Premier League's Least Popular Managers: New Survey Reveals the Rankings for 2026/27

By Thomas Leary

Sep 18th, 2026 12:44 PM EDT

Which Premier League manager would fans least want to sit down to dinner with? Bookies.com surveyed 1,000 UK football fans to find out, ranking all 20 current Premier League managers from least to most popular for the 2026/27 season. Arsenal's Mikel Arteta tops the list comfortably, and the rest of the top five reads like a who's who of the league's highest-profile dugouts, proof that results and reputation don't always win fans over.

Which Premier League Manager Is the Least Popular With Fans?

Arsenal's Mikel Arteta is the clear leader. Of the 1,000 fans surveyed, 207 (20.7%) named him as the Premier League manager they would least want to have dinner with, almost 70 votes clear of Coventry City's Frank Lampard in second on 139 (13.9%). Tottenham Hotspur's Roberto De Zerbi completes the top three with 74 votes (7.4%). Between them, the top three account for 42.0% of every vote cast.

On-pitch success clearly does not guarantee popularity off it. Arteta has Arsenal competing for the title, Michael Carrick has kept Manchester United, the Premier League's single biggest fanbase, in the mix under his stewardship, and De Zerbi arrived at Tottenham Hotspur with one of the most sought-after reputations in Europe. All three still sit inside the top five names fans would rather avoid at the dinner table.

Frank Lampard's second-place finish stands out most. Coventry City are one of the smaller clubs in this survey, yet Lampard draws almost double the votes of third-placed De Zerbi, a sign that a manager's own profile, built over a playing and punditry career at Chelsea and beyond, can carry far more weight with fans than the size or standing of the club he currently manages.

Fan Survey Updated September 2026

Premier League Managers Fans Would Least Want to Have Dinner With (2026/27)

1,000 UK football fans picked, from a fixed list of Premier League managers, the one they'd least want to have dinner with. One answer per respondent.

20.7%Mikel Arteta (Arsenal)Least Wanted at Dinner

+6.8 ptsOver 2nd-place Frank LampardMargin at No. 1

1,000One answer eachFans Surveyed

20Named in resultsManagers Named

# Manager / Club Vote Share Votes / %

1

Mikel ArtetaArsenal

20720.7%

2

Frank LampardCoventry City

13913.9%

3

Roberto De ZerbiTottenham Hotspur

747.4%

4

David MoyesEverton

666.6%

5

Michael CarrickManchester United

656.5%

6

Unai EmeryAston Villa

626.2%

7

Enzo MarescaManchester City

545.4%

8

Xabi AlonsoChelsea

444.4%

9

Gary O'NeilIpswich Town

414.1%

10

Daniel FarkeLeeds United

303.0%

11

Oliver GlasnerNottingham Forest

292.9%

12

Regis Le BrisSunderland

272.7%

T13

Andoni IraolaLiverpool

242.4%

T13

Sergej JakirovicHull City

242.4%

15

Keith AndrewsBrentford

232.3%

16

Fabian HurzelerBrighton & Hove Albion

222.2%

T17

Alvaro ArbeloaFulham

181.8%

T17

Pierre SageCrystal Palace

181.8%

T17

Marco RoseBournemouth

181.8%

20

Matthias JaissleNewcastle United

151.5%

Methodology: Fans picked, of a fixed list of Premier League managers, the one they'd least want to have dinner with (one answer each). Club affiliations reflect the 2026/27 season, cross-checked against Wikipedia and Sky Sports.

Data: Bookies.com survey of 1,000 UK football fans. Published: September 2026.

What the Rankings Reveal

The gap between the top and bottom of this list is enormous. Arteta's 207 votes are almost fourteen times Matthias Jaissle's 15 at Newcastle United in 20th, and more than half of all 20 managers finished on 30 votes (3.0%) or fewer. Two separate ties also appear in the bottom half of the table, Liverpool's Andoni Iraola level with Hull City's Sergej Jakirovic on 24 votes, and a three-way tie on 18 between the managers of Fulham, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, showing how thinly spread the votes become once you get past the household names at the top.

Read as a whole, the list leans heavily towards managers at clubs with a big national profile, London and Manchester derbies, recent title races, prominent pundit histories, rather than towards results on the pitch alone. It is as much a measure of visibility as it is of any single manager's win rate.

Also of interest: Premier League's Least Popular Clubs, Ranked (2026/27).

Methodology

Bookies.com surveyed 1,000 UK based football fans and asked which current Premier League manager they would least want to have dinner with, a single-choice question with one answer per respondent. Club affiliations for each manager reflect the 2026/27 season.

Comments

Sign In | Sign Up

Post

View more