5 successful player-managers in English football

#5 Gianluca Vialli

Gianluca Vialli was Chelsea's third player-manager in a row

After Ruud Gullit’s surprising sacking in February 1998, Chelsea turned to their third player-manager in a row in the form of ageing Italian striker Gianluca Vialli, who had been brought to the club by Gullit prior to the 1996/97 season. Vialli was 33 when he took charge of Chelsea and he was only two seasons removed from winning the Champions League with Juventus, apparently at the peak of his powers despite his advanced age.

Vialli was the first Italian to ever manage in the Premier League and he saw immediate success with the Blues, as they won both the League Cup and the UEFA Cup-Winners Cup in 1997/98, although it must be said that they were already in the semi-finals of both competitions prior to Vialli taking over the reins following the removal of Gullit. He did oversee a league finish of 4th place, though – the highest Chelsea had achieved in the Premier League to that point. And at 33, Vialli also became the youngest manager to ever win a UEFA competition.

While Vialli made 31 appearances in 1997/98, that number was almost halved to 18 in his first full season as player-manager, 1998/99. The success continued though as he led Chelsea to victory in the European Super Cup (a 1-0 win over Real Madrid) and a 3rd place finish in the Premier League – Chelsea’s highest finish since 1970. He also scored in his final competitive game, a win over Derby County.

Once he’d retired, he took Chelsea to the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 1999/00 and also won the FA Cup, but ended up being fired in the early part of 2000/01 after a shaky start and some arguments with key players such as Gianfranco Zola and Dan Petrescu. He remains a rare case of a manager who only went downhill after his player-manager days ended, as he went on to an unsuccessful spell at Watford after his Chelsea days and hasn’t managed since.