Arsène Wenger and the EPL's Most Underrated Managers

After the dust has settled from an exhilarating start to the 2010 EPL Season, it seems we are headed for an exhilarating title race.  While recognizing the undeniable success of Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini and Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson in leading their clubs to the top two positions in the EPL, we should not forget that duo funded their success with seemingly limitless resources.

In fact, with Manchester City netting over £200 million in transfer losses over the past two-and-a-half seasons and still failing to win anything other than the consolation prize that is the FA Cup, few managers could claim to be as inefficient as the profligate Mancini.

So, instead of focusing on such high profile managers who are at best meeting their lofty expectations, this article will focus on the unheralded gaffers who have exceeded their expectations despite obvious limitations.

Arsène Wenger

According to virtually all Arsenal fans, Arsène Wenger is a notorious cheapskate who refuses to invest the appropriate transfer funds at the expense of the Gunners’ success.

While the Frenchman’s austere demeanor has done little to dispel this perception, this reasoning is entirely false.

As a student of economics who, according to legendary football journalist Simon Kuper, apparently loves statistics almost as much as football, Wenger understands the value of a dollar (or a euro or pound) better than anyone else in professional football.  As is the case with any responsible business person, Wenger and his Arsenal bosses aspire to ensure long term stability by earning a profit most seasons.

Despite refusing to incur massive debt through player sales, Wenger’s Arsenal has qualified for the Champions League each season for the past decade by regularly outclassing far wealthier sides including (but of course not limited to) Manchester City, Chelsea and occasionally even my beloved Manchester United.

In fact, while the self-proclaimed “Special One” and the legendary Fergie are rendered utterly helpless against Barcelona’s masterclass, Wenger has earned a victory and a draw from his past four encounters with the Catalan Giants.

Not too shabby for a cheapskate, eh?

Chris Hughton

I know, Chris Hughton currently manages Championship side Birmingham City.  However, as the man who returned Newcastle to the Premiership and was prematurely relieved of his duties, he deserves appropriate recognition as an EPL-caliber manager.

Taking over at Birmingham City in late June following former boss Alex McLeish’s hasty move to Aston Villa, Hughton inherited the highly unusual challenge of returning his side to top flight football while also showing well in the Europa League.

Despite limited time and funds to improve his team through the transfer market, Hughton’s Blues qualified for the Europa League group stage where the club has collected seven points from four games.  In addition to their impressive European exploits, City currently sits three points shy of the Championship playoffs with three games in hand.

If Hughton does manage to both earn a spot in the Championship playoffs and advance to the elimination stages of the Europa League, he will undoubtedly deserve serious consideration for a top managerial position next season.

Alan Pardew

As Hughton's successor at Newcastle, Alan Pardew did not receive the warmest of receptions upon relocating to Tyneside.  Subsequently losing top scorers Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan, Alan Pardew seemed a likely candidate to become the first manager sacked during the 2011-2012 season.

Rather amazingly, the Magpies remain unbeaten after 11 games and currently sit alone in third place in the table.

This accomplishment would have not been surprising ten years ago, but with Newcastle now only a year removed from the Championship and Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and both Manchester sides fielding Champions League caliber teams, Newcastle's emergence is quite remarkable.

I'll be rooting for Pardew to hang tough and at least earn a Europa League spot for next season.

Roberto Martínez

As Wigan Athletic's manager, Roberto Martínez's annual goal is quite simple: avoid relegation.

So far, so good.

Narrowly avoiding the drop in his first two seasons managing the club for which he once starred, Martínez will once again attempt to steer the last-place Latics away from the Championship.  With his team having collected only five points from the first 11 games, this will be a massive challenge.

Regardless of the ultimate result, Martínez has demonstrated the ability to survive the rigors of the EPL and continues to develop excellent young attacking players such as Charles N'Zogbia, Hugo Rodallega, James McCarthy and Victor Moses.

When not focusing on delaying the inevitable, the 38-year-old has proven to be a surprisingly good television commentator with ESPN as well.

David Moyes

I recently wrote a piece about David Moyes where I argued that in order for Everton to become one of the best teams in the world, the Scot would not even need additional transfer funds.  Rather, if the club was financially stable enough to not require him to sell top players and had enough additional weekly wages to keep top players, Everton would regularly challenge the likes of Manchester United for the title.

Just imagine if youngsters Marouane Fellaini, Jack Rodwell, Ross Barkley and Seamus Coleman played alongside former Everton standouts Wayne Rooney, Mikel Arteta and Landon Donovan.  With Tim Cahill, Royston Drenthe, Louis Saha and Leon Osman all featuring regularly, Moyes would at least challenge for the EPL Title.

Nevertheless, despite consistently losing top players to bigger sides, Moyes always finds young, talented and inexpensive players to fill the massive holes that regularly open up in his Starting XI. 

That he always manages a top ten finish is impressive.

That the underfunded gaffer manages to occasionally qualify for a European tournament is remarkable.

That few seem to recognize his brilliance is very unfortunate.