The playing careers of the current Premier League managers

Thanks to the alphabetical makeup of the Premier League (rare is the club that can get ahead of Arsenal on that front), we start with a guy you likely remember as a player. One, he only retired in 2016. Two, he played most of his career in England. In fact, after a solid run with Everton playing regularly in its midfield, Arteta ended his playing career with five seasons at…Arsenal.

A former Arsenal manager himself, Emery has won the Europa League four times, three with Sevilla and one with Villarreal. As a player, he was less remarkable. Emery was a midfielder, but aside from five games with Real Sociedad, he played down in the second division of Spain for many years. When he was 32, and playing for third-division Lorca Deportiva, Emery suffered a knee injury. He retired, the club president offered him the manager’s job, he immediately helped them earn promotion, and a promising post-playing career was born.

Iraola worked some quick magic with Mirandes and Rayo Vallecano in his native Spain, two clubs with little history of success, which earned him a call from the Premier League in the summer of 2023. Sure, it’s only Bournemouth, but it’s still a step up. Iraola is the first player to see international duty for his country, though the fullback only played seven times for Spain (and nine for the Basque team). That being said, he played a whopping 406 games with Athletic Bilbao, so he was a La Liga staple for over a decade.

Hey, the first non-Spanish manager in this piece! Frank is Danish, and started his managerial career with some of the youth national teams in Denmark. He would eventually move to England, take a job as a coach for Brentford, and then get promoted before helping his club get promoted as well. As a player, the best we can tell is that he played some midfield in non-professional football in Denmark, but he saw the writing on the wall awfully fast.

De Zerbi managed in his native Italy for a while before winning the Ukrainian league with Shakhtar Donetsk, and then left that league after Russia’s invasion and found himself replacing Brighton hero Graham Potter when he left for Chelsea. As a player, De Zerbi came through the AC Milan academy, which is impressive, but he never played for the big club. Instead, he was loaned to lower divisions for years and never really played in Serie A. It was a long, but unremarkable, career.

Kompany has found that it is trickier to win in the Premier League than in the Football Championship, as Burnley seems likely to get relegated one season after earning promotion. As a player, the Premier League served Kompany’s skills just fine. He was a star at centre back for Manchester City, to the extent centre backs are ever stars. Kompany also played 89 games for Belgium as part of the Golden Generation.

Chelsea under Todd Boehly is not known for patience with managers, so Pochettino may not be around long. Well, having managed at PSG prior to joining Chelsea, the Argentine is likely accustomed to that pressure (and frivolousness). Pochettino actually played for PSG at centre back, though he spent the bulk of his career with Espanyol. He was also capped 20 times by Argentina.

Glasner only took over at Palace in February, replacing the resigning Roy Hodgson (a non-league football player). An Austrian defender, he began his career with SV Ried in his native country and just stayed there. Seriously, he played over 500 games with SV Ried. Glasner spent 16 years with the club before retiring in 2011.

So, there’s this country called England. You may have heard of it. Dyche is the first English manager on this list. Another centre back, Dyche got most of his playing time with Chesterfield, though they were down in the third-and-fourth divisions. He did play second-tier football in three seasons, though, one for Bristol City, one for Millwall, and one for Watford.

Fulham’s Silva spent his entire playing career in Portugal. He only played two games of top-flight football, mostly settling in as a second-level player. The right back got his most games with Estoril, and fittingly enough, as soon as he retired he was installed as manager by the club.

Klopp is a Liverpool icon. He’s one of the best managers of the new millennium, and arguably one of the best managers ever. As a player, well, Klopp himself has said he had “fourth-division feet and a first-division head.” The German played effectively his entire career with Mainz in the second level of the Bundesliga. Interestingly, he started as a striker before moving to defence.

Edwards helped get Luton Town out of the Championship and into Premier League football, which was an impressive feat. A centre back by trade, the Welshman started his career in the Premier League with Aston Villa. However, he mostly played in the Championship, though he saw two Premier League caps with Blackpool that one season Blackpool was in the Premier League. Edwards made 15 appearances for Wales as well.

Pep, like Klopp, is in the running for best manager of the last quarter-century. With all due respect to Klopp, though, he has nothing on Guardiola as a player. The defensive midfielder played for Barcelona. Like, a lot. He was a regular for the “Dream Team” era under Johan Cruyff, including winning four La Liga titles in a row. On top of that, he played a whopping 47 games for Spain. There is a strong case that Pep is the best manager of these 20 men, and also the best player of the bunch for good measure.

If you head across the pond, there is a thought that catchers make good baseball managers. Perhaps the same is true of centre backs in football, because ten Hag is yet-another centre back on this list. While he managed Ajax, ten Hag never played for the iconic Dutch club. Instead, he mostly played with FC Twente, though he did play in over 200 games for them across three separate stints.

Howe got the Newcastle gig because of how much success he had managing Bournemouth. The Englishman has a deep tie to that club. He was the youngest manager in the Football League when he took over Bournemouth in 2008 after retiring as a player from…Bournemouth. Howe played over 200 games with the Cherries. Yes, he was a centre back.

The former Wolves manager took over Nottingham in December after Steve Cooper was axed. Here’s something new: Santo was a goalkeeper! The Portuguese keeper won four league titles with Porto...sort of. Santo was not the number-one keeper for Porto, seeing only 14 appearances. Instead, the Forest manager saw the bulk of his playing time in the second division with Merida.

Wilder returned to the club he used to manage after Paul Heckingbottom got fired. It’s not going to save Sheffield United from relegation, but at least they tried something, right? If you look at Wilder’s Wikipedia photo (from his time managing Oxford United) he has the look of a former hard man, and that seems to be the case. Words like “crude tackle” and “violent conduct” are also part of said Wikipedia page. Wilder was a right back and a second-division player, mostly for Rotherham United, but also Sheffield.

Though he was born in Greece, Postecoglou grew up in Australia. He played left back for South Melbourne and even captained it to a league title. Postecoglou also played four games for Australia, though that country wasn't exactly known for footballing acumen in the 1980s. Even so, international football is still international football.

Moyes is another former centre back, and another guy who took over the club he retired from as manager. In this instance, that club is Preston North End. He made 143 appearances for the club, but what’s most notable about Moyes is the fact he did see 24 games with Celtic early in his career.

We end with an English manager, and one that had quite a lengthy career as well. O’Neil was an active player from 2000 through 2019. The midfielder saw his most time with his first club, Portsmouth, but also played for Middlesbrough, Norwich, Bristol, and West Ham United. O’Neil saw a lot of seasons in the Premier League, and the rest were spent in the Championship. That’s a solid career, for sure.