The Manchester United board are once again hoping one man can paper over their many cracks but which managers have actually saved a rotten club?

Mauricio Pochettino is the next man tasked with fixing Manchester United, despite many of the problems being out of his control, but the Old Trafford fans who have not yet fully given up can take some solace in that Pochettino is one of the five men to have done this before.

Unai Emery at Aston Villa
Villa stunk in October 2022.

Steven Gerrard had just been given the sack following a 3-0 loss at Fulham, a result that put them outside of the relegation zone only on goal difference.

Villa had returned from their Championship foray in the 2019/20 season but progress had been slow; they had failed to break into the top 10 in their first three years back and the start of the 2022/23 season was nothing short of disastrous.

To save them from their plight, Villa turned to Unai Emery.

It was a perfect match in so many ways; Emery had won trophies with smaller clubs than Villa and was used to competing in a league where the bigger boys dominate.

On a personal front, Emery had a point to prove too. For a number of reasons, it had not worked out at Arsenal but the slick-haired manager had clearly learned from that experience and, given the peril Villa were in, he was able to negotiate more control of the club than a manager would usually be allowed.

Having saved Villa from the drop with the same squad Gerrard failed with, Emery picked long-time advisor Monchi as his president of football operations. The pair had worked together at Sevilla and Monchi had a reputation for unearthing hidden gems.

In the summer of 2023, Villa signed Youri Tielemans for free from relegated Leicester. In the winter transfer window, Morgan Rogers arrived for £8m. Villa’s progression was not about big money spent but big trust placed in the coaching of Emery.

Having swerved relegation, Emery led them to fourth the following year and qualified for the Champions League/European Cup for the first time since 1982.

PSR and other factors have yet to make them a regular presence in the top European competition but a Europa League win brought silverware back to Villa Park.

The club Emery took over four years ago looks vastly different now and he is due a huge amount of the credit.

Sean Dyche at Burnley
Sean Dyche had been the unfortunate victim of one of many bizarre Watford managerial changes when they sacked the manager that had just guided them to their best league finish in four seasons to be replaced by Gianfranco Zola. That went as well as you would expect.

But Watford’s loss was Burnley’s gain.

Having been relegated in 2009/10, Burnley had not yet come close to getting back to the Premier League and when Dyche took over, they were leaking goals.

They had shipped 29 in 13 league games, the worst in the division, and Dyche focused his early attention there.

Burnley conceded just 31 more for the rest of the season and he managed 11 wins, 11 draws and 11 defeats to finish 11th in the table.

Ahead of the following year, Burnley were tipped to go down given their small budget but instead Dyche took them up. Even with the loss of Charlie Austin, their top scorer from the previous season, Burnley found goals through the new partnership of Danny Ings and Sam Vokes.

The club spent money on only one transfer fee, £400,000 for Ashley Barnes, as they secured 93 points.

Their return to the Premier League lasted only one year but Burnley were wise to stick with their man as Dyche took them straight back up again, this time as champions.

Having learnt from the first time around, Burnley avoided the drop in the 2016/17 season and even finished seventh in the 2017/18 campaign, their highest finish of the Premier League era.

Dyche established them as a Premier League regular having taken over a club looking more likely to end up in League One.

Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool
Liverpool had plenty of messiahs before.

Rafa Benitez enjoyed success in Europe but never in the league. Roy Hodgson is best not mentioned within the Liverpool postcode. Kenny Dalglish was the returning hero. Even Brendan Rodgers had come oh so close.

It had been 25 years since Liverpool last lifted the league title when Jurgen Klopp sat down for his first press conference as the new manager. “I’m the normal one,” he said in reference to Jose Mourinho’s less humble arrival.

What Klopp brought to Liverpool was the sense that an adult was in the building. Rodgers had succumbed to the expectations of being Anfield manager; Klopp ignored them.

The former Dortmund boss brought a fresh energy into the club because he did not have the scars of the failed title push. He brought high-intensity football that initially saw copious numbers of goals in both nets, but they soon became one of the best in European football.

Two finals were reached in his first season, both lost, but Liverpool fans had their belief back.

Klopp did not have too much of a say on transfers – he reportedly wanted Julian Brandt over Mohamed Salah – but the players he did have, Klopp made into world beaters.

They played a gloriously fun brand of football and the yin-yang matches against Pep Guardiola were probably the highest quality of the Premier League era.

A Champions League title came first before the monkey was finally shaken off their back with the Premier League in the 2019/20 season.

Liverpool had gone from the ‘always next year’ club to one of only two teams that ever seemed likely to win it.

Sam Allardyce at Bolton Wanderers
Big Sam often harshly gets put in the football dinosaur category. Your meat and two veg of 4-4-2 and get it launched.

But Allardyce was xG before it was cool. Allardyce was marginal gains. Allardyce was Moneyball.

The birth of Big Sam the manager came long before he was ever on the touchline. In the end stages of his playing career, Allardyce moved to Tampa Bay Rowdies who ground-shared with the NFL team Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The American Football attention to detail infected Allardyce and he admitted that was where his managerial philosophy began.

Allardyce was an early client of ProZone, the kind of data analysis that is commonplace at clubs now, and the early beneficiary of that was Bolton.

The club was in a mess at the time. In a bid to raise money for their new stadium, the club had sold Per Frandsen, which led to manager Colin Todd walking out. His son left too after he punched Phil Brown during a team bonding session.

But Allardyce had a good squad to work with. Eidur Gudjohnsen and Jussi Jaaskelainen were amongst the first-team regulars and Allardyce’s details-first approach led to a play-off finish in his first season.

They lost it and Gudjohnsen left in the summer but Allardyce was reportedly behind the decision to spend the money on improving the training facilities rather than more players.

The results were immediate. Bolton reached the play-offs and this time were successful in returning to the Premier League in 2001.

Back in the top flight, Bolton became the kind of team you did not want to play against.

They were physical, often direct but to reduce them to a ‘lump it’ team would not be fair. Having stayed up, they signed Jay-Jay Okocha the following summer and again managed to avoid the drop.

Having largely been loyal to the team that got them up, Allardyce did spend in the summer of 2023 with Kevin Davies being the most notable recruit and it resulted in an eighth-place finish as well as a League Cup final.

Allardyce continued to improve the endeavours of the former Championship relegation candidates and his work did not go unnoticed as he was one of four men scouted to replace Sven-Goran Eriksson as England boss.

In the end, Allardyce left in April 2007 with the club fifth in the Premier League, far away from where they were when he took over.
Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur
How do you fix a club whose whole identity has been reduced to three words?

“Lads, it’s Tottenham” summed up Spurs. Pretty football but never to be taken seriously in the biggest moments.

Harry Redknapp had taken them to Europe but successive managers had reinforced the Spursy stereotype. Pochettino arrived as the 10th manager in the last 12 years, a sign of how chaotic they were.

Pochettino had done good work at Southampton but stepping up to Spurs was another challenge. Daniel Levy and the board saw themselves as one of the Premier League big boys, despite all available evidence, and wanted to finally push for major silverware.

What Pochettino did best was create a tactical philosophy and find the players to fit. Pochettino is all about high pressing and formations are more guidelines than rigid structures.

He was the beneficiary of an excellent crop of youth players coming through, most notably Dele Alli and Harry Kane, but he improved players all over the team.

The result was Spurs becoming a genuine title contender, even if they never did get it over the line. A Champions League final was the last hurrah before Levy’s refusal to spend saw Spurs return to the mean.

Pochettino left with the club in 14th but they have never been back near his heights since.