5 Premier League managers who were ridiculed for their appointment, but turned out successful

5) Gianluca Vialli: Chelsea

Gianluca Vialli was named player-manager at Chelsea

“Crazy! It's like giving the keys of a Ferrari to an 18-year-old.” – Fabio Capello

Before Roman Abramovich assumed control of Chelsea’s business – on and off the field – Ken Bates was the owner of the club who took decisions related to hiring and firing managers. Even before the Russian oligarch had fired managers left, right and centre, Bates had had his own run-ins with managers at Stamford Bridge.

One of them involved replacing one player-manager with another. Ruud Gullit was given the sack and Gianluca Vialli – his own signing – was promoted to player-manager. Gullit had done well with the Blues, winning the FA Cup a season before his sack – their first major trophy since 1971. At the time of his sacking, the London side were in second place in the league, in the League Cup semis and in the quarter-finals of the European Cup-Winners' Cup.

Though Vialli was Gullit’s signing, a tempest had raged in the dressing room between the pair and the sword eventually fell on Gullit’s neck. Vialli was made the scapegoat and was looked at as the upstart who had caused all the trouble. Not much was expected from him as player-managers had not really seen much success.

Chelsea won the Cup Winners’ Cup

However, Vialli soon took control and won both the League Cup and Cup-Winners' Cup in 1998. He then became the youngest manager to ever win a UEFA Cup at the age of 33 (a 13-year-old record that would be broken by Andre Villas-Boas).

On their Champions League debut, Vialli led Chelsea to the quarter-finals and also won the FA Cup. In all, he won five trophies in three years but he, too, got the sack when he fell out with players – in this case; Gianfranco Zola and Didier Deschamps.