What kind of playing career did our current English Premier League managers have?

In today's post we take a look at the current managers of the 20 Premier League teams and their playing careers:

Arsenal - Arsene Wenger - Mostly played for French amateur teams apart from 11 appearances for RC Strasboug who were then playing in Ligue 1.

Aston Villa - Paul Lambert - Made over 500 appearances in top flight football winning numerous trophies including the Champions League whilst playing for Borussia Dortmund in 1997.

Cardiff City - Ole Gunnar Solksjaer - Manchester United legend with 6 Premier League winners medals and also a Champions League winner. Scored 237 in 382 appearances during his career.

Chelsea - Jose Mourinho - Made 94 appearances as a youngster for various Portuguese clubs before retiring at the age of 24 to concentrate on a coaching career.

Crystal Palace - Tony Pulis - Made over 300 appearances as a player mostly in the old English second and third division with Bristol Rovers and Bournemouth.

Everton - Roberto Martinez - Most of his playing career was spent in the lower leagues with Wigan and Swansea where he was an integral part of turning around the fortunes of both clubs. Martinez made 363 appearances in total.

Fulham - Rene Meulensteen - No playing career.

Hull City - Steve Bruce - Former Manchester United captain who played a pivotal role in their resurgence as one of the best teams in the country in the 90's. Bruce won the Premier League on three occasions and played in 929 first class games.

Liverpool - Brendan Rodgers - A knee condition forced Rodgers to retire at the age of 20 without playing in any first class games.

Manchester City - Manuel Pellegrini - Spent his entire playing career in Chile playing for Club Universidad de Chile making 451 appearances for them before retiring.

Manchester United - David Moyes - Made over 550 appearances in his career at a number of Scottish and English lower league clubs including Preston North End.

Newcastle United - Alan Pardew - Played over 500 games for both non league and league teams during his career most famously for Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace.

Norwich City - Chris Hughton - Considered as one of the best full backs Tottenham Hotspur have ever produced, Hughton made 398 appearances for the club. Later on in his career he turned out for West Ham and Brentford.

Southampton - Mauricio Pochettino - Made over 500 career appearances mostly in Argentina and in Spain with Espanyol. Also represented Argentina in the 2002 World Cup where he brought down Michael Owen which resulted in a penalty which David Beckham scored.

Stoke City - Mark Hughes - Made nearly 800 career appearances and played for some of the biggest teams in the world including Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United.

Sunderland - Gus Poyet - The Uruguayan spent a large portion of his career in Spain with Real Zaragoza before moving to England and playing for Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. Made well over 400 appearances in total.

Swansea City - Michael Laudrup - Danish footballing legend had a magnificent playing career playing for the likes of Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Often remarked that he was the best player in the world during the 90s.

Tottenham Hotspur - Tim Sherwood - Premier League winning captain for Blackburn Rovers made nearly 500 first team appearances which included spells at Norwich, Portsmouth and Spurs.

West Bromwich Albion - Pepe Mel - Spent most of his playing career in the Spanish second tier with Real Betis and Granada where he was a prolific goalscorer scoring 73 goals in 195 second division games.

West Ham United - Sam Allardyce - "Big Sam" never played in the top tier but he made over 400 appearances for many clubs in the lower leagues including Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End.

For information and statistics on Ex Premier League Footballers visit www.premierleagueheroes.co.uk

New Look for Premier League Heroes Website

After an absolute manic Christmas with our online football gifts shop we decided to take a couple of weeks out to “revisit” the design and look of our Premier League Heroes site which is an information site on former Premier League footballers and what they are up to now.

The process started back in the summer when we surveyed a number of our followers to find out what they would like to see on our website and what ex footballers they would like to see added. Taking on board these customer’s comments we have redesigned the website to give it a fresher, cleaner feel with a more contemporary look.

Each and every team that has ever graced the English Premier League now has a dedicated page on which there are Premier League players statistics, team statistics and more importantly lists their "Premier League Heroes" with links to their respective player's pages.

Every player that has a listing within the site now has his Premier League career statistics on the page along with a short biography of what he is up to nowadays. You can also click through from the player page to the Premier League team pages that he played for during his time in the Premier League.

With the influx of players retiring in the last 12 months (Beckham, Scholes, Carragher etc) we have a big job on our hands getting them all added onto the site but rest assured the big names are there along with some of the more obscure ones that you had forgotten about.

www.premierleagueheroes.co.uk

New Look for The Premier League Gift Shop in 2014

After the madness of Christmas, with an unprecedented rise in sales of our football gifts we took a couple of weeks out to “revisit” the design and look of our Premier League Gift Shop website.

The process started back in the summer when we asked customers old and new what they would like to see on our website. Taking onboard these customer’s comments we have redesigned the website to give it a fresher, cleaner feel with a more contemporary look.

We also now sell gifts from nine of the top Premier League teams: Arsenal FC, Aston Villa, Chelsea FC, Everton FC, Liverpool FC, Manchester United, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur with each Premier League team category clearly defined so you can easily navigate between Manchester United Novelty Gifts to Tottenham Hotspur Gifts for Men for example.

We have also introduced some new categories within the site. There are now sections for football gifts for babies, ceramic football gifts and unusual football gifts too where we have various novelty items such as football team gnomes, football team phone cases and football team flags.

Although we have completely redesigned the site we have not changed our business motives and ethos which we have employed from the very start. Our prices are still as competitive as ever and we still offer FREE DELIVERY on each and everyone of our gifts. Quality is also very important to us and all of our gifts have been officially licensed by their Premier League club ensuring that our products are of an extremely high standard.

Overall we have over 2,000 football gifts within the Premier League Football Gift Shop and we are constantly adding new products on a weekly basis. Please take a minute and have a browse in the our new look football gifts shop for inspiration and gift ideas for the football fan in your life. There really is something for everyone!

Famous Football Street Sign Wall Clocks

Due to the unprecedented demand of our metal street signs depicting famous football streets and stadiums we are pleased to announce that we are now stocking wall clocks in the same style of these signs.

Made of canvas and measuring approximately 37cm x 18.5cm, these street sign clocks look fantastic in any room whether it be a child's bedroom, office or even kitchen. These clocks require 1 x AA battery which is not included.

We currently have these street sign canvas wall clocks in three designs, Chelsea FC, Liverpool FC and Manchester United and they are priced at £14.99 each which includes delivery too. 

Man United Street Sign Clock 

Liverpool FC Street Sign Clock

For more fantastic gift ideas visit our online football shop www.premierleaguegiftshop.co.uk