Gazing into the Crystal Ball: Who Replaces the Premier League's Current Managers?

With the 2025/26 Premier League season now well underway, it feels like the right moment to cast our gaze further forward and contemplate who might eventually take over at each of the 20 clubs when their current bosses move on.

Some outfits have succession plans so obvious they're practically written in neon. Others? Well, let's just say we're working with rather less to go on. We've even ventured into the Championship and beyond to chart the coaching futures of Leeds, Wolves and everyone in between—results equally ridiculous, naturally.

Arsenal

The Gunners were hunting for a new manager not so long ago. Max Allegri, Mauricio Pochettino, Nuno Espirito Santo and Freddie Ljungberg all featured prominently in the conversation. Brendan Rodgers felt obliged to distance himself from the Emirates gig, though he wasn't exactly ridiculed for doing so—if anything, it would have represented a sideways move.

That speaks volumes about the job Mikel Arteta has done. Among Premier and Football League managers, only Pep Guardiola and Harrogate Town's Simon Weaver have longer current stints. Still, there's a logical pathway: promote from within the Arsenal Academy coaching ranks, someone steeped in the club's values. Per Mertesacker's departure from his Academy Manager role hints at fresh opportunities ahead.

Realistically, only those players Arsenal panic-bought in summer 2011 following the 8-2 Old Trafford humbling are worthy successors now. Andre Santos surely has dibs.

Aston Villa

The managerial carousel at Villa Park—Sherwood, Garde, Di Matteo, Bruce, Smith, Gerrard and now Emery—makes prediction tricky. Yet Emery possesses more authority than most, and Villa will become an even more attractive proposition when change eventually comes.

The template now appears to be: secure a continental coach whose Premier League experience was merely a Big Six false start. After a few years impressing elsewhere, perhaps winning Europa League titles and perfecting the slicked-back hair look, Ruben Amorim fits the bill perfectly.

Bournemouth

Andoni Iraola's fate depends entirely on how he times his next spell of results. Win 12 on the bounce and he'll be poached; lose 20 and he's sacked. His contract expires at season's end too, though with Bournemouth embarrassingly languishing in the bottom half—very Manchester United of them—his stock may be too depleted to secure a big move.

The hierarchy that backed Iraola over Gary O'Neil deserves trust to get the succession right. Why not tap into Bielsismo? Mauricio Pochettino could be the answer, bringing Premier League pedigree back to the Vitality Stadium.

Brentford

Enter Stephen Rice: modest playing career, time in the Ireland setup, no prior first-team management experience, and—as Keith Andrews noted—a detail-oriented approach to his set-piece coaching role. When Andrews lands the Real Madrid job, Brentford would be cowards not to at least try promoting Rice.

Brighton

Paul Barber has a succession plan locked away somewhere, saved on a file Chelsea would probably pay nine figures to crack. The chief executive will never reveal it, though it supposedly contains the identities of replacements for 25 current employees—players, staff, coaches, even Barber himself.

Nobody saw Graham Potter, Roberto De Zerbi or Fabian Hurzeler coming until they were practically through the door. Brighton's game is clear though: after discovering the youngest manager in Europe's top five leagues, we wish Carlos Cuesta, Parma's 30-year-old coach, the very best of luck.

Burnley

The challenge is identifying who can best maintain their yo-yo existence: promotion from the Championship, then back down after a single Premier League season. Understanding The Fine Margins is equally crucial.

Burnley appear to appoint exclusively from the 2011/12 PFA Premier League Team of the Year. Fabricio Coloccini and Leighton Baines remain candidates from that vintage. A Yaya Toure and Wayne Rooney double act wouldn't be unwelcome. But there's already one from that era at Turf Moor: Kyle Walker, currently stationed at right-back.

Chelsea

You can't pick and choose when bullying your sister club into handing over their assets. Chelsea's multi-club ownership structure is too entrenched to unwind, but there's one stipulation: any vacancy must be filled from Strasbourg. Gary O'Neil, incidentally, spoke rather well at his Stamford Bridge unveiling.

Crystal Palace

This reckoning approaches fast. Oliver Glasner has engineered a nine-game winless run culminating in the biggest FA Cup shock ever—basically a resignation by another name. The Austrian stays only if transfer promises arrive on the understanding everyone knows they'll be broken.

Steve Parish will then have one option: resurrect Roy Hodgson and his shorts for another stint to ensure Palace finish 14th while mounting precisely zero cup challenges.

Everton

Fair play to Everton for responding to their Sean Dyche crisis by essentially rewinding to 2005. Who wouldn't revert everything if it meant The Simpsons returned to BBC2 at 6pm?

They're now stuck with Moyes for a trophyless, polarising decade before handing over to Roberto Martinez when a senile Sir Alex Ferguson—by then Manchester United's Director Of Being Phoned Before Anyone Does Anything—is asked to pick the successor and forgets who he chose the first time.

Fulham

Marco Silva being the sixth longest-serving manager in the 92 feels wrong somehow. He's clearly learned plenty about the Premier League since the mockery that greeted his 2017 arrival, yet such longevity makes Fulham arguably the toughest to predict.

Here's a curveball: Enzo Maresca. The available manager market has seen some fascinating developments this month alone. When Pep Guardiola decides to remain loyal to Manchester City—even as they descend through 115 relegations toward Earth's core—Maresca will be free to consider his options. And it's just a short stroll down Fulham Road.