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It’s official – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the new manager of Manchester United. Well, kind of. The legendary Norwegian ‘super-sub’ has been confirmed as the caretaker boss at Old Trafford until the end of the 2018/19 season, at which point the Red Devils intent to begin a search for the real successor to Jose Mourinho, who was fired earlier this week.
But can Solskjaer succeed at United where Mourinho – and David Moyes and Louis van Gaal – largely failed? And if he does so, could he be in with a shout of becoming the permanent boss? It doesn’t sound likely but stranger things have happened, and we’ve seen on numerous occasions that caretaker bosses can be very successful.
Here are 5 Premier League caretaker managers who saw success during their time in the job.
#1 Guus Hiddink (Chelsea)
Roman Abramovich’s favourite troubleshooter, legendary Dutch boss Guus Hiddink has acted as caretaker boss at Chelsea on two separate occasions and both times he managed to do a pretty good job of cleaning up his predecessor’s mess, bringing into question why he was never offered the hot seat at Stamford Bridge on a permanent basis.
Hiddink’s first stint in charge of the Blues came in the 2008/09 season. Brazilian boss Luis Felipe Scolari was relieved of his duties in February 2009 after a short reign that ended with Chelsea in 4th position in the Premier League.
The Dutchman quickly rejuvenated the squad, and although he only steered the Blues to a 3rd place finish, his side won all but 2 of their final 13 league games and he also led them to victory in the FA Cup – and a controversial exit in the Champions League semi-finals against Barcelona.
His second stint at Stamford Bridge came in the same vein as Solskjaer’s at United – picking up the pieces left behind when Jose Mourinho’s reign came to a dramatic end in December 2015.
This time Hiddink found the Blues floundering in 16th position, and while he didn’t bring any silverware to Chelsea during this reign, he did oversee a 12-game unbeaten run and managed to drag the side back up to a 10th place finish – likely far better than where they’d have finished under Mourinho.
#2 Craig Shakespeare (Leicester City)
It was football’s greatest ever fairytale when Leicester City somehow won the Premier League title in 2015/16 under Claudio Ranieri, but it didn’t take long for the fairytale to turn into a horror story.
The Foxes began 2016/17 in disastrous form, and on the 23rd February – with Leicester stuck in 17th position and in a relegation battle – Ranieri was surprisingly fired. His replacement was his assistant coach Craig Shakespeare, who took over on a caretaker basis.
Shakespeare’s appointment had an immediate effect, as Leicester defeated high-flying Liverpool 3-1 at the King Power Stadium in his first game in charge, immediately giving fans flashbacks to the previous season.
That was the beginning of a 5-game winning streak that saw the Foxes rise from 17th all the way up to 10th, largely sealing their Premier League safety in the process.
By early April the Shakespeare effect had begun to tail off – Leicester only won 2 of their final 8 Premier League games – but they finished in a comfortable 12th position, and given Shakespeare also oversaw a stirring run to the Champions League quarter-finals, it was safe to say he’d done a good job.
Unfortunately, when handed a 3-year deal as permanent boss at the end of the season, things went horribly wrong and he was fired just 3 months later – making him another addition to the list of successful caretakers who failed when given a permanent position.
#3 Roberto Di Matteo (Chelsea)
Ever since his takeover of Chelsea in the summer of 2003, Roman Abramovich’s big dream was for the Blues to win the Champions League – and by 2012, he’d dispensed of no less than 6 managers in his attempts to complete this quest.
So it came as a massive shock when, in the 2011/12 Champions League final, it was a caretaker boss who delivered the famous trophy to Stamford Bridge.
Former Chelsea midfielder Roberto Di Matteo was appointed as the caretaker at Chelsea in early March 2012, following the sacking of Portuguese manager Andre Villas-Boas, who oversaw a diabolical reign that ended when most of the squad had been alienated by him. When Di Matteo took over, the Blues were in 5th position in the league and appeared to be way off the pace in the race for the Premier League title.
To claim Di Matteo oversaw Premier League success wouldn’t exactly be true – the Italian had mixed results in the league, winning 5 of his 11 matches, and the Blues ended the campaign in 6th – one place lower than when Di Matteo first took over. But elsewhere, the changes were dramatic.
Di Matteo’s first game in charge saw Chelsea defeat Birmingham City in an FA Cup 5th round replay, and the Blues then went on to win the trophy by defeating Liverpool 2-1 in the final. And of course, in European action Di Matteo’s Blues were fantastic.
They overcame a 3-1 deficit from the first leg of the second round against Napoli – a result that came under Villas-Boas – to win the second leg 4-1 to make it to the quarter-finals, where they then defeated Benfica 3-1 on aggregate.
In the semis, they defeated Barcelona in dramatic fashion – coming from 2 behind to draw 2-2 in the Nou Camp to make the final after winning the first leg at Stamford Bridge 1-0.
The rest is history, as Di Matteo’s Blues somehow defeated Bayern Munich in a penalty shoot-out – in Bayern’s home stadium to boot – to win the Champions League for the first time. Naturally, the unbelievable victory was enough to earn him a permanent contract – but that only lasted until the following November, when he was fired after some poor results.
#4 Kenny Dalglish (Liverpool)
Roy Hodgson’s reign as Liverpool boss was an unmitigated disaster, so when he was fired in January 2011 – leaving the Reds floundering in 12th position in the Premier League – it came as no surprise. His caretaker replacement, however, was a surprise, as club legend and former Premier League title winner Kenny Dalglish was brought out of retirement to take the helm.
Dalglish had been working in the club’s academy and as an ambassador since 2009, but he hadn’t managed at the top level since a brief period in charge of Celtic in 2000. His first game in charge saw a disappointing loss to Blackpool, but a 2-2 draw with local rivals Everton was then followed by 4 straight victories.
Under ‘King Kenny’, the Reds managed to win 10 of their final 18 games, only losing on a further 4 occasions after the Blackpool defeat, and they slowly climbed up the table into a comfortable 6th place finish – not where they’d have expected to be at the start of the season, but a far cry from where Hodgson left them.
As the caretaker, Dalglish also oversaw one of the most dramatic transfer windows in Premier League history, as Liverpool sold Fernando Torres to Chelsea for around £50m and used the money to bring in Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll – and obviously one of those two was a huge hit at Anfield.
Due to his successful spell as caretaker, Dalglish was rewarded with a contract as Liverpool’s permanent boss in the summer of 2011, and although his only full season in charge saw the Reds win the EFL Cup – their first trophy since 2006 – he was relieved of his duties in the summer of 2012 after finishing just 8th in the Premier League.
#5 Glenn Roeder (Newcastle United)
Newcastle United appeared to be in deep trouble midway through the 2005/06 season – despite having a deadly pairing of Michael Owen and Alan Shearer spearheading the team following the signing of Owen in the summer transfer window, Graeme Souness’s reign began to veer wildly off course, to the point where the Magpies were on a 6-match winless streak by early February.
The Scottish boss was unsurprisingly fired, and some eyebrows were raised when Glenn Roeder – a former Newcastle player and West Ham manager who’d been out of the game for 2 years – was appointed as caretaker boss. But with Shearer appointed as his assistant, he oversaw a dramatic revival.
When Roeder took over, Newcastle were hovering just above a relegation battle – sitting 6 points away from the drop zone in 15th spot – but he had an immediate effect, as the Magpies won 4 of their first 5 games under him, with Shearer breaking Jackie Milburn’s record of 200 goals for the club in the process.
Of the 15 games Roeder oversaw, Newcastle managed to win a remarkable 10 of them and only lost 3, and the Magpies climbed all the way up to an excellent 7th place finish, earning a spot in the UEFA Intertoto Cup.
Unsurprisingly, Roeder was offered the job on a permanent basis in the summer following his successful run as caretaker, but – you guessed it – the following season went badly as the Magpies finished 13th under the new ownership of Mike Ashley, and in May 2007 Roeder resigned less than a year after being appointed permanent manager.
