Newcastle disaster and Fergie’s right-hand man only strengthen one-club Arteta’s unique legacy | OneFootball

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is basically unique as a one-club manager in the Premier League era, presumably inspired by Ricky Sbragia.

The Spaniard has agreed to extend his Arsenal contract, meaning that the longest-serving manager in the entire Premier and Football League will likely surpass a decade in charge at the Emirates.

It remains an astonishing feat for someone in their first senior management role, only underlined by how few one-club managers there have been in the Premier League era.

And we are talking pure one-club managers; Sammy Lee and Craig Shakespeare are off the list for their single-game caretaker reigns at Liverpool and West Brom, which are the equivalent of Mark Noble playing 18 times in early-career loans at Hull and Ipswich.

Les Reed – 8 games with Charlton Until that potent combination of Ange Postecoglou and Mr. Marinakis came along almost two decades later, Reed seemed to have his Premier League legacy solidified with the shortest reign in history.

It lasted all of 41 days, with the long-time FA employee forming the filling in a positively unsavoury Iain Dowie and Alan Pardew sandwich.

Alan Curbishley’s former assistant returned to The Valley as Dowie’s right-hand man in summer 2006, then stepped up upon the future pundit’s sacking that November.

Reed managed eight games, lost six, suffered a 5-1 thrashing to Spurs and beat only Blackburn in a chastening six weeks.

“I was a good coach when I took over at the club with a decent track record at all levels of the game,” he later said. “I am still that same coach and probably better for this recent experience, and I will continue to follow my ambition and make a success of my next opportunity wherever that may be.”

Reed ventured to Ireland, Fulham, Bishop’s Stortford and Southampton thereafter in numerous consultant, advisor, coaching and director roles, but the closest he came to managing before or after his Charlton stint was as the Team GB head coach at the 2009 Maccabiah Games.

Alan Shearer – 8 games with Newcastle A purer one-club manager will be difficult to find.

In the years after his retirement in 2006, Shearer turned down a role on Steve McClaren’s England staff, “politely declined” the offer of being shortlisted as a potential Blackburn replacement for Mark Hughes, and ruled out the Southampton option because he was “very busy” with media commitments, charity work and earning his coaching badges.

The England job itself even came up after the crushing Euro 2008 qualifying defeat to Croatia, but Shearer’s response was “as staggered and surprised as anyone to see my name being linked with it”.

Shearer’s dugout prospects seemed to drift until a panicked Newcastle picked up the phone. With their first Premier League relegation a genuine prospect as the Magpies sat 18th, Wor Al heeded the call – perhaps fittingly on April Fool’s Day.

Newcastle lost five and drew two of his eight matches in charge, a win over Gareth Southgate’s Middlesbrough at St James’ Park the briefly gleeful exception to a relegation-inducing rule.

And yet still Shearer wanted to stay and “thought I had the job” in the Championship, with Joe Kinnear’s health problems forcing his permanent resignation and no other candidate leaping out; Chris Hughton was appointed while Mike Ashley sought a buyer for the club, and impressed sufficiently to get the full-time gig.

Shearer never did coach anywhere else before or since, preferring instead to take over the world and tease rocking up to Match of the Day with a full head of hair, refusing to admit he used to be bald.

Mike Phelan – 24 games with Hull

Phelan, speaking then in 2024, certainly embraced that “ownership” in an interview conducted soon after he and Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester United 11 years prior.

“With the way things have gone,” he said then, soon after being discarded by David Moyes, “my first thoughts are to be the boss, yeah. It’s the progression for me now. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last five years, albeit with the title of assistant boss.”

Phelan seemed to embrace being on the market as a manager in his own right, but the stars never really aligned. Even when he did finally get to sit in the big chair it was only initially as a caretaker after Steve Bruce left Hull in the pre-season lurch in 2016.

That year’s Premier League Manager of the Month for August beat reigning champions Leicester, was appointed full time by October and sacked the following January once Hull realised they needed more than a Phelan.

It would not be long before he returned to his rightful home as Manchester United’s chief balloon popper.

Ricky Sbragia – 26 games with Sunderland When Roy Keane texted and then faxed in his Sunderland resignation, there was said to be 33 applicants to replace him.

Among the rumoured shortlist was Martin Jol and Sven-Goran Eriksson, but Sbragia simplified the equation in the interim.

The former Manchester United reserve and Scotland youth coach stepped into the void, started with the customary defeat at Old Trafford which any former Ferguson employee must sacrifice at his altar, then promptly guided Sunderland to safety with six wins and seven draws in 26 matches.

“I do feel that the club needs a bigger name,” Sbragia admitted as he walked away at the end of the season. The reins were handed over to Steve Bruce and his predecessor stepped back into the coaching shadows thereafter.

Kieran McKenna – 222 games with Ipswich It seems unlikely that McKenna will retain his one-club status for too long.

Upon leaving his Ipswich post in the summer, McKenna said he was “taking a break from management and dedicating some time to my family,” who will surely antagonise him into taking the Celtic or Fulham job soon enough.

Time is on the side of a 40-year-old who was privately derided by players as ‘too British and very basic’ as coaching assistant to both Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United, and who branched out on his own after one month under Ralf Rangnick.

McKenna nailed his jump in a way fellow deputy Michael Carrick couldn’t, leaping aboard the Ipswich train in League One and taking it all the way to the Premier League, then back down to the Championship and up again.

Returning the Tractor Boys to the top flight before walking away means McKenna’s stock will be high enough when he considers making his own comeback and taking on only the second senior management role of his career.