I have been researching managers of Premier League, initially to find out how many English managers there are in the top flight of English football.

The answer to that one, currently, is three: Eddie Howe (Newcastle United), Sean Dyche (Everton) and Gary O’Neil (Wolves). I have looked into this idea before, most recently in this piece from February 2023 (“English Managers in the Premier League, revisited”), when there were four: the three managers listed above and Graham Potter who was in charge at Chelsea. Dyche and Howe were still at Everton and Newcastle back then. O’Neil was at Bournemouth.

What struck me this time round, while checking this Wikipedia page, was how young many of the Premier League managers are. The youngest is Fabian Hürzeler, a 31-year-old German. He was born in February 1993. The oldest manager in the Premier League is Ange Postecoglou at Spurs, born in August 1965. He is the only one in the division who was born when England won the FIFA World Cup in July 1966.

Looking through the list of the top four divisions in English football I can see that there are only four other managers who were born before that date: Steve Bruce (Blackpool, born December 1960), Steve Evans (Rotherham, October 1962), Nigel Adkins (Tranmere Rovers, March 1965), Nigel Clough (Mansfield Town, March 1966).

There is so much movement in the world of football management that I had not registered that Steve Bruce was back in charge of a club, and that Nigel Clough was now at Mansfield. Bruce is the only manager in all four divisions who is older than me, and he was appointed only last month. That probably means that during the summer, every club was being managed by someone younger than me. It’s a young man’s game, and it makes me feel rather old.