Amorim lands Villa job and Maresca returns in next boss predictions for clubs from Arsenal to Fulham
Ruben Amorim, Enzo Maresca and Mauricio Pochettino are all returning to the Premier League in our estimates for Arsenal’s next Fulham managers.
Premier League manager rankings for 2025/26 receiving comprehensive updateit is now time to consider further the successors of the current incumbents.
Some clubs have an almost transparent succession plan, while others are a little less easy to predict.
The immediate future of coaches at Leeds, Wolves and everyone else has also been predictedwith equally absurd results.
Arsenal
So long ago, when Arsenal were actively looking for a new manager, Max Allegri, Mauricio Pochettino, Nuno Espirito Santo and Freddie Ljungberg were among the favorites.
Brendan Rodgers forced to distance himself from Emirates job and consequently, every premise has not been made a fair and ready mockery of; if anything, he would have taken a step back.
It is testament to the transformation Mikel Arteta has overseen at Arsenal, but also the time he has spent in charge. In the Premier League and Football League, only the Spaniard’s former colleague Pep Guardiola and Harrogate Town’s Simon Weaver currently have longer tenures.
While this makes predicting Arteta’s eventual successor a little more difficult, there is also the obvious route of choosing a prized former player imbued with Arsenal DNA.
Maybe the “something new” By Mertesacker leaving his role as Arsenal Academy manager to pursue will be a route into first-team coaching that will ultimately and inevitably lead to Arteta’s replacement.
The only logical conclusion at this point is that only the players Arsenal signed during the transfer window deadline panic of the summer of 2011, just days after their 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford, are capable of handling them now. Andre Santos has next dibs.
Villa Aston
Using a line of managerial succession that includes Sherwood, Garde, Di Matteo, Bruce, Smith, Gerrard and Emery, it is not easy to assess the potential future direction of Aston Villa beyond their current setup.
They were undeniably the punchers at the start of this relationship and may well remain so now, even if Emery has more power and authority than most managers give credit for he can therefore comfortably compartmentalize the idea that he could do better.
Villa may be a more attractive proposition than ever before when they eventually go their separate ways, meaning they will be able to attract an entirely different type of candidate than usual.
But also the gifted continental coach whose only taste of the Premier League was a Big Six failure is clearly the meta, so after a few years back, impressing elsewhere, winning every Europa League and learning to aggressively straighten his hair, Ruben Amorim can move forward.
Bournemouth
Depending almost entirely on how and when Andoni Iraola times his definitive streak of results at Bournemouth, he could very well be poached for winning 12 games in a row or sacked after losing 20 on the bounce.
There is also the small matter of a contract which expires at the end of the season, but with the Cherries do a Manchester United in rather embarrassing fashion while languishing in the bottom half, the Spaniard could commit longer with his stock too low to land some of the jobs he is linked with.
The time will soon come to move on and a hierarchy that weathered criticism for replacing poor Gary O’Neil with Iraola you have to trust to do things well.
With little else to do, Bournemouth might as well tap into the rich vein of Bielsismo, transpose that coaching family tree into their DNA and add a bit of Barclays back into the diet of Mauricio Pochettino.
Brentford
To welcome Stephen Rice and his unassuming playing career, time spent in the Republic of Ireland set-up, lack of prior experience as a first-team manager and, as Keith Andrews himself put it, his “detail-oriented” approach to his role as first-team coach.
Brentford are cowards if they don’t at least try when Andrews gets the Real Madrid job.
Brighton
Paul Barber already has a name in mind, saved on a laptop. Chelsea would probably happily spend a nine-figure sum to decode it. Brighton’s chief executive will never release details of that file, which reportedly contains the identities of the club’s desired replacements for at least 25 current employees, ranging from players to staff, coaches and even Barber himself.
No club will have a clearer contingency plan in mind, but no club plan is also more difficult to understand when not privy to this inside information.
In fact, no one saw Graham Potter, Roberto De Zerbi or Fabian Hurzeler arriving until they were practically in the building.
But it’s clear to see the Brighton game nowso after a quick search to discover the youngest manager currently working in Europe’s top five leagues, we have to wish Carlos Cuestathe 30-year-old Parma coach, good luck with his boohooMAN order.
Burnley
The key for Burnley here is to identify who can best maintain their yo-yo-based existence, securing immediate promotion from the Championship next season before setting them back after just one year in the Premier League.
Another important facet to consider is an innate understanding and mastery of Fine Margins.
It’s easy to notice a developing theme in what Burnley are looking for in a manager as well. We see them, named exclusively among the 2011/12 PFA Premier League Team of the Year.
There remain a handful of candidates among the peers of Vincent Kompany and Scott Parker. Fabricio Coloccini is one of them. Leighton Baines another. I wouldn’t mind seeing a double act between Yaya Touré and Wayne Rooney. But there, at right rear and even already at Turf Moor, there is one Kyle Walker.
Chelsea
You can’t choose when you have to bully your sister club into handing over their stuff. Chelsea’s multi-club structures are too deeply entrenched to retract now, but it absolutely must be stipulated that, as part of the structure, they are only allowed to fill all vacancies with Strasbourg residents.
Gary O’Neilto that end, spoke very well, I thought at his unveiling at Stamford Bridge.
Crystal Palace
That moment of judgment will come soon. Oliver Glasner can no longer be particularly annoyed with the management of Crystal Palace as he masterminded a nine-match winless run, culminating in the greatest FA Cup shock ever. after which he essentially tendered his resignation.
The only way the Austrian will be tempted to stay at Selhurst Park is to make numerous transfer promises under the entirely open pretense that all parties are aware they will be broken.
Steve Parish, at this point, will pretty much have no choice but to hang around Roy Hodgson and his shorts back on the training ground and on the touchline to ensure Palace finishing 14th while embarking on precisely zero-cut races.
Everton
Fair play to Everton, whose response to the tenure crisis they were going through under Sean Dyche was simply to turn back the clock to when they were last truly happy.
Honestly, who among us wouldn’t take everything back to 2005 if we had the chance to bring The Simpsons back to BBC2 at 6pm?
This means Everton are stuck with Moyes for a trophyless and polarizing decade before handing the reins to Roberto Martinez when a senile Sir Alex Ferguson, then manager of Manchester United only to be phoned before anyone did anything, is asked to choose the next manager and forgets who he chose the first time.
Fulham
Marco Silva being the sixth longest serving manager of the 92 doesn’t fit. It seems safe to assume he knows a little more about the Premier League than when he was mocked when he arrived in 2017but such longevity also makes Fulham arguably the hardest club to predict here.
A curve ball: Enzo Maresca. The list of the best managers available has had some eye-catching updates this month alone and when Pep Guardiola decides to stick with Manchester City during their 115 relegations through the English football pyramid and towards the Earth’s core, Maresca will once again be free to consider his options.
And look, it’s a short journey down Fulham Road.