Chelsea's five pricey bosses, Liverpool's gamble on Arne Slot... and Man United's mid-season swoop for Ruben Amorim - where does Thomas Frank rank in the Premier League's most expensive football managers?

Daily Mail​

16 hours ago

Sometimes you have to blow the budget to get what you want.
We often see Premier League clubs fork out frankly laughable sums of money to acquire the world's best talent on the pitch. The amount of cash chucked about is growing by the year, and Liverpool 's £116m bid to sign Florian Wirtz is the latest mammoth transfer fee to be thrown down in an era of excessive wealth in the game.
The same now goes for managers, too. Gone are the days when clubs would turn to assistant coaches to step up when the hot seat becomes available. Nor do they wait until one falls out of work and they can snap them up for free.
No, managers come with a cost now. Your main target is already in a job? Well, it's time to cough up.
It has taken £10million for Tottenham to prise Thomas Frank from the grasp of Brentford, where he spent nine years. Funnily enough, he started his tenure as an assistant before becoming the big boss, but as I said: we don't see that anymore.
While it's not quite the crazy figures being slapped about for players, it's still a big enough fee to earn Frank a place in the top 10 most expensive Premier League managers of all time. Want to know the other nine? Well, Mail Sport is taking a deep dive into the list - follow us in.
=9. Maurizio Sarri - Chelsea - £5m
Our first entry includes, you guessed it, Chelsea. Big fees in football and the Blues are like bangers and mash on a plate, they just marry up so well.
The first of five Chelsea entries on this list is Maurizio Sarri, who they splashed £5m on to take him from Napoli in 2018.
Was it worth it? Well, no, as is the case with a fair few in this top 10. Sarri, whose relationship with the Chelsea fans was less than positive, lasted just one season on the job before returning to Italy with Juventus. But he did win a trophy, as he led the club to Europa League glory.
=9. Ronald Koeman - Everton - £5m
Arne Slot was not the first Dutchman to land in a dugout on Merseyside. Before the charismatic but calm 46-year-old made the Premier League look like a breeze, his compatriot Ronald Koeman was in the hot seat across Stanley Park.
After two highly successful years with Southampton, Everton were so impressed by Koeman that they paid the south coast side £5m for his services back in 2016.
At first, it seemed like one hell of a deal. Koeman guided Everton to a seventh-placed finish in his first season in charge, in turn bringing European football back to Goodison Park following a dismal final year under Roberto Martinez.
But one year of fun is all he got. Second-season syndrome hit hard for Koeman at Everton, and just two months into it he was sacked following a horrendous start to the campaign.
8. Jose Mourinho - Chelsea - £5.2m
The Special One. The one that changed Chelsea. The one that brought glory to Stamford Bridge.
As we all well know, Chelsea don't always hit the nail on the head when it comes to financial decisions, as will be evident the further through this feature you read. However, paying £5.2m to bring in Jose Mourinho from Porto may just be the smartest move they have made, and might ever make.
It was a bold move at the time. Mourinho had just produced a miracle by winning the Champions League with Porto, but that sum of money was a massive deal in those days compared to the pennies it is seen as now.
Worth every penny, and some. The Portuguese maverick guided a new-look Blues to their first top-flight title in 50 years in his very first season, before going back-to-back in his second.
It was pure bliss for Roman Abramovich and the Stamford Bridge faithful - they had ripped Manchester United and Arsenal off their perch and looked unstoppable. Well, it didn't last. The third season brought a domestic cup double, but no Premier League title, and in September 2007 he surprisingly left the club.
Mourinho couldn't stay away of course, but that's a story for another day.
7. Brendan Rodgers - Leicester - £8.8m
Now, this is where things go up a gear. There is a sudden jump in terms of sums of money, starting with Brendan Rodgers.
Following his sacking by Liverpool in 2015 - despite nearly winning the Premier League a year prior - Rodgers' stocks were low. No English side wanted to take a punt on him.
Celtic gave him a lifeline, though, and boy did he take it. Rodgers flourished during an initial three-year stint in Glasgow and it took Leicester City a whopping £8.8m to drag him away from the Bhoys.
The Northern Irishman's tenure began brilliantly with back-to-back fifth-place finishes in his first two full seasons, which would now be enough to earn a spot in the Champions League.
Rodgers even led the club to their first-ever FA Cup triumph, beating Chelsea in the 2021 final. However, things soon went downhill and he was sacked in 2023 in the final months of what had been a dreadful campaign, in which the Foxes were relegated.
6. Ruben Amorim - Manchester United - £9.25m
Manchester United's move for Ruben Amorim has cost them more than just money, that's for sure. You don't need me to tell you that his arrival has not got to plan, thus far.
The hierarchy at Old Trafford initially opted to hand Erik ten Hag a new deal last summer, which meant the cost of sacking him and bringing in Amorim became much higher than it needed to be.
Overall, roughly £21m was spent to fire the Dutchman and hire the Portuguese boss from Sporting Lisbon. All of that money to end up with a record-low Premier League points tally, their worst finish on record, their lowest-ever goal tally, and an abject defeat to Tottenham in the Europa League final.
Now, Amorim is still in charge and he could miraculously turn things around which would mean the money was worth it. But based on the evidence so far, it doesn't look like it was.
5. Arne Slot - Liverpool - £9.42m
'Arne Slot! Na-na, na, na-na!'
Jurgen Klopp was the first to sing it and now it's a song belted out on the Anfield terraces with pride with each passing week. Nobody thought that Klopp could be replaced, but the same was said about Bill Shankly.
Slot is the Bob Paisley of his time, and he only cost the Reds hierarchy £9.42m. Just 8.12 per cent of the amount the club are paying to bring in the mercurial Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen. The German will do extremely well to even get close to having the impact that Slot has had on Liverpool.
Few managers just rock up to what is known as the toughest league in the world and make it look like a cakewalk in their first season. Mourinho did it 20 years ago, and Slot followed in his footsteps by bringing home a record-equalling 20th English top-flight title to Anfield.
Even if the Dutchman struggles to win another in the coming seasons, the fee to bring him to Merseyside from Feyenoord will still have been worth it.
=3. Enzo Maresca - Chelsea - £10m
As you can see, the further up the list we go, the more recent the deals were made. And of course, the more Chelsea are involved.
We have hit double figures for the first time in this feature, with Enzo Maresca being wrestled away from Leicester last summer, following an impressive promotion from the Championship - which was short-lived - for £10m.
The move for the Italian has paid off, so far. In his first season in charge, Maresca guided Chelsea back to the promised land of the Champions League through a fourth-placed finish, while he also picked up the Conference League trophy as the cherry on top.
Many questioned the appointment at the time, but 12 months on it is plausible to see Chelsea as challengers to Liverpool and Slot's crown next season. Maresca has done a stellar job.
=3. Thomas Frank - Tottenham - £10m
Here we are. The newest entry into the charts has landed alongside Maresca in third spot.
When Ange Postecoglou was sacked, there was an outpouring of rage in WhatsApp group chats around the country, in offices, and on social media. Everywhere. Football fans simply couldn't believe it.
After all, the Australian delivered on his promise. 'I always win things in my second year,' Postecoglou said in September, and that is exactly what he did by winning Tottenham's first trophy in 17 years via the Europa League.
Still, that didn't matter to Daniel Levy who decided to hand £10m to fellow Londoners Brentford in order to bring Frank to north London, and all of a sudden the rage is no more.
Whether the money will be worth it is yet to be seen, but what is telling is how Frank has managed to calm the outrage of Postecoglou's sacking simply by being appointed. That's how perfect of a fit he appears to be for the role.
2. Andre Villas-Boas - Chelsea - £13.3m
The Not-so-Special One. Andre Villas-Boas was meant to be Mourinho incarnate - 'Mini Mourinho' he was once dubbed. Well, he ended up more like the Mourinho we witnessed struggle at Tottenham, or even worse.
When Chelsea splashed a then eye-watering £13.5m on 33-year-old Villas-Boas to take the reins at Stamford Bridge in 2011, excitement matched the levels of when the great Portuguese boss was appointed in 2004.
He was brought in as a young gun to spark life into what was an aging squad at the time, but all he succeeded in doing was nearly kill them off. Villas-Boas didn't even last the season. In March 2012, he was put out of his misery after unrest in the dressing room and amongst the fanbase.
Chelsea would go on to produce a miracle in Munich two months later, winning their first Champions League title under interim boss Roberto Di Matteo, while Villas-Boas moved across London to bitter rivals Tottenham, where he would also struggle.
1. Graham Potter - Chelsea - £21.5m
£3.07m. That's how much Graham Potter ended up costing Chelsea each month he was in charge.
Just the seven, but it felt like a lifetime for those in Blue. Potter's arrival was meant to signify a new era at Stamford Bridge under Todd Boehly and his big-spending crew, but it ended up being a false dawn.
To spend £21.5m on bringing Potter in from Brighton to then only give him seven months was baffling, but it shows just how badly things went for the English manager in west London.
Most expensive managers in English football history
1. Graham Potter (Chelsea) - £21.5m
2. Andre Villas-Boas (Chelsea) - £13.3m
=3. Thomas Frank (Tottenham) - £10m
=3. Enzo Maresca (Chelsea) - £10m
5. Arne Slot (Liverpool) - £9.42m
6. Ruben Amorim (Manchester United) - £9.42m
7. Brendan Rodgers (Leicester City) - £8.8m
8. Jose Mourinho (Chelsea) - £5.2m
=9. Ronald Koeman (Everton) - £5m
=9. Maurizio Sarri (Chelsea) - £5m
He had a promising start at the helm, going unbeaten in his first nine games, but it was all downhill from there. Boehly and BlueCo's patience for the Potter project wore thin rapidly, and by April 2023 they sent him packing, taking a huge financial hit in the process.
Potter now manages at the other end of London at rivals West Ham, and has once again struggled to get going. But he is a slow-burner, and next season will be pivotal in the Hammers' new horizon.