Being a football manager is one of the most stressful jobs in the world.
Ok, it’s not quite as stressful as being president of the United States, but it’s pretty unforgiving. Whatever decision you make, half the fanbase will probably disagree with it. Unless you’re Nuno Espirito Santo, apparently.
According to research conducted by BetVictor that uses artificial intelligence to evaluate football manager’s popularity based on tweets, the Wolves boss, as well as Slaviša Jokanović, have their fans happier than the other 18 managers in the league.
Even Pep Guardiola and Maurizio Sarri are not as popular among their fans as the newcomers.
It won’t surprise you to hear that Neil Warnock is the most angrily tweeted about manager in the Premier League. 29% of tweets about Warnock have been angry, according to the study. He’d probably argue though, that it’s still a title and the ends justify the means.
Just behind Warnock in the unpopular rankings is Unai Emery. After years of asking for Arsène Wenger to leave, Arsenal fans are apparently not happy with his replacement, who has been in charge for four league games thus far. Tough crowd.
It won’t come as a surprise to hear that Jose Mourinho is the manager generating most discussion, with a staggering 582,853 vs 663,602 tweets being published about him since the start of the season. The Manchester United boss has been tweeted about almost as many times as the other 19 managers combined. Respect. Respect. Respect.
The research found some fascinating statistics from last season too. For instance, Ronald Koeman was the manager tweeted about with the most disgust during the 2017/18 season. And if you watched Everton, you’d understand why.
Interestingly, Huddersfield boss David Wagner was the manager who was most positively tweeted about. The Huddersfield faithful adore the German, who got them promoted – and kept them up – on a shoestring budget compared to their competitors.
