Italy on course for record third Premier League-winning manager

01 March 2016 11:53

The Barclays Premier League title race is still wide open as it enters the final straight and it remains to be seen which country's flag will be draped over the championship-winning manager in three months' time.

Italian Claudio Ranieri's Leicester lead the way, while in the chasing pack Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino, Arsenal's Arsene Wenger and Manchester City's Manuel Pellegrini hail from Argentina, France and Chile respectively.

Here Press Association Sport profiles where previous top flight-winning managers in the Premier League era have hailed from.

SCOTLAND - Sir Alex Ferguson (13); Kenny Dalglish (1)

The only British isle to produce a title-winning boss has a long history of elite managers and ex-Manchester United chief Ferguson, with 13 titles prior to his 2013 retirement, is easily the most successful boss in the Premier League era.

Former Liverpool and Blackburn boss Dalglish is the other Scot with a title winners' medal, something he achieved when Rovers pipped Ferguson's team in a thrilling conclusion to the 1994-95 campaign.

ITALY - Carlo Ancelotti (1), Robert Mancini (1)

A Leicester triumph in May would see Ranieri become the third Italian manager to win the Premier League, more than any other nation, even though they only claimed their first in 2010 when Ancelotti delivered the double to Chelsea.

Two years later Mancini had his hands on the trophy at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium as Sergio Aguero's dramatic late winner against QPR denied Ferguson more glory and ended City's 44-year wait for a championship.

FRANCE - Arsene Wenger (3)

The division's longest-serving manager has sampled title triumphs on three occasions, but the most recent came with The Invincibles in 2003-04. The other two, in 1998 and 2002, were part of doubles that accompanied FA Cup success.

PORTUGAL - Jose Mourinho (3)

Mourinho, who once dubbed Wenger "a specialist in failure", will not enjoy the fact he has the same amount of titles as his nemesis. Having left Porto for Chelsea in 2004, 'The Special One' secured back-to-back triumphs in his first two campaigns before clinching his third last term during a topsy-turvy second spell that ended in December.

CHILE - Manuel Pellegrini (1)

City's other Premier League title came in Pellegrini's first season at the helm in 2013-14 and the South American, the only manager from outside of Europe to win the Premier League, has the chance to sign off with another league winners' medal this May before handing over to Pep Guardiola in the summer.

Source: PA