A story that reflects just how unrehearsed the Premier League was at its embryonic stage in 1992 is told by Rick Parry, the organisation’s first chief executive. The date was Friday August 14, the opening fixture between Sheffield United and Manchester United was scheduled to be played the following day and Sky’s television rights deal had not yet been signed off.

Parry had spent the summer dashing around the country trying to cajole a host of camel-coated football club chairmen used to getting their own way into finding common interests after it was decided by vote that the First Division should break away from Football League.

On May 18, when another significant vote took place – the one where it was agreed that Sky would be the new competition’s broadcaster - the Premier League wasn’t even set up as a limited company. As Parry puts it, “I signed a one-page contract on behalf of an unincorporated association which consisted of twenty-two blokes sat in a room. The Premier League only became official four days later.”

Top 25 managers in Premier League history Show all 26 1 /26 Top 25 managers in Premier League history Top 25 managers in Premier League history The top 25 Premier League managers To celebrate 25 years of the Premier League, our chief football writer Miguel Delaney runs through his 25 best managers. AFP/Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 25. Alan Curbishley He became a supposedly mundane part of the Premier League furniture, but that is not to be dismissed, given how Charlton Athletic collapsed once he left and then kept West Ham United up with one of the great late rallies. Many managers would crave that kind of mundanity. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 24. Ron Atkinson His name will always be tarnished by his disgraceful comments about Marcel Desailly, but his actual Premier League career still had many more proven feats than so many contemporaries. He got Aston Villa to second, kept Coventry City up and then did the same with Sheffield Wednesday. Most of it was also with a certain on-pitch panache. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 23. Roy Evans Performed the impressive feat of getting Liverpool back on track after Graeme Souness, and playing some of the most entertaining football the Premier League has seen. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 22. Roy Hodgson Responsible for perhaps the greatest escape in Premier League history with Fulham, and it should not be forgotten that was a big somewhat justifiable reason he got the job that remains the greatest mark against his career: Liverpool. Hodgson was nowhere near that level, but the generally consistent level of all his other sides was way above so many other managers - and very few of them offered anything even like what he did at Craven Cottage. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 21. David Moyes It’s difficult to think of a managerial career that has suffered such an extreme swing in reputation, and one all the more tragic because his finest moment - the appointment at Manchester United - led to this drastic downfall, but that’s why in such a list it’s all the more important to remember the reasons for the reputation in the first place. For close to a decade, Everton were one of the most respected sides in the Premier League, and even got to the brink of the Champions League just two years after Moyes saved them from relegation. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 20. Tony Pulis Another manager often caricatured, but still one whose teams all had an abundance of character. Pulis established Stoke City as a long-term Premier League team, improbably kept Crystal Palace up, then reformed West Brom. If there are doubts about his ability to manage sides that really need to win, you wouldn’t want to absolutely need a win against one of his teams. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 19. Jurgen Klopp We await to see what’s next, but Klopp already showed blisteringly quick adjustment in his first full Premier League season, offering up some of the most exciting football the competition has seen in some time and getting Liverpool back into the Champions League. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 18. Gerard Houllier Restored Liverpool’s respectability, and many of his players think the work he did there remains underrated as he re-established them as a Champions League club. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 17. Sam Allardyce Another one of those few managers here because he had a justifiable argument to making the Premier League as competitive as it was so often claimed, because - just like Martin O’Neill and Tony Pulis - his sides almost always gave you a real fight and rarely gave up easy points. That is reflected in how he never got relegated, and also took Bolton Wanderers to rare heights. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 16. Sir Bobby Robson Given his illustrious long career, it’s perhaps a pity that the English great was only in the actual Premier League for just under five years. It was still enough to take an impressively swift Newcastle United into the Champions League and up to the top levels, just as he did with Ipswich Town two decades beforehand. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 15. Brendan Rodgers If this seems high, just consider for a second the heights Rodgers took Swansea City and Liverpool to. He got the Welsh side promoted before impressively stabilising them, and then steered Liverpool to one of their few Premier League title challenges, and one that went much much closer than the other two. That speaks a lot louder than some of his infamous soundbites. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 14. Martin O’Neill Long before miracles were being done at Leicester City, O’Neill was producing alchemy, before then making Aston Villa the most consistent side outside the old big four for almost half a decade. You always got a proper challenge from the Irish manager. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 13. Kevin Keegan Everyone remembers that meltdown that coloured his career, but it only came because Keegan’s Newcastle had for three years ratcheted up entertainment levels, and produced one of the most exciting sides in the competition - what it is all about. There followed a solid job at Manchester City, in what is overall a strong argument, and one of the few significant title challenges. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 12. Harry Redknapp He’s become easy to parody, but so much of his record his seriously good, especially given that he is one of very few managers to succeed at both ends of the Premier League. Redknapp has improbably kept Portsmouth up, been responsible for West Ham United’s best Premier League finish and got Tottenham Hotspur into the Champions League - all while generally offering respectable sides. The only blemish is the relegation with Southampton, but there are a lot more bright spots. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 11. Rafa Benitez ‘Facts’ is a word that has become all too associated with the Spaniard to diminish his reputation, so here are a few that should remind everyone that reputation should be much positive: he has been responsible for one of Liverpool’s mere three actual title challenges in the Premier League era, always got them into the Champions League, and then stabilised a freefalling Chelsea for what even old enemy Sir Alex Ferguson said was a “very good job - you can’t deny that”. You also can’t deny that Benitez really has a more impressive record than most. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 10. Mauricio Pochettino If the fundamental requirement of management is to literally ‘manage’ your available resources to get the absolute best out of them, no one in Premier League history has done that as consistently and resoundingly as Pochettino. The bottom line is that, in the most money-propelled league era European football has ever seen, Tottenham Hotspur shouldn’t have been able to finish as high as they did under him. It really shouldn’t have happened, but is all the more impressive following on from his steady improvement of Southampton. Pochettino just has to go the next step in management, the elevated step, and actually start winning. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 9. Manuel Pellegrini If there was an occasional sense that the Chilean was merely overseeing and facilitating Manchester City’s money-laden side, the actual effect was some of the best attacking football the Premier League has ever seen. He couldn’t quite keep it up, but he did keep City at the top long enough to become one of just nine managers to win the competition. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 8. Carlo Ancelotti The manager that really maximised Chelsea’s money by producing perhaps the most entertaining of their title-winners, as well as the highest-scoring side in Premier League history, and that is no mean feat given how Roman Abramovich for so long craved exactly that kind of football. That makes it all the more surprising Ancelotti was sacked. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 7. Roberto Mancini Like a few title-winning managers in this list, the caveat will always be there about the cash he had to spend, but what was really special about Mancini was how he hardened it with a grit and edge that really brought Manchester City together and - most impressively and importantly - ended a 44-year wait for the title. The psychological weight of that can not be minimised, nor can the fact that he was competing against a master title winner in Sir Alex Ferguson… but still won in his first English title race. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 6. Kenny Dalglish The only manager other than Claudio Ranieri to win the Premier League outside England’s primary clubs, even if he did admittedly benefit from Jack Walker’s millions and a more open era. It still took all of Dalglish’s nous to raise a team with no recent history of success - and who had just been promoted three years before their 1995 title, in 1992 - and especially against the behemoth of Sir Alex Ferguson’s United. Dalglish didn’t quite reach the same heights at a Newcastle United seemingly suffering from a post-Kevin Keegan hangover, but then he’d already offered such a supreme champagne moment of his own. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 5. Claudio Ranieri The manager who oversaw the one of the most improbable and thereby impressive title wins that football history - let alone Premier League history - has ever seen. That alone is quite a statement, even if Ranieri wasn’t fully alone. The fact that it has since become evident that it was very much a collective effort at Leicester City slightly mitigates against his managerial effect but, for all the debate about whether this win finally mitigated against a career of failure, that was simply never the case in the Premier League. Ranieri had done a very solid and respectable job at Chelsea, before being part of an impossible job. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 4. Antonio Conte It’s very early days, but that’s entirely the point. Conte is the second manager to win the Premier League in what was his first season, but he had to lift a broken Chelsea far higher than Manuel Pellegrini did with City, and won it so much more emphatically. The way that Conte utterly transformed that team through his switch to three at the back, and thereby caused that formation to be taken on by much of the Premier League, may also represent the most resoundingly influential tactical change the competition has seen. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 3. Arsene Wenger Forget all the recent debate, and remember that this is still the man who has won more Premier League titles than anyone except Ferguson and Mourinho, and has been responsible for the competition’s sole undefeated season. The fact that undefeated season also represents the last of what was three titles in 21 seasons is the main reason he is in just third here, and the struggles of the last few years - even after the passing of the stadium debt era - can’t quite be minimised. By the same token, though, his effect as the league’s first truly modern international manager can’t be minimised either. If he didn’t win the Premier League as much as he might have, he is probably the manager whose influence and different ideas transformed it the most in the shortest space of time. Ferguson set the standards over years, Mourinho raised them when he first arrived, but it was Wenger who most dramatically changed how other managers and clubs did things. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 2. Jose Mourinho The manager who recorded the two highest points totals in the Premier League, thereby forcing even Sir Alex Ferguson to raise his standards, before then coming back and raising Chelsea to first again and win his third title in what is a mere seven measurable seasons in the competition so far. If the jury is out on Mourinho’s present and future, there can be no argument about his brilliant past. He may have had the benefit of the first big takeover, but he gave Roman Abramovich full value for money in terms of victories. Getty Images Top 25 managers in Premier League history 1. Sir Alex Ferguson The master. There’s simply no way to describe him, and simply no way anyone else could be ahead of the man who won a scarcely believable 13 Premier League titles - 62% of those he was involved in. Ferguson appropriately claimed the competition’s very first trophy, immediately showing how he would dominate most of his history, and there’s even a very strong argument that the Premier League is still recovering from his retirement given the open vacuum that has been left by his departure. That says it all. Ferguson won it all. Getty Images

“It seems ridiculous now that you’d be voting in May for who your TV partners are going to be,” Parry admits. “But we were where we were. It’s easy to forget ITV’s contract with the Football League which had ran from 1988 had never been signed because neither party could agree the fine print. Football was a very different beast back then.”

There had been mood for reform: a desire amongst chairmen to control their own destiny, with ten of them led by the ‘big five’ of Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Everton threatening to leave and form their own super league. The main obstacle towards independence had been the Football League, which had governed the game for more than a century.

The Premier League promised 18 teams rather than 20 and therefore fewer games and more rest for players, helping the England national team prepare for tournaments. Sky promised to promote football through greater coverage across satellite television and therefore, increase financial assistance to clubs at a time when football’s reputation was at a low, stadiums were crumbling and many owners were trying to figure out how to build all-seater arenas in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster and the Taylor Report.

Before the vote on May 18, ITV stood in Sky’s way. Parry remembers the chaos of the period vividly.

Manchester United played Sheffield United in the Premier League's first-ever game (Getty)

“ITV made it very clear they were not going to bid alongside Sky for the contract. Their mantra was all about exclusivity. ITV, though, had limited airtime as a terrestrial broadcaster. When it came to the final analysis between the two TV bids, it was an apples and pears comparison because ITV said they only wanted to televise 30 games while Sky said 60.

“One of the things the Premier League wanted to create was a partnership. In the past, it had been too adversarial. In the 1991/92 season, ITV only had 18 games, which meant they couldn’t show the entire story of the campaign. Leeds United won the title and it was tense until the end. But ITV had used up their quota of games by then. It reached the point where Leeds clinched the championship and they approached the Football League, admitting their miscalculation. Could they show the deciding fixture? They’d pay for it. But the Football League said, ‘No – this deal is only for 18 games.’

“Ultimately was a very smart move by Sky to persuade the BBC to go in with them. If there hadn’t been a terrestrial element to the arrangement, Sky wouldn’t have had a deal. We wanted Match of the Day with the BBC on Saturday because it was an institution. There was also a fear that too much live football on terrestrial television on ITV would harm attendances.”

It was a leap into the unknown for all involved (Getty)

Monday night coverage was another issue. While the smaller clubs were in favour, the bigger were less so.

“Liverpool did not want it to happen because they had a lot of travelling fans and it would be difficult for those fans to make arrangements,” Parry recalls. “The Oldhams and Wimbledons, meanwhile, were saying, ‘We don’t mind playing on Monday…’ The pattern was not universal, however. I had Richard Thompson on the phone [the chairman of Queens Park Rangers], asking whether I’d go and talk to Gerry Francis? The first Monday night game was Manchester City-QPR. Gerry was very unhappy bunny, indeed.

“I must say, I quite liked the concept. I’d visited the NFL in early 1991 and they’d introduced Monday night football as an extension of the weekend. They were bringing in exclusive broadcasters for the live games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I thought this was a smart idea, so we pinched it unashamedly from them. Sky were on board because it was innovative. Sky’s attitude wasn’t, ‘We’ll do the bare minimum.’ It was more, ‘We’re all in this together.’ They were always thinking how to make it better. No preconceptions. There was a risk, of course. Sky had lost around £250million in 1991 and had a turnover of roughly £350million. We were putting a lot of faith in them to get this right.”

Parry did not deal with Rupert Murdoch, saying he was not involved at any stage of the negotiation between the Premier League and Sky. “He may have participated in approvals behind the scenes.” Instead, his focus was on getting controversial chairmen like Ken Bates, Doug Ellis and Ron Noades to see eye-to-eye. Bates had previously banned television cameras from Stamford Bridge and no Chelsea league game had been screened live since 1988.

Parry remembers the frantic start to the league (Getty)

“Throughout July, there were massive rows,” Parry says. “There was a constitutional crisis. In the final Premier League meeting prior to the start of the season, 14 of the clubs had walked out over sponsorship. In a sense, we did not have a constitution and it involved a massive amount of shuttled diplomacy, backwards and forwards; arranging meetings between groupings of clubs.

“The last thing we were actually focusing on was the prospect of football starting. I graphically remember thinking, ‘Who really cares about the perimeter boards – why is it such an issue in the scheme of things?’ What you eventually realise is, it’s the game that’s the healer. The game takes control and overrides all of the pettiness. Suddenly you’ve got the atmosphere and people become concerned about results – the things that are important. Clubs ultimately have got to be civilised. You’ve got to be able to say, ‘Yes, we might have a few differences; but…’”

Criticism came at the start. The only apparent difference on match-days was the sight of referees wearing turquoise shirts rather than black. “We didn’t propose there would be a revolution from day one, though,” Parry says. “We didn’t know whether it would take five or ten years to force a shift in the right direction but we were confident it eventually would. Did we think the Premier League was ever going to be as big in terms of the money generated and the international interest? No.”

Parry believes the model of the Premier League is behind its success (Getty)

Parry believes the financial success of the Premier League has been built from the simplicity of its constitution. “Transparency is key, with each club having a single vote and no sub-committees or independent directors. This means there is proper accountability.”

Though he concedes there is too much football on television now, he thinks this is an issue for the competition law authorities rather than necessarily the Premier League or Sky.

“Competition law stipulated that you are restricting consumer choice by not having every game on TV, but who are the consumers?” Parry asks. “Is it the TV viewer or the supporters who attend?

“I get asked a lot, is football’s bubble going to burst? It won’t be a bubble that bursts. It might be a balloon that deflates a bit. But then it will find a new level. It won’t be catastrophic.”

United went on to win the inaugural season (Getty)

He wonders about the major issues currently facing English football, whether enough has been done to help the fortunes of the national team – as Premier League and the Football Association promised in 1992. It also concerns him that only one English club has won the Champions League since 2008, despite the Premier League accelerating away as the richest league in the world.