5 oldest managers in Premier League history

Bhargav
Sir Alex Ferguson is the oldest manager to win the Premier League.
Sir Alex Ferguson is the oldest manager to win the Premier League.

The English Premier League is one of the most-watched football leagues in the world. Renowned for its fast-paced games, the league has been graced by some of the finest players and managers in the sport.

In its near three-decade-long history, 16 different managers have managed over 300 games in the Premier League, with five of them having done so for at least five different teams. In the latter group, Mark Hughes has taken charge of six different Premier League sides while Sam Allardyce has done so for a record seven.

Five oldest managers in the Premier League

The legendary duo of Arsene Wenger (828) and Sir Alex Ferguson (810) are two of just three managers, the other being David Moyes (427), to have managed over 400 Premier League games for a single club.

While Moyes has never won the Premier League, Wenger (3) and Ferguson (13) have done so on multiple occasions, with the Scot being the oldest manager to win the competition. On that note, let us find out if the duo of Wenger and Ferguson also feature in the list of the five oldest men to have managed a game in the Premier League.


#5 Guus Hiddink (69 years, 189 days)

Guus Hiddink
Guus Hiddink

The much-travelled Guus Hiddink, who had managed five different club teams and four in international football, took his Premier League bow in early 2009 when he was asked to manage Chelsea on an interim basis.

After leading the 2008-09 Premier League table under their new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, Chelsea's form went south. The club lost a home game in the Premier League for the first time in 86 games, with another home defeat, this time against Arsenal, dropping the club to second in the league table.

By February, Chelsea's form showed no signs of improving as a spate of costly draws coupled with away losses at Manchester United and Liverpool cost the Brazilian his job. The club plummeted to fourth in the league table, and Champions League qualification looking far from certain.

Guus Hiddink, who was then the manager of the Russian national team, was approached for the Chelsea top job, which he agreed to do without relinquishing his Russia job.

The Dutchman sparked an immediate upturn in Chelsea's fortunes as the club qualified for the Champions League and won the FA Cup. However, despite the Chelsea players and fans imploring Hiddink to stay, the Dutchman left, albeit on a high note as he had commitments with Russia.

Six years later, Hiddink returned to take charge of Chelsea for a second time, once again on a temporary basis, when the club parted ways with Jose Mourinho after a calamitous start to the 2015-16 Premier League season saw the club hovering just above the relegation zone.

The Dutchman's magic touch worked once again as Chelsea recovered to end the season in tenth place. In the last match of his second tenure, the 69-year-old Hiddink oversaw a 1-1 home draw against champions Leicester City that made the veteran Dutchman the fifth oldest manager in Premier League history.


#4 Neil Warnock (70 years, 83 days)

Neil Warnock
Neil Warnock

Neil Warnock became only the fourth manager aged over 70 to manage a Premier League team when he oversaw relegated Cardiff City's last game of the 2018-19 season where the visitors won 2-0 at the home of Manchester United.

A year earlier, Warnock had earned his eighth promotion in English leagues as Cardiff qualified for the Premier League.

However, he failed to keep the team afloat as a dismal run of results, especially in the second half of the season, that saw the club lose nine of their last 12 Premier League games put paid to their survival hopes.

#3 Alex Ferguson (71 years, 139 days)

Sir Alex Ferguson signed off with a 13th Premier League win in 2012-13.
Sir Alex Ferguson signed off with a 13th Premier League win in 2012-13.

The legendary Sir Alex Ferguson held the record of the longest managerial stint (21 seasons) in Premier League history till 2018 when he was usurped by Arsenal's Arsene Wenger.

Nevertheless, the Scotsman holds a slew of records in his illustrious managerial career in the Premier League.

Ferguson, who is one of only two men to have managed over 800 Premier League games, is the only manager in the competition's history to win over 500 games (528 to be exact). With as many as 13 Premier League wins, the Scotsman is ten titles clear of the duo of Wenger and Jose Mourinho.

Under the legendary Scotsman, Manchester United rose from mid-table mediocrity to a force to be reckoned with, both at home and abroad.

In the last game of his managerial career, which happened to be his 1500th in all competitions and 810th in the Premier League, champions Manchester United were held to an entertaining 5-5 home draw with West Bromwich Albion on the last day of the 2012-13 season. That game made the then 71-year-old Ferguson the second-oldest manager in the history of the Premier League.

During his 21 consecutive seasons in charge of Manchester United, Ferguson won the Premier League Manager Of The Month Award on a record 27 times, which was well clear of the next man on the list - Arsene Wenger (15).


#2 Bobby Robson (71 years, 192 days)

Bobby Robson
Bobby Robson

Bobby Robson started his managerial career with Fulham - a club he once played for - before enjoying an eight-year stint with the England national team. The former striker also took the reins at PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Sporting Lisbon and Porto before assuming charge of bottom-placed Newcastle United in the 1999-00 edition of the Premier League.

The Englishman made an immediate impact as Newcastle recovered to finish 11th in the league that season. After another 11th-placed finish in 2000-01, the Magpies made successive finishes of fourth, third and fifth in the Premier League. Although Newcastle missed out on a Champions League place in 2003-04, they reached the semifinals of the UEFA Cup.

However, the 2004-05 season started poorly for Newcastle who were winless in their first four Premier League games of the season to slump to 17th in the league table.

It was a run of results that ended Robson's five-year stint in the Premier League as the Englishman started and ended his managerial career in the competition with defeats against Chelsea and Aston Villa respectively. The game against Villa made the 71-year-old Robson the oldest manager in the Premier League, a mark he would hold on to six years after his death in 2009 before another Englishman surpassed him.


#1 Roy Hodgson (73 years, 42 days)

Roy Hodgson
Roy Hodgson

In a long and distinguished managerial career, Roy Hodgson managed a slew of club teams in four different countries before guiding Blackburn Rovers to a sixth-placed finish in the 1997-98 Premier League.

Hodgson was twice the Premier League 'Manager Of The Month' during his first managerial stint in the competition before Blackburn, who were touted as title challengers that season, failed to qualify for the Champions League after finishing outside the top four.

A poor run of results in the next season saw Hodgson relieved of his duties at Blackburn. It would be a decade before the Englishman was back as a manager in the Premier League.

Hodgson ensured Premier League survival for Fulham in 2007-08 after being handed the reins of the club when they were languishing in 18th place. The Englishman stayed at Fulham for two more seasons before Liverpool came calling in the summer of 2010.

However, the indifferent form of the team meant that Hodgson survived just six months at Anfield before joining West Bromwich Albion in February 2011 whom he guided to 11th and 10th-placed finishes in the Premier League.

After a four-year stint with the English national team, Hodgson was back in the Premier League where he was asked to salvage a stuttering Crystal Palace who had lost their first four games of the 2017-18 season. Palace lost three more games before becoming the first Premier League team to survive relegation after losing their first seven games of the season; Hodgson's men finished 11th that campaign.

During the next season, Crystal Palace made a 12th-placed finish, Hodgson surpassed late Bobby Robson to become the oldest manager to manage a Premier League game.

On 20th September 2020, Crystal Palace won 3-1 at Manchester United in their second game in the 2020-21 Premier League to make a fabulous start to their domestic campaign under the 73-year-old Hodgson.

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Edited by Rachel Syiemlieh