Technical areas are supposed to be inhabited by seasoned, embittered coaches, worn down by life and a litany of past defeats.
Youngest Premier League Managers:
- Ryan Mason – 29 years, 312 days
- Attilio Lombardo – 32 years, 67 days
- Chris Coleman – 32 years, 236 days
- Gianluca Vialli – 33 years, 242 days
- Andre Villas-Boas – 33 years, 301 days
These five fresh-faced managerial hopefuls defied that stereotype.
5) Andre Villas-Boas
A former assistant to Jose Mourinho and a technical director of the British Virgin Islands national side, when aged just 21, Villas-Boas later ventured into club management at Academica where he immediately showed huge promise, transforming their fortunes in a matter of months.
This attracted the Portuguese giants Porto and in his first and only season at the Stadio do Dragao remarkable success was achieved. The Dragons won the league undefeated. They lifted the Portuguese Cup too, as well as the Europa League.
Hoping that lightning might strike twice in recruiting a young success-magnet from the Iberian Peninsula, this prompted Chelsea to swoop in 2011.
But whereas Mourinho was an instant superstar in the Stamford Bridge dug-out, making the Blues favourites in the Premier League odds on an annual basis, Villas-Boas struggled to translate his ideas.
Just six months later he was gone, deemed a miscalculation.
4) Gianluca Vialli
A bona fide striking legend for Juventus and Italy, Vialli joined the cosmopolitan influx at Stamford Bridge in 1996, quickly forging a terrific partnership with Gianfranco Zola.
Thirty-two goal involvements in 58 Premier League appearances made a mockery of Juve’s belief that the bald assassin was beginning to misfire.
Two years later, when Ruud Gullit was sacked, the much-missed gentleman of football became the first Italian to manage an English top-flight side, becoming too the third successive player-manager at Chelsea.
Was he a success in West London? Largely yes, with a FA Cup, League Cup and Cup Winners Cup all attained.
Regrettably, ‘largely’ doesn’t cut it at Chelsea, as 16 coaches in the last 18 years illustrates. The legend was sacked just five games into his third campaign.
3) Chris Coleman
Having retired as a player, Coleman joined the coaching staff at Fulham in 2003 but it wasn’t long before head coach Jean Tigana was sacked, requiring the novice gaffer to step into the breach in a caretaker capacity.
Steering the Cottagers to safety sufficiently impressed club owner Mohamded Al-Fayed for Coleman to be handed the role permanently, and against all football odds Fulham achieved a top-half finish the season after.
He remained a fixture of the Craven Cottage dug-out for a further three years until international acclaim with Wales followed.
It surprises that Fulham is still the only Premier League gig Coleman has been afforded.
2) Attilio Lombardo
The ‘Bald Eagle’ may have looked old enough to draw a pension when in his mid-twenties but he was still only a sprightly 32 when Crystal Palace turned to him in 1998, requesting that he combine his midfield scheming with picking the team, a team in dire straits.
Palace were rooted to the bottom of the league and with just six games left, all hope was extinguished - not even the ferociously loud Homesdale Stand could get them out of this one.
To his credit, the Italian picked up two wins and even more admirably, he then stayed on as a player as the club adapted to life back in the Championship.
1) Ryan Mason
A fractured skull forced Mason to prematurely retire from his midfield marauding in 2018, and he would have no doubt been grateful to his former club Spurs for offering up a coaching spot soon after.
A popular appointment, the England international wasted no time in rising through the ranks, finding himself head of player development (U-17 to U-23) in 2020 but his next role was another jump up entirely.
When the club tired of Jose Mourinho’s perma-scowl they named the 29 year old as their first-team interim boss, and with a League Cup final only days away, Mason was truly thrown into the deep end.
He acquitted himself well at Wembley – Spurs losing by a single goal to Manchester City – and guided Son and co to four league wins out of six thereafter.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
