Talk Sport recently released an astonishing report which detailed the remuneration for seventeen managers/coaches in the Premier League. Three managers were omitted from the list, as their salaries are not in the public domain. For transparency this is Russell Martin at Southampton, Leicester City’s Steve Cooper and Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler.
Pep Guardiola leads the chart, earning £20m and at the other end, Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola on £1m, yet my eyes were drawn to where Julen Lopetegui featured.
I would say I was surprised as he is the 13th best paid manager on the list, earning £3.4m.
With such an illustrious CV and given he was linked to AC Milan before he agreed terms with West Ham I initially thought his earnings would be higher.
Yet having then given it further thought, it all began to make sense.
Ruben Amorim was Tim Steidtens first choice to become the new manager at West Ham following David Moyes departure. The Sporting Lisbon manager even flew over for talks with David Sullivan. Yet he reportedly wanted a minimum three year contract, so a total of £30m over that period – £10m a year.
On top of that it would have cost the Hammers £17m to pay his release clause, although Fabrizio Romano claimed at the time it was likely that Sporting would have accepted just half of this.
Outside of the release clause – Amorims salary would have made him the third highest paid manager in the Premier league, with Unai Emery just behind on £8m and Mikel Arteta, £15m.
If the salary reflected league position and there does seem to be a strong correlation behind this and where respective clubs currently feature this could have been money well spent.
However, West Ham knew Julen Lopetegui was out of work and therefore a cheaper option.
There are always a few anomalies, so take a bow Sean Dyche who features in sixth position, earning £5m. Everton are currently 16th in the league, yet having kept them up last season, despite a points deduction and lack of finance he could say he’s worth every penny!
Pellegrini was on 10 million a year. I think the board learnt their lesson. So money increases in following years depending on success. Moyes money increased I believe after he had some success.
If you give Sullivan a list of managers he will always scroll down until he finds the free one.
Always found it odd that he’ll pay big sums on some utter crap for the first team (see the 50 odd centre forwards bought under his ownership) but arguably the most important appointment of all and he won’t pay a single penny in compensation to get a manager out of another club.
Moving on from the last manager everyone wanted an exciting appointment and a complete change of direction. Amorim would have fit the bill. But instead we got more of the same, because Sullivan didnt want to pay the money. Unemployed with PL experience = safe pair of hands in Sullivan’s eyes.
As long as he remains the owner nothing will ever change.
If that was an “illustrious CV” I’m a football coach.
If Sullivan could go on E-Bay for footballers and coaches, he would.
No, he’d go to a charity shop!