Being a Premier League manager is an immensely stressful affair. The weight of the world, and all its expectations, are permanently on your shoulders.
The fickle fates of football decide your employment status. The fans love or hate you depending on that weekend’s result.
Oldest Premier League Managers:
- Roy Hodgson – 76 years, 187 days
- Sir Bobby Robson – 71 years, 192 days
- Sir Alex Ferguson – 71 years, 139 days
- Neil Warnock – 70 years, 162 days
- Claudio Ranieri – 70 years, 93 days
These five were immune to such concerns, and the same went for the passing of time. Even in their seventh decade they used the team coach in lieu of their bus passes.
5) Claudio Ranieri
Never a man to hide his emotions, Ranieri was teary-eyed this week as his Cagliari side played out the final moments of the 2023/24 season.
After 38 years in management, the man who once made an absolute mockery of the Premier League betting with Leicester, was hanging up his suit.
Players of both sides applauded, even the referee joined in, while a banner held aloft in the home end spoke volumes and spoke for many. “Eternal gratitude to a great man.”
Enjoy your retirement Claudio. You made us smile and rocked football to its very core.
4) Neil Warnock
Managers as tumultuous as Warnock are not supposed to spend 44 years in the dug-out. They’re supposed to burn bright and burn out, complaining to all who will listen that the ‘game’s gone’.
So many of Warnock’s ilk found themselves out of step with modern football, dismissed as dinosaurs and put out to pasture.
To ‘Colin’s enormous credit however he rolled with the punches, evolved along the way, and maintained a reputation as someone who can fix a club up and put it back on track. Even at the vintage age of 75 he’s still doing that, stepping in as interim boss at Aberdeen, his 20th club.
His last game in charge of a Premier League side saw him take an already doomed Cardiff to Old Trafford for the conclusion of the 2018/19 season. Against expectation, the Bluebirds won. Of course they did.
3) Sir Alex Ferguson
On two prior occasions, Manchester United’s overlord had intended to call it a day.
The first time he was talked out of it. The second extension came about when Sergio Aguero struck one of the most dramatic and devastating goals in living memory.
After reclaiming English football’s perch by winning a multitude of titles, the great man wasn’t going to go out on that.
So he stayed, hauling and cajoling what was in truth a bang average United side to a 13th Premier League crown. It was arguably his finest ever achievement.
Ferguson’s final game took place at the Hawthorns in 2013 and appropriately entertained, producing the only 5-5 scoreline in the top-flight in modern times.
2) Sir Bobby Robson
In two decades as a player, and three decades in management, Robson fulfilled monumental achievements, just one of which would be enough for some.
He made numerous appearances for his country. He guided both Ipswich Town and Barcelona to European honours. He won the league in Holland and Portugal and navigated England to a World Cup semi-final.
Yet throughout this extraordinary brace of careers there was always a hole that needed filling, that being the chance to either play for or manage his beloved Newcastle United.
At the grand age of 66 that dream came true in 1999, Robson steadying the ship in the North-East and staying for five seasons. His sad passing in 2009 is still felt today.
1) Roy Hodgson
Across eight countries and including two stints as an international boss, Hodgson saw it all in management. Tactics evolve and other tactics die out. Players making their debuts and those same players retiring.
By the time he took on the reins at Crystal Palace he was a walking, talking encyclopaedia of a game that so obsessed him.
Regrettably, in his second spell at Selhurst Park, all of that vast experience counted for little, with the Eagles struggling and even tipped to drop in the football betting.
And so when Palace lost to Chelsea in February 2024, the club reluctantly took the decision to part ways with their veteran gaffer, seeking a new direction.
To put Hodgson’s age that afternoon into perspective, only half of his Premier League peers were born when he started out at Halmstad in 1976.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
