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The most underrated manager in the Premier League?

Published by Ian John on December 15, 2009

Here’s a thought. Who do you think is the most underrated manager in the Premier League?

I’ve no doubt that Mark Hughes, mainly from his time with Blackburn if I am honest, may get some votes, Steve Bruce probably has his fans for the way he has turned things around at Sunderland and Wigan. Certainly Harry Redknapp deserves immense credit for turning Tottenham around and for what he achieved at Portsmouth and West Ham before that and lets not overlook Roy Hodgson who has done a fantastic job at Fulham. Owen Coyle’s working something of a miracle at Burnley and David Moyes seems to get the most from his Everton side as possible on a startlingly consistent basis. All worthy contenders, but for my money, all of them fall just short.

For me the most underrated manager in the Premier League is Aston Villa’s Martin O’Neill.

The first thing we have to consider is that this is not O’Neill’s first stab at the Premier League. He led Leicester into the Premier League in the 1990′s and established them as a strong mid-table side capable of winning the Carling Cup and also capable of shocking a few bigger sides along the way. I was at Wembley when they won the Carling Cup in 2000, defeating Tranmere. They won it in 1997 and were beaten finalists in 1999. In four seasons under O’Neill Leicester finished no lower than tenth in the Premier League.

He then went to Scotland and transformed Celtic’s fortunes leading them to a domestic treble in his first season in charge and also to an incredible 6-2 demolition of Rangers during one Old Firm encounter. Two more league title and Scottish cup successes would follow before O’Neill resigned the club, ostensibly to care for his wife.

O’Neill however returned with Aston Villa in August 2006 and he has quickly moulded the team into a more stylised version of his hard working, combative Leicester side. While the stron work ethic has remained firmly part of O’Neill’s vision for his football team he has really shown a development as a manager by introducing a lot greater flair and pace into the side. In addition O’Neill has shown a great deal of shrewdness in the transfer market. Players such as Ashley Young, James Milner, John Carew, Richard Dunne, Stilian Petrov and Emile Heskey have all been bought and played an important role in the development of the club under the shrewd leadership of the Irishman.

Under O’Neill the club have finished sixth the past two seasons, however the shrewd sale of Gareth Barry and the investment of that cash in players such as Stewart Downing, Richard Dunne, James Collins and Stephen Warnock has seen Villa really push on from that position. Currently they sit in fourth in the Premier League. That is no fluke as they have already beaten Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool this season, the latter two teams away from home.

Certainly the promise is there for Aston Villa to take the next step into the top four, especially with Liverpool’s demise this season. Certainly, despite all the money Manchester City have and the strength of Tottenham’s squad, Aston Villa for my money look to have the team to take the step into the Champions league positions and perhaps do well in the competition, which for me will be the final step towards making Aston Villa genuine title contenders.

Certainly while Martin O’Neill remains at the helm, the club have their best chance in many, many years to achieve that level of success on a consistent basis.

So for me O’Neill deserves this accolade. There are other managers who it could be argued would be just as deserving, but for me, O’Neill is just doing it a little bit better than some of the others I mentioned.

That can only be good for Aston Villa and for the future of the Premier League.

Image Courtesy of ***Saxon_Sky*** at Flickr.com

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