Vitor Pereira will finally make his Premier League bow after flirting with Everton for a decade. Ruben Amorim, Arne Slot and Enzo Maresca have similar stories.
Wolves have appointed Pereira as the replacement for Gary O’Neil soon, making the Portuguese the 13th current Premier League manager in his first post in the English top flight.
Like almost all of the others, he had the opportunity to coach in the Premier League before but it was squandered one way or another. Here is how every current first-time Premier League manager nearly had a very different start.
Arne SlotIn the midst of his second season and top of the Eredivisie with Europa League hopefuls and Dutch Cup semi-finalists Feyenoord, it was reported that Slot had found his way onto a four-man shortlist to replace Jesse Marsch at Leeds in February 2023.
The links resulted in a public rejection from Slot, who described interest from the Whites as “a compliment” but explained that the pull of a possible Treble was too difficult to resist. Leeds instead went first for Javi Gracia, then Sam Allardyce when he too was sacked.
Slot missed out on the cup and in Europe but the situation spurred Feyenoord on to 13 straight league wins and a first title in six years.
He was considerably closer to leaving for Spurs that summer and certainly encouraged speculation suggesting he would take Antonio Conte’s seat, before signing a new contract to stay in Rotterdam for what would turn out to be just one more year.
After a few more twists and turns, Ange Postecoglou took the north London reins.
Enzo MarescaWhile never quite established as a firm option to take over, Maresca was nevertheless earmarked as an interim option to step out of Manuel Pellegrini’s shadow as one of his West Ham assistants if necessary.
Having taken over some training sessions in late 2019 and been credited with devising the tactical plan which helped conquer Chelsea at Stamford Bridge that November, Maresca’s stock in east London was high. There was a suggestion in his native Italy that the job was offered when Pellegrini was sacked just before the turn of the year, but Alan Pardew’s best mate took his backroom staff with him when he left.
Mikel Arteta
Arsenal, in a nutshell, completely bottled it.
It might be that Unai Emery was a necessary buffer between eras as the Arsene Wenger replacement before Arteta eventually landed the Emirates job, but perhaps the Gunners could have saved themselves a lot of time, effort, pain and money had they simply trusted their initial gut instinct instead of being “really desperate” and “embarrassing”.
Pep Guardiola
Chelsea were borderline obsessed at one stage. Sir Alex Ferguson wanted him to take the poisoned Manchester United chalice. Arsenal were linked intermittently. West Ham probably asked at some point. They always do.
Andoni IraolaAlso on that fated Leeds shortlist was the name of one Iraola, whose apparent ‘desperation’ to work in the Premier League did not override the desire of Rayo Vallecano not to lose the Spaniard mid-season.
The first choice to usurp Marsch proved attainable that summer for Bournemouth but there was nothing doing while Vallecano were in contention for European qualification.
Those wheels soon came off despite a win over Barcelona, while Leeds were bound for the Championship. It is sensational that they targeted Slot and Iraola at the same time they appointed Gracia and Allardyce.
Fabian HurzelerOnly Brighton were deranged enough to consider employing an actual child as their manager.
Ange PostecoglouAnd only Brighton initially were brave enough to shortlist Postecoglou for his work in Australia, Greece, Japan and Scotland. Would he have fared any better or worse than Roberto De Zerbi? Dunno. But the Seagulls wouldn’t have had to spend half as much on VO5 products.
Thomas FrankThe bus stop in Hounslow was never meant to include a route to the Premier League and only with Brentford would Frank have reached the Promised Land himself.
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Ruben AmorimA candidate during the Great Spurs Manager Search of 2023 also remained on the Chelsea radar before the appointments of Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino and Maresca, while Manchester United themselves first contemplated an ‘expensive gamble’ on Amorim three years ago. Just this year he was strongly linked with Liverpool (they were apparently unconvinced by his commitment to his three-at-the-back formation), while he had to apologise for the ‘mistake’ of meeting with West Ham.
Oliver GlasnerThe odds are that you are currently in the vicinity of someone Spurs considered in the summer of 2023.
Nottingham Forest took a look after parting with Steve Cooper but none of the parties involved will be unhappy they went for Nuno Espirito Santo instead.
Ruud van Nistelrooy
Leicester did not have to look far for the contact details of someone they considered as a Maresca replacement this very summer.
Kieran McKennaThe Premier League carrot was dangled by Crystal Palace during the Roy Hodgson struggles but McKenna rather wisely sensed his chance would come soon enough if he stayed at Portman Road.
Brighton also poked around after parting ways with De Zerbi, while Chelsea thought about it before landing on Maresca.
And then there was Manchester United, who considered their former assistant for the big job despite certain players having already made their reservations over McKenna known.
Vitor PereiraOn four separate occasions, Everton earmarked Pereira as a managerial option.
Bill Kenwright met the Portuguese in summer 2013 when David Moyes flew the coop. Pereira was deemed an option to replace Ronald Koeman four years later, then pulled out of the running himself when Marco Silva was sacked in 2019.
The closest Pereira came to actually sealing the Everton deal was in 2022, but one supporter with a spray can, the manager’s questionable decision to go live on Sky Sports News to discuss that and his candidacy and job interview, and a concerted media effort to get Frank Lampard appointed instead put paid to his chances.
It is a grave shame Wolves have already played at Goodison this season.