never before the Premier League it had been so full of Spanish coaches. From this week there are six, after the signing of Navarro Javi Gracia for him Leeds United. He had already directed English football before, but not so surrounded on other benches by other compatriots.
Javi Gracia is the fourth Spanish coach to land in the Premier this season. Between October and November, Unai Emery took the reins of Aston Villa and Julen Lopetegui did the same with him Wolverhampton Wanderers. Besides, ruben Seléswith no previous experience as head coach of an elite team, has been ‘promoted’ up to two times as interim in the Southampton.
The other two are the coaches of the top two finishers in the Premier League. Mikel Arteta He has led Arsenal since 2019, where he laid the foundations to create a team that currently leads the table. Pep Guardiola He has been in charge of Manchester City for seven seasons, a club where he has won up to four English league titles and five cups.
[La Premier es la verdadera Superliga: gastó este curso lo que LaLiga en los últimos 4 años y medio]
More than a quarter of the benches in the English competition are in the hands of Spanish coaches. A large number considering that this path was opened relatively recently. The pioneer was Rafael Benitezwhich almost 19 years ago landed in the Liverpool.
Eleven coaches followed the path of the Madrid coach over the next two decades. Juande Ramos, Roberto Martínez, Pepe Mel, Acknowledgment Poor you y bounce Sánchez Flores They are those who passed and are no longer. Gracia repeats, after having previously directed the Watfordand it happens that Benítez is the one who sounds the most to be the next coach of the West Ham. If closed, the current sum will rise to seven.
Fernando Torres signed for Liverpool in 2007
Benítez was the first and remains the Spanish coach with the most games accumulated in the Premier (359). Guardiola, already in his seventh year of experience at City, is still a considerable distance away (252), but he already beats him in number of victories (185 to 173). Pep is also the one who has spent the most time in a single club, while Rafa is the one who has spent the most (4).
A total of 15 English clubs have been led by Spaniards in the Premier League. Of the Big Six, only Manchester United resists. Arsenal (Emery and Arteta), Everton (Benítez and Martínez) and Watford (Quique and Gracia) are the only ones that have been led by more than one Spanish coach.
| Coach | managed teams | Balance (V/E/D) |
|
R. Benítez |
Liverpool (2004-2010) / Chelsea (2012/2013) / Newcastle (2016-2019) / Everton (2021/2022) | 173/86/100 |
| J Ramos | Tottenham (2007/2008) | 10/11/15 |
| R. Martinez | Wigan (2009 -2013 / Everton (2013-2016) | 83/77/107 |
| P. Mel | West Brom (2014) | 3/6/8 |
| A. Karanka | Middlesbrough (2016/2017) | 4/10/13 |
| Q. S. Flores | Watford (2015/2016 y 2019) | 13/13/22 |
| P. Guardiola | Man. City (2016- ) | 185/33/34 |
| J.Grace | Watford (2017-2019) / Leeds (2023- ) | 18/12/26 |
| U. Emery | Arsenal (2018-2019) / Aston Villa (2022- ) | 66/19/33 |
| M. Arteta | Arsenal (2019- ) | 30/14/17 |
| J. Lopetegui | Wolves (2022- ) | 4/1/3 |
| R. Sellés | Southampton (2023- ) | 1/0/0 |
The Spanish school has left its mark in the Premier League, a competition that has gone global. What happened on the bench has a lot to do with the legacy left, not only in England, by the National Team when it won two consecutive Euro Cups and a World Cup between 2008 and 2012. Spanish clubs also dominate in Europe: 11 Champions League titles and 11 UEFA/Europa League in the 21st century.
However, in the rest of the major European leagues, not counting the Spanish one, there is the curious case of only finding an active Spanish coach. This is Xabi Alonso, current Bayer Leverkusen coach. He is the only one in the Bundesliga, while in Italy and France the counter is zero.
More Spanish than English
The Premier becomes fond of Spanish coaches at a time of weakness for the English. Currently, there are only four national managers in the Premier League. They are Graham Potter (Chelsea), Eddie Howe (Newcastle), Gary O’Neil (Bournemouth) and Sean Dyche (Everton).
There will only be three more if we open borders to the whole of the UK: one of ireland of Norte (Brendan Rodgers, from Leicester), one of Gales (Steve Cooper, del Nottingham Forest) y uno de Scotland (David Moyes, of West Ham). In the Premier there are six other nationalities: two Italians (Conte, from Tottenham, and De Zerbi, from Brighton), a German (Klopp, from Liverpool), a Dutchman (Ten Hag, from United), a Dane (Thomas Frank, from Brenford), a Frenchman (Vieira, from Crystal Palace) and a Portuguese (Marco Silva, from Fulham).
A total of 11 different nationalities share the benches of the Premier, and the Spanish are the majority. In the other four major leagues in Europe, those of their respective countries rule: 16 Italians in Serie A, 14 Spanish in La Liga, 14 French in Ligue-1 and 12 Germans in the Bundesliga.
The Premier League is an exceptional situation. A league in which there have been no English champion managers under the current format (since 1992). The last to do so was Howard Wilkinson, the coach who led Leeds in the 1991/1992 season and won the English league. Then came Alex Ferguson, a Scotsman, who won the Premier League 13 times with Manchester United. Coaches from seven other different countries have also won in the last 21 years, but none English. Now the Spanish are in fashion.
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