The first manager of Chelsea Football Club was John Robertson, appointed player-manager in 1905. The current head coach is Enzo Maresca.
Chelsea have had 32 permanent managers/head coaches (of whom four also served as player-manager), six interim managers and six caretakers. Ron Suart has served as both caretaker and interim manager. José Mourinho has served two different periods as permanent manager, while Guus Hiddink has been interim manager twice. Roberto Di Matteo was first interim manager, but was later appointed permanent manager, while Frank Lampard was first permanent manager, and later interim manager.
Chelsea's first ever manager was Scottish wing-half John Tait Robertson, who continued to play for the club until he resigned a year later. David Calderhead is Chelsea's longest-serving manager, holding the position from 1907 to 1933, spanning 966 matches. Chelsea's shortest reigning permanent manager is Graham Potter, who was in charge for 31 games. Statistically, Chelsea's least successful manager is Frank Lampard during his second stint.
The first manager under whom Chelsea won a major trophy was Ted Drake, who guided the club to the league championship in the 1954–55 season, while Dave Sexton managed the club to their first European honour, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup triumph in 1971, and Gianluca Vialli guided Chelsea to win the 1998 UEFA Super Cup.Mourinho has won the most domestic titles, and total titles with the club (in fact, all titles won with Mourinho were domestic titles – eight in total), Vialli second most titles with five, whereas Carlo Ancelotti led Chelsea to their first league and FA Cup "Double" in 2010.
Di Matteo led Chelsea to their first UEFA Champions League for Chelsea in 2012. A year after, Rafael Benítez led the club to win the UEFA Europa League, becoming the first club to hold two major European titles simultaneously and one of five clubs, and the first British club, to have won all three of UEFA's major club competitions. In February 2022, Thomas Tuchel led Chelsea to its first FIFA Club World Cup. He is also the coach who have won the most international titles with the club; all three of his titles were international.
Statistics correct as of 18 August 2024.
Key
| Picture | Name | Nationality | From | To | Days | M | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win% | Honours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Tait Robertson[1] [2] | 1 August 1905 | 27 November 1906 | – | |||||||||||
| William Lewis[3] | 27 November 1906 | 1 August 1907 | – | |||||||||||
| David Calderhead | 1 August 1907 | 8 May 1933 | – | |||||||||||
| Leslie Knighton | 8 May 1933 | 19 April 1939 | – | |||||||||||
| Billy Birrell | 19 April 1939 | 31 May 1952 | – | |||||||||||
| Ted Drake | 1 June 1952 | 30 September 1961 | see below | |||||||||||
| Tommy Docherty | 1 October 1961 | 6 October 1967 | see below | |||||||||||
| Ron Suart[4] | 6 October 1967 | 23 October 1967 | – | |||||||||||
| Dave Sexton | 23 October 1967 | 3 October 1974 | see below | |||||||||||
| Ron Suart [5] | 3 October 1974 | 16 April 1975 | – | |||||||||||
| Eddie McCreadie | 16 April 1975 | 1 July 1977 | – | |||||||||||
| Ken Shellito | 7 July 1977 | 13 December 1978 | – | |||||||||||
| Danny Blanchflower | 14 December 1978 | 11 September 1979 | – | |||||||||||
| Geoff Hurst | 13 September 1979 | 23 April 1981 | – | |||||||||||
| Bobby Gould | 23 April 1981 | 28 May 1981 | – | |||||||||||
| John Neal | 28 May 1981 | 11 June 1985 | [6] | see below | ||||||||||
| John Hollins | 11 June 1985 | 6 March 1988 | [7] | see below | ||||||||||
| Bobby Campbell | 6 March 1988 | 12 May 1991 | [8] | see below | ||||||||||
| Ian Porterfield | 11 June 1991 | 15 February 1993 | [9] | – | ||||||||||
| David Webb | 15 February 1993 | 11 May 1993 | – | |||||||||||
| Glenn Hoddle | 4 June 1993 | 10 May 1996 | [10] | – | ||||||||||
| Ruud Gullit[11] | 10 May 1996 | 12 February 1998 | [12] | see below | ||||||||||
| Gianluca Vialli | 12 February 1998 | 12 September 2000 | see below | |||||||||||
| Graham Rix[13] | 13 September 2000 | 17 September 2000 | – | |||||||||||
| Claudio Ranieri[14] [15] | 17 September 2000 | 31 May 2004 | – | |||||||||||
| José Mourinho[16] [17] | 2 June 2004 | 19 September 2007 | [18] | see below | ||||||||||
| Avram Grant[19] [20] | 20 September 2007 | 24 May 2008 | [21] | – | ||||||||||
| Luiz Felipe Scolari[22] [23] | 1 July 2008 | 9 February 2009 | [24] | – | ||||||||||
| Ray Wilkins[25] [26] | 9 February 2009 | 11 February 2009 | – | |||||||||||
| Guus Hiddink[27] | 11 February 2009 | 30 May 2009 | see below | |||||||||||
| Carlo Ancelotti[28] [29] | 1 July 2009 | 22 May 2011 | [30] | see below | ||||||||||
| André Villas-Boas[31] | 22 June 2011 | 4 March 2012 | [32] | – | ||||||||||
| Roberto Di Matteo | 4 March 2012 | 21 November 2012 | [33] | see below | ||||||||||
| Rafael Benítez | 21 November 2012 | 27 May 2013 | see below | |||||||||||
| 3 June 2013 | 17 December 2015 | [34] | see below | |||||||||||
| Steve Holland[35] | 18 December 2015 | 19 December 2015 | – | |||||||||||
| 19 December 2015 | 30 June 2016 | – | ||||||||||||
| Antonio Conte | 1 July 2016 | 12 July 2018 | [36] | see below | ||||||||||
| Maurizio Sarri | 14 July 2018 | 16 June 2019 | [37] | see below | ||||||||||
| Frank Lampard | 4 July 2019 | 25 January 2021 | [38] | – | ||||||||||
| Thomas Tuchel | 26 January 2021 | 7 September 2022 | [39] | see below | ||||||||||
| Graham Potter | 8 September 2022 | 2 April 2023 | – | |||||||||||
| Bruno Saltor | 2 April 2023 | 6 April 2023 | – | |||||||||||
| 6 April 2023 | 30 June 2023 | – | ||||||||||||
| Mauricio Pochettino | 1 July 2023 | 21 May 2024 | – | |||||||||||
| Enzo Maresca | 1 July 2024 | Present | – | |||||||||||
| Total | 1 August 1905 | Present | 43,239 | see below | ||||||||||
Netherlands
Italy
Portugal
Spain
Germany