Who has managed both Tottenham and Chelsea?
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London calling: Five men to have managed Chelsea and Tottenham
Mauricio Pochettino’s appointment as Chelsea manager this summer makes him the fifth person to manage the Blues and London rivals Tottenham in the modern era.
Ahead of Monday’s Premier League clash between the teams, we compare the records of those to have taken charge at both Stamford Bridge and in north London.
Glenn Hoddle
Hoddle joined Chelsea as player-manager in the summer of 1993 after a successful spell with Swindon in a similar role. He led the Blues to the FA Cup final in his first season at the helm, although they were thumped 4-0 by Manchester United, and later took them to the European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-finals. However, Hoddle did not manage to finish higher than 11th in the Premier League during his three season with the club.
In 2001, Hoddle replaced George Graham as Tottenham manager and again enjoyed successful cup runs. Spurs reached the EFL Cup final in his first full season at the helm, but were beaten by Blackburn. However, the league again proved his undoing as ninth and 10th-placed finishes, followed by a poor start to the 2003-04 season, saw him sacked after two-and-a-half years in charge.
Andre Villas-Boas
Villas-Boas arrived at Chelsea in 2011 after leading Porto to the treble of the Europa League, Portuguese Cup and Primeira Liga – where they went unbeaten – in his only season at the helm. Aged just 33, Villas-Boas was younger than several key players in an ageing Blues squad. The writing was on the wall when Villas-Boas’ decision to drop Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Ashley Cole for a Champions League game against Napoli ended in defeat. He was sacked after just nine months in charge following a run of three wins in 12 Premier League games that left Chelsea outside the top four.
He made a swift return to management with Spurs in the summer of 2012 and was narrowly pipped to the fourth Champions League spot by rivals Arsenal in his first season. The sale of Gareth Bale in the summer of 2013 led to a huge squad overhaul and, with the likes of Roberto Soldado and Paulinho failing to impress, Villas-Boas left Tottenham in December 2013 with the club seventh in the Premier League.
Jose Mourinho
Mourinho had just won the Champions League with Porto when he was chosen to spearhead Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea spending spree in 2004. At his unveiling to the media he described himself as the “special one” and swiftly fulfilled that tag with back-to-back Premier League titles, as well as two League Cup victories and an FA Cup win during his first three seasons in charge. His relationship with Abramovich became fractured and he left in September 2007 before returning to the Bridge in 2013, winning a third Premier League title and League Cup before a dismal start to the 2015-16 season saw him depart.
In 2019 the serial trophy winner was brought in to end Spurs’ long wait for silverware and led them to the 2021 League Cup final but was sacked just four days before they were beaten by Manchester City at Wembley, with Spurs seventh at the time of his departure and five points adrift of the top four.
Antonio Conte
Another serial title winner who was able to land silverware at Chelsea but not Tottenham. Conte took over what looked a bloated Blues squad at the start of the 2016-17 season but impressively led them to the Premier League title. They were beaten in that season’s FA Cup final by Arsenal and, after missing out on a Champions League spot in the following season, the Italian was sacked after two years at the helm.
In 2021, Conte replaced Nuno Espirito Santo at Tottenham and secured a return to the Champions League in his first season in charge. However, he questioned his players’ desire after a 3-3 draw at Southampton in March 2023 and asked why the club had won nothing for 20 years. After Spurs crashed out of the FA Cup and Champions League soon after those comments, Conte was gone by the end of the month.
Mauricio Pochettino
The manager who has gone closer than any other to ending Spurs’ trophy drought, Pochettino’s five years in charge from 2014 brought a string of near misses. They missed out on the Premier League to Leicester in 2016 and were rrunners-up to Chelsea in the following season. In 2019 they reached the Champions League final, where they lost to Liverpool, but Pochettino was sacked in November after a slow start to the 2019-20 campaign.
In 2023 he took over at Chelsea, where he has so far struggled to get the best out of a heavily-revamped squad.
