Soccer

Under new management – a closer look at the five incoming Premier League bosses

Arne Slot has taken charge at Liverpool while Enzo Maresca is the new man in the Chelsea hotseat.

Arne Slot has taken over from Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool
Arne Slot has taken over from Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA)
By PA Sport Staff

Five Premier League clubs have new managers heading into the new season, with three of them never having been in charge of an English top-flight side previously.

Here, the PA news agency looks at who is new and the tasks ahead of them.

Arne Slot (Liverpool)

Slot has the unenviable task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp
Slot has the unenviable task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp (Carl Markham/PA)

Possibly the man with the most difficult introduction to the Premier League as the Dutchman steps into the considerable vacancy left by Jurgen Klopp. Slot, 45, has won the Rinus Michels Award for the best coach in the Netherlands in each of the last two seasons but the step up from Feyenoord is huge. Liverpool have been working hard to manage expectations for the new head coach – the club making the change from manager – but the absolute minimum must be Champions League qualification.

Enzo Maresca (Chelsea)

The 44-year-old Italian guided Leicester back into the Premier League just a year after being relegated but he has no experience of top-tier management as his single season in charge of Parma was in Serie B, where he failed to get them promoted before returning to Manchester City as Pep Guardiola’s assistant. Dealing with the fall-out from the Enzo Fernandez racism row is not what the new Blues head coach needed as he tries to make an underperforming squad more competitive.

Fabian Hurzeler (Brighton)

Fabian Hurzeler got St Pauli promoted to the Bundesliga before joining Brighton
Fabian Hurzeler got St Pauli promoted to the Bundesliga before joining Brighton (Steven Paston/PA)

Another man with no top-flight experience on his coaching CV. Hurzeler saved St Pauli from relegation and almost got them promoted from Bundesliga 2 in his first half-season in charge. The 31-year-old succeeded the following year but a move to Brighton means his first elite-level management job will be in England and not Germany. While highly-regarded, his relative inexperience – Hurzeler is the youngest permanent boss in Premier League history – means he has plenty to prove for a club looking to bounce back from a disappointing 11th-placed finish under Roberto De Zerbi.

Julen Lopetegui (West Ham)

The head coach on the list who has the most experience, including a season with Wolves. The 57-year-old Spaniard is a former boss of Spain, Porto, Sevilla and Real Madrid – with whom he won LaLiga – who led Wolves to a 13th-placed finish in his only campaign at Molineux before his surprise decision to quit on the eve of last season after a disagreement over transfer spending.

Steve Cooper (Leicester)

Maresca’s replacement at the promoted Foxes has previously had 18 months of management in the Premier League, albeit much of it struggling to avoid relegation with Nottingham Forest. Cooper, 44, guided England to victory in the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup and took Forest up via the play-offs in 2022 after a long absence from the Premier League, but did find the challenge of managing a new side in the top flight difficult.