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Leaving on the right note isn't easy.

7 Premier League managers who left behind solid foundations for success: Klopp, Moyes…

Leaving a Premier League club at the right time, and in a healthy state, is not easy.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger left behind squads that required a lot of work. Manchester United arguably still haven’t recovered from Ferguson’s departure and Arsenal went through a painful rebuilding process to become competitive once again.

Here are seven Premier League managers who left behind solid foundations for their successors to go on and achieve success.

Jurgen Klopp

“That has a lot to do with having the quality players we have,” Klopp’s successor Arne Slot told TNT Sports earlier this season.

“There’s no manager in the world that can be successful without having quality players, unless you’re facing teams that don’t have quality players; in the Premier League everybody has, you need to have a quality squad.

“I think it helped me as well the way Jurgen said farewell. He immediately set me off to a good start with what he did for me in the stadium [leading a chant of Slot’s name].”

Slot is yet to win anything at Liverpool but he has them riding high in both the Premier League and Champions League. He’s never shy to credit his predecessor and always sounds thankful for the brilliant, well-balanced squad he inherited.

Liverpool look in exceptional shape right now. You arguably have to go back to the days of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley to find a managerial transition so smooth and seamless.

George Graham

Leeds United were a boring team under Graham in the mid-90s. Famously so. But when you talk solid foundations, the Scot’s meticulous focus on defensive structure and prioritising clean sheets was just that.

He made some decent signings, chief among them Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Alf-Inge Haaland, but a supremely well-organised defence was the basis of everything Leeds would memorably go on do under his successor.

Graham had turned Leeds back into a quality side by the time he left for Tottenham in October 1998, giving his former right-hand man David O’Leary the tools to go and flourish as a young coach at Elland Road.

Leeds had a crop of talented youngsters emerging at just the right time, while the early days of Peter Ridsdale’s lavish investment complimented the existing foundations perfectly.

David Moyes

Another Scot with something of a dour reputation, Moyes had worked wonders at Everton to turn the club into a solid if unspectacular outfit in the Barclays era. A team that were there or thereabouts when it came to the European spots.

With over a decade’s good work at Goodison Park, he’d earned his opportunity at the big job when Ferguson stood down at Manchester United in 2013.

While Ferguson himself left behind something of a mess in Manchester, Everton were in decent shape to go on and challenge for the top four under Moyes’ successor Roberto Martinez.

The organisational muscle memory and settled, solid backline matched well with the more expansive and attacking style favoured by the Spanish coach, who led Everton to a Premier League record tally of 72 points in 2013-14 – above Moyes’ Manchester United in the table.

Jose Mourinho

Mourinho is renowned for his scorched-earth tenders, which to be fair isn’t entirely unfounded during his latter years.

The Portuguese coach left Stamford Bridge in acrimonious circumstances when he was first sacked by Roman Abramovich in 2007, but he left behind a fantastic squad that would continue collecting trophies for fun long after his departure.

Just look at the team that won the Champions League in 2012.

The Blues had been through six managers in the half-decade since his exit, but Roberto Di Matteo’s team was full of players who had either been signed by Mourinho (Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, John Obi Mikel, Salomon Kalou) or credited him for turning them into winners (Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, John Terry).


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Nigel Adkins

There was an epidemic of pearl-clutching when Southampton sacked Adkins in 2013, with the former physio keeping the newly-promoted Saints away from the relegation zone.

Appointing little-known Mauricio Pochettino from Espanyol did little to qualm the natives unrest either.

Initially, at least, until it became clear Pochettino was a substantial upgrade.

But Adkins handed over a squad chock-full of young talent like Luke Shaw, stalwarts like Adam Lallana and the goalscoring prowess of Rickie Lambert. Solid foundations there.

 

Graham Potter

Potter transformed Brighton from relegation battlers who were about as easy on the eye as a wart under Chris Hughton into a stylish outfit packed with young talent.

When he left for Chelsea in September 2022, the Seagulls were flirting with the Champions League places.

They also had the likes of Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister and Leandro Trossard attracting attention from big clubs.

Despite Potter’s departure, Brighton finished sixth in 2022-23 and it was all thanks to the foundations put in place by their former manager.

Rafael Benitez

The football may have been eye-bleeding at times, but Benitez kept Newcastle afloat in the Premier League during the late-2010s with a restricted budget and a squad of restricted talent.

Saying that, the popular Spaniard made some canny signings – Miguel Almiron, Jacob Murphy, Martin Dubravka and Fabian Schar – who would all play their part in the success under Eddie Howe.