5 Premier League legends we grew up watching who are now managers

L to R - Beckham, Gerrard, and Lampard were three of the Premier League's greatest midfielders
L to R - Beckham, Gerrard, and Lampard were three of the Premier League's greatest midfielders

Most of the managers in the top tiers of European football were professional footballers. In fact, all twenty managers in the Premier League at the moment played football professionally albeit with varied level of success.

Southampton manager, Mark Hughes, for example, had a memorable playing career winning 15 trophies with Manchester United, Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers combined. With Man Utd, he won the Premier League twice.

Some of the Premier League’s all-time greats are now into their managerial career and these are players we grew up watching in awe.

Former Liverpool superstar Xabi Alonso retired from football in 2017 and has begun his managerial journey by taking charge of Real Madrid’s Under-13 team. Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola is currently the assistant to Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea despite managing several clubs on his own previously.

However, the five Premier League legends turned managers in question are already in charge of a major team or on the verge of taking up a new job.


#1 Frank Lampard - Derby County

Lampard has started his job as Derby manager with five wins in seven games
Lampard has started his job as Derby manager with five wins in seven games

Frank Lampard spent most of his playing career with Chelsea winning 13 trophies. He scored 211 goals for the Blues in 13 seasons and became their all-time leading goalscorer.

Lampard retired from professional football in 2016 after a stint in the MLS. Post-retirement, he ventured into a managerial career and he got his first job this summer.

The 40-year-old was appointed the manager of Championship side Derby County on a three-year contract.

He used his contacts at Chelsea to sign two of the club’s biggest prospects on loan for the season. Mason Mount, the 19-year-old midfielder and Fikayo Tomori, the 20-year-old defender joined Derby despite interest in both players from other Championship clubs.

Derby have so far played seven games under Lampard winning five of those games and losing the other two. So far, they've scored 14 goals with at least one goal in every game, conceded seven goals and kept four clean sheets.

Not a bad start for a rookie manager at club hoping to gain promotion to the Premier League.

Interestingly, Lampard will go head to head against his former manager Jose Mourinho in the next round of the English League Cup.

#2 Patrick Vieira - OGC Nice

Vieira previously managed New York City FC in the MLS
Vieira previously managed New York City FC in the MLS

Patrick Vieira was the captain of Arsenal’s famous Invincibles team. He was at Arsenal for nine years and won as many trophies with the Gunners before leaving for the Serie A.

Vieira returned to the Premier League for two seasons with Manchester City before hanging up his boots and post-retirement he was in charge of training and youth development role at Manchester City with the title of Football Development Executive.

In May 2013, he took over as the club’s reserve team and Elite Development squad manager. Two years later, he was in discussion to be Newcastle United manager but an agreement couldn’t be reached.

In November 2015, the Frenchman was appointed the manager of Manchester City’s sister club New York City FC. He managed the likes of Andrea Pirlo and David Villa at his new club, winning 40 out of his 91 games in charge and losing 28 games.

In June 2018, he was appointed the manager of Ligue 1 club OGC Nice following the departure of Lucien Favre to Borussia Dortmund.

Vieira’s stint as Nice manager hasn’t started well as he has lost two games and drew another so far. His second defeat was at home to Dijon FCO with a scoreline of 0-4!

#3 Ryan Giggs - Wales

Giggs (R) in conversation with Gareth Bale (L)
Giggs (R) in conversation with Gareth Bale (L)

Ryan Giggs is one of the most decorated footballers in the history of the game. He spent his entire playing career with Manchester United winning 34 trophies including a record 13 Premier League titles.

The 2013/14 season was his final season as a player and during that season, he held the role of a player-coach under David Moyes. However, after Moyes was sacked 10 months into the job, Giggs was appointed the interim manager and he won two games, drew one and lost one in his four games in charge.

The following season, he served as assistant to Louis van Gaal and he was considered a potential successor to van Gaal. However, he left his post as assistant manager when Jose Mourinho was appointed ahead of the 2016/17 season.

Giggs was linked with several jobs after leaving Manchester United including the Swansea City job. Ultimately, in January 2018, he took over as manager of the Wales national team.

He has won, drawn and lost a game each as Wales manager so far.

#4 Thierry Henry - Belgium (Asst Manager) & AS Monaco

Henry is still the assistant manager of Belgium
Henry is still the assistant manager of Belgium

Thierry Henry is the highest-scoring foreign player in the Premier League history with 175 goals in 258 games for Arsenal. The Frenchman was one of the best players in the world when he was at Arsenal and post-retirement, he became a pundit first before opting to be a manager.

Henry was Belgium’s second assistant manager from 2016 and was part of the coaching staff when they finished third at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

After the World Cup, Henry stepped down from his role in broadcasting to pursue his ambition in managing. He previously managed the Arsenal U18 team and in the summer, he was linked with the Aston Villa and Bordeaux job. However, he opted to continue with his role Belgium.

On October 2013, Henry was appointed as the manager of AS Monaco, the club with which he made his professional debut after coming through the academy.

Monaco sacked Leonardo Jardim after they found themselves in 18th place with six points from nine games. Henry has an uphill task to secure European qualification for the Ligue 1 giants.

Interestingly, he will be up against his former Arsenal and France teammate Patrick Vieira when Monaco play Nice.

#5 Steven Gerrard - Rangers

Rangers have reached the group stage of the Europa League under Gerrard
Rangers have reached the group stage of the Europa League under Gerrard

Rangers are one of the giants of Scottish football but the club was directly relegated into the fourth tier of Scottish football after it went into a financial turmoil and later into administration.

In 2016, Rangers returned to the top tier but were up against a much stronger Celtic side. In the same year, Steven Gerrard retired from professional football after a distinguished career with Liverpool during which he was named in the PFA Team of the Year a record eight times.

In January 2017, Gerard was appointed youth coach at Liverpool before taking over as the club’s Under-18 coach for the 2017/18 season.

The former Liverpool captain was highly impressive as coach of the Under-18 team and in April 2018, Rangers announced that Gerrard would take over as manager ahead of the 2018/19 season.

Like Lampard, Gerrard used his contacts at Liverpool to sign both Ovie Ejaria and Ryan Kent on a season-long loan.

Rangers have enjoyed a terrific start to life under Gerrard and are yet to taste defeat after 12 competitive games in charge. Gerrard has taken Rangers to the group stage of the Europa League for the first time since 2010/11.

They had to overcome four opponents in the two-legged knockout ties to reach the knockout stage. Incredibly, his side held on to a 1-1 draw for around 30 minutes in the final playoff game with just nine men!

His next game in charge of Rangers is against arch-rivals Celtic and that will be the biggest test of his managerial career so far.

Quick Links

Edited by Sripad