5 successful player-managers in English football

#2 Ruud Gullit

Ruud Gullit was successful at Chelsea until his surprising sacking

Although his managerial career ended largely with a series of disasters – remember the farce of his “sexy football” at Newcastle United, for instance? – his initial run at Chelsea, at first as a player-manager, was actually highly successful. The Dutch legend was first brought to Chelsea solely as a player by the aforementioned Glenn Hoddle, and as he was at the tail end of his career, he initially played in a sweeper role before moving back into his more familiar role as an attacking midfielder.

When Hoddle took the England job in mid-1996, Chelsea were evidently happy with the idea of a player-manager and decided to appoint Gullit in the role; similarly to when Hoddle took over at Swindon, the Dutchman was just 33 years old at the time. His first season was highly successful, too. 1995/96 saw Chelsea finish 11th in the Premier League while under Gullit, they finished 6th. They also won the FA Cup, beating Middlesbrough 2-0, a victory that ended a 26-year trophy drought for the club.

The other impressive side of Gullit? Evidently, he was a highly attractive manager to top players, as Chelsea were suddenly able to bring in proven international talents like Roberto di Matteo, Gianfranco Zola and Gianluca Vialli. Unfortunately, despite things going well on the pitch, off the pitch things were nowhere near as rosy. With Chelsea sitting in 2nd place in the Premier League in February 1998, Gullit was abruptly fired by the club due to disagreements over his financial compensation. The move also signalled the end of his playing career – his final appearance came in the first leg of a League Cup semi-final tie against Arsenal.

Whether Gullit’s level of success at Chelsea could’ve continued is very much up in the air given his poor subsequent runs in management, but at the time, the sacking seemed baffling and remains one of the Premier League’s biggest shockers even 20 years on.