish

Championship Level Managers

1. Mick McCarthy
2. Gary Megson
3. Owen Coyle
4. Paul Hart
5. Tony Pulis
6. Phil Brown

So this means, Bolton, Wolves, Burnley, Portsmouth, Stoke City, and Hull City will be fighting it out to avoid the drop in the upcoming season. These clubs have managers who are ill-suited for the technical and tactical rigours of the Premiership.

Don't just let me "frame" your opinion on this, let me know what you think.

Do you think Gary Megson, dubbed the "Ginger Mourinho", is really a Premiership-level manager?

Perhaps the fact that Hull City's amazing early season form last year elevated Phil Brown's status to Premiership-level manager?

I have one final list that I would like to share, and it's a list of managers that I would like to see returning to Premiership management.

If Only They Would Come Back to the Premiership
1. Jose Mourinho
2. Alan Curbishley
3. Steve McClaren
4. Carlos Quieroz
5. Guus Hiddink

We have all missed Mourinho's prickliness and media eloquence. Perhaps if Inter does not progress far in the Champions League, and Rafa Benitez stutters in Liverpool, we could hear about a potential managerial switch. Now THAT would be great news!

This article and many others are featured in The Flat Back Four, a blog that the author uses to share his views and opinions on the Beautiful Game.