From Allardyce to Wenger, we bring you a Panini sticker for each of the 20 current Premier League managers
Arsenal – Arsene Wenger
They said the perm would never go out of style. They were wrong.
Aston Villa – Tim Sherwood
That’s right, it’s Mr Gilet himself. His Merlin stickers (our younger readers will know that they are now the brand that makes the official Premier League stickers) are nothing short of astounding. They’re so good, we feel obliged to include two of them.
Here’s Sherwood looking like a 90s Joffrey Baratheon at Norwich.
Picture credit to Ebay
…and here he is looking like vaguely threatening in a Portsmouth shirt.
Gone but not forgotten, check out Villa’s former manager Paul Lambert looking like he’s posing for his first communion photo.
Burnley – Sean Dyche
After scouring every single football-related nook and cranny the internet has to offer, we came to the sad conclusion that the Burnley boss probably never appeared on a Panini sticker.
Well fear not Sean, for we have gotten our tech wizards to knock together a sticker that is worthy of your storied career, during which you won pretty much every accolade the Football League Second Division has to offer.
Chelsea – Jose Mourinho
Obviously, the Special One was never quite special enough as a footballer to play for Barcelona. However, he did spend some time at the Nou Camp in the mid-90s working as Bobby Robson’s interpreter. That is where this spectacular sticker seemingly came from.
Crystal Palace – Alan Pardew
Back in the good ol’ days when Pardew was togging out as a player for Palace, he also moonlighted as an Annie Lennox tribute act.
Everton – Roberto Martinez
A dull enough effort from Martinez. It’s like he wasn’t even trying to embarrass his future self.
Why couldn’t he have been more like this Roberto Martinez from the 70s, who looks like he’s wearing a wig over a bald cap over a full head of hair?
Picture credit: Ebay
Hull City – Steve Bruce
This mullet embodies the mantra “business at the front, party at the back”.
Leicester City – Nigel Pearson
Pearson somehow managed to dress appropriately and have a hairdo that was fitting for the time period without sacrificing his dignity. It makes for possibly the least embarrassing, and therefore least entertaining sticker of the lot.
Picture credit: Ebay
Liverpool – Brendan Rodgers
Unfortunately, due to his playing career not reaching the dizzying heights he would have hoped, we failed to find a Panini sticker bearing Brendan Rodgers. The silver lining is that it gave us the opportunity to give this brilliant photo of the Reds manager another spin.
Manchester City – Manuel Pellegrini
The scarlet letter emblazoned on his chest is not symbolic of some sort of sinful lifestyle. Although he is quite old, Pellegrini actually started playing in the 70s, and not the 17th century as some people might have you believe.
Manchester United – Louis van Gaal
Not pictured: the Dutchman “twitching his ass” over the 4-4-2 formation he was presumably playing in.
Newcastle United – John Carver
Another sticker we had to concoct ourselves. Finding an image of the Newcastle manager from his playing days proved to be tricky enough.
Don’t assume the fact that it’s in black and white is a feeble attempt by us to appear artsy. It was simply the only photo we could find of the man before he began his managerial career.
Queens Park Rangers – Chris Ramsey
Johnny-come-lately manager Chris Ramsey didn’t have a Panini sticker, or at least one we could track down. Not to worry, we soon changed that. Remarkably, Ramsey actually looked older in his playing days than he does now.
‘Arry might no longer been in charge of QPR, but we feel like we would be doing you a disservice if we didn’t share his stellar Merlin sticker with you. It was just too damn good to leave out.
Southampton – Ronald Koeman
Let’s move on, shall we?
Stoke City – Mark Hughes
The solitary action shot among a sea of head-and-shoulders photos. Hughes provides the variety in this article.
Sunderland – Gus Poyet
Another one from Merlin. The Uruguayan has clearly just told the photographer a joke and is waiting for a reaction.
Picture credit: Jake Mountain
Swansea City – Garry Monk
One of the more recent entries in this list and therefore one of the more forgettable.
Tottenham Hotspur – Mauricio Pochettino
It’s easy to tell that Pochettino’s career at Newell’s Old Boys coincided with Nirvana reaching mainstream success.
West Bromwich Albion – Tony Pulis
Poor Pulis is another one of the “probably didn’t have a Panini sticker” brigade. The big shock to us is the discovery that he didn’t don a peaked cap during his playing days.
West Ham United – Sam Allardyce
Words couldn’t possibly do this justice.
All photos used are credited to Old School Panini and Merlin’s Official Premier League Sticker Collection published by Topps unless otherwise stated.
