Winning all four major trophies as a manager in the English top flight is an accomplishment reserved only for the best of the best of the best. Only three managers have ever managed to do it and—spoiler alert—none of them are English.
Let’s get the details clear before we go on: The four major trophies refer to the Premier League (or Division One), the FA Cup, the League Cup, and the Champions League (or European Cup).
Bob Paisley never won the FA Cup with Liverpool. Bill Shankly, Arsene Wenger, and Jose Mourinho all failed to lift the Champions League/European Cup during their respective careers in the English top tier.
Like we said — not easy. Now, let’s focus on those three super-elite bosses who actually pulled it off.
Alex Ferguson
It took Ferguson seven seasons to win his first Premier League. Seven! Useless. Rubbish. The bloke would not have survived the Twitter era.
There’d have been incel meltdowns on YouTube and pundits on Sky Sports suggesting that just because he’s done it in Scotland and Europe, doesn’t mean he’s good enough for England.
Fortunately for Manchester United, the world was a bit less insane in the 1980s and early 90s. Well, less reactionary, anyway.
Come the dawning of the Premier League season in 1992-93, Fergie had figured it out and guided the Red Devils to the title.
He repeated that feat 12 more times in the following 20 years, as well as chucking in five FA Cups, four League Cups, two Champions Leagues, and a partridge in a pear tree.
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TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every manager to win a title in Europe’s major leagues since 2000?
Pep Guardiola
It only took the Catalan jumper connoisseur one season to get used to the Prem. That’s more like it. Adaptability. They won 18 games in a row during his first title-winning season, which is a bit silly. Boring, really. Be worse. Sport is supposed to be entertainment. Stop beating everyone.
Guardiola has only failed to win the league once since establishing his death grip on the trophy in 2018, briefly usurped by another fella on this list.
Pep picked up a couple of FA Cups and four League Cups along the way, but the Champions League seemed like it might elude City forever.
It didn’t. In 2023, Guardiola finally got his hands back on the old European Cup for the first time since his Barcelona days, securing his place among the elite of English football managers forever.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player Pep Guardiola has used at Man City?
Jurgen Klopp
Herr Liverpool himself is finally leaving Merseyside. It’s done him in. Too many emotions, too much energy expended, his fist-pumping arm in need of a touch of WD-40. Did pretty well in his nine years at the club, though, didn’t he?
Klopp is one of only two managers to beat Pep Guardiola to a Premier League title, alongside Antonio Conte.
The fact that the German’s league-winning season came at the peak of the COVID pandemic, in cavernous stadiums, missing the fans he’s adhered himself to so strongly, is quite upsetting.
But it is what it is.
Kloppo led The Reds to an FA Cup in 2022, a couple of League Cups in 2022 and 2024 respectively, and the 2019 Champions League. An all-time great, no doubt about it.
