Fans poll reveals England’s most exciting young manager

With a genuine lack of upcoming English managers coming through the ranks, a fans poll has revealed who they believe is the pick of the bunch.

The global reach of the Premier League over the last two decades has seen a vast sway of foreign coaches come to these shores, but their successes – or as often failures – has led to a shortage of genuine young English bosses coming through.

With Gareth Southgate recently being handed the England manager’s job on a permanent basis, the lack of genuine English options open to the FA must have been of serious concern.

With that in mind, a 90min fans poll was asked who England’s best young manager was – and the results leave plenty of fears for the future, given one is currently out of work and another is operating in the Championship.

 

However, it was Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe who, unsurprisingly ran away with victory, claiming 62% of the vote.

A spoiled blot on his CV from Burnley aside, the 39-year-old has worked wonders to secure top flight football for Bournemouth and, without wanting to jinx it, looks set to establish the Cherries as a decent Premier League side for another season.

Howe’s possession-based tactical plan has seen Bournemouth achieve notable results since they gained promotion from the Championship – 4-3 victory over Liverpool, anyone? – and, before Southgate was installed as the Three Lions’ new permanent manager, was heavily linked with taking up the hotseat for England’s senior national side.

Someway off Howe in second place is newly installed Swansea City boss Paul Clement. Which isn’t surprising, given his start at the Liberty Stadium and the competition he has been up against.

Clement was handed the seemingly impossible task of preventing the Swans from falling out of the Premier League for the first time since they achieved promotion in 2011 and, good on him, has so far defied expectations to haul them out of the relegation zone.

Third in the voting was Leeds boss Garry Monk, who has steered the Yorkshiremen into play-off contention this season, while Gary Rowett is fourth on the list, despite the former Birmingham boss still being out of work.