Roberto Di Matteo is the first manager to have won the UEFA Champions League for Chelsea.

The first manager of Chelsea Football Club was John Robertson, appointed player-manager in 1905. The current head coach is Mauricio Pochettino.

Chelsea have had 31 permanent managers/head coaches (of whom four also served as player-manager), seven interim managers and six caretakers. Ron Suart has served as both caretaker and interim manager. Roberto Di Matteo was first interim manager, but was later appointed permanent manager, while Frank Lampard was first permanent manager, and later interim manager. Guus Hiddink has been interim manager twice, while José Mourinho has served two different periods as permanent 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.

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.

List of managers

• Figures correct as of 13 January 2024. Includes competitive matches only.

This list of all managers includes performance records and honours.
M = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against

Picture	Name	Nationality	From	To	Days	M	W	D	L	GF	GA	Win%[1]	Honours	Notes
	John Tait Robertson[nb 1]	Scotland	1 August 1905	27 November 1906	483	54	33	10	11	126	57	70.37%	–	[2]
	William Lewis[nb 2]	England	27 November 1906	1 August 1907	247	27	18	4	5	54	25	74.07%	–	[2]
	David Calderhead	Scotland	1 August 1907	8 May 1933	9,412	966	385	239	342	1377	1303	52.53%	–	[2]
	Leslie Knighton	England	8 May 1933	19 April 1939	2,172	269	92	69	108	413	442	47.03%	–	[2]
	Billy Birrell	Scotland	19 April 1939	31 May 1952	4,791	293	97	77	119	416	465	46.25%	–	[2]
	Ted Drake	England	1 June 1952	30 September 1961	3,408	426	155	104	167	774	780	48.59%	see below	[2]
	Tommy Docherty	Scotland	1 October 1961	6 October 1967	2,196	303	142	65	96	526	422	57.59%	see below	[2]
	Ron Suart[nb 3]	England	6 October 1967	23 October 1967	17	2	0	1	1	1	8	0%	–	[2]
	Dave Sexton	England	23 October 1967	3 October 1974	2,537	372	164	108	100	568	434	58.60%	see below	[2]
	Ron Suart (2)[nb 2]	England	3 October 1974	16 April 1975	195	34	8	12	14	38	62	24%	–	[2]
	Eddie McCreadie	Scotland	16 April 1975	1 July 1977	807	97	37	33	27	141	124	55.15%	–	[2]
	Ken Shellito	England	7 July 1977	13 December 1978	524	66	15	19	32	77	115	37.12%	–	[2]
	Danny Blanchflower	Northern Ireland	14 December 1978	11 September 1979	271	32	5	8	19	34	68	28.13%	–	[2]
	Geoff Hurst	England	13 September 1979	23 April 1981	588	81	35	19	27	108	89	43%	–	[2]
	Bobby Gould[nb 3]	England	23 April 1981	28 May 1981	35	2	0	0	2	0	5	0%	–	[2]
	John Neal	England	28 May 1981	11 June 1985	1,475	203	84	61	58	326	253	41%[nb 4]	see below	[2]
	John Hollins	England	11 June 1985	6 March 1988	999	145	56	38	51	199	217	39%[nb 5]	see below	[2]
	Bobby Campbell	England	6 March 1988	12 May 1991	1,162	165	77	47	41	287	233	47%[nb 6]	see below	[2]
	Ian Porterfield	Scotland	11 June 1991	15 February 1993	615	90	31	28	31	106	119	34%[nb 7]	–	[2]
	David Webb[nb 2]	England	15 February 1993	11 May 1993	85	13	5	4	4	19	18	38%	–	[2]
	Glenn Hoddle[nb 1]	England	4 June 1993	10 May 1996	1,071	157	53	54	50	192	182	34%[nb 8]	–	[2]
	Ruud Gullit[nb 1]	Netherlands	10 May 1996	12 February 1998	643	83	41	18	24	157	109	49%[nb 9]	see below	[2][3]
	Gianluca Vialli[nb 1]	Italy	12 February 1998	12 September 2000	943	143	76	38	29	223	123	53%	see below	[2][4]
	Graham Rix[nb 3]	England	12 September 2000	17 September 2000	5	2	1	0	1	1	2	50%	–	[2][4]
	Claudio Ranieri	Italy	18 September 2000	31 May 2004	1,351	199	107	46	46	358	197	54%	–	[2][5][6]
	José Mourinho	Portugal	2 June 2004	19 September 2007	1,204	185	124	40	21	330	119	67%[nb 10]	see below	[2][7][8]
	Avram Grant	Israel	20 September 2007	24 May 2008	247	54	36	13	5	97	36	67%[nb 11]	–	[2][9][10]
	Luiz Felipe Scolari	Brazil	1 July 2008	9 February 2009	223	36	20	11	5	66	24	56%[nb 12]	–	[2][11][12]
	Ray Wilkins[nb 3]	England	9 February 2009	14 February 2009	5	1	1	0	0	3	1	100%	–	[13][14]
	Guus Hiddink[nb 2]	Netherlands	16 February 2009	30 May 2009	103	22	16	5	1	41	19	73%	see below	[15]
	Carlo Ancelotti	Italy	1 July 2009	22 May 2011	690	109	67	20	22	241	94	61%[nb 13]	see below	[2][16][17]
	André Villas-Boas	Portugal	22 June 2011	4 March 2012	256	40	19	11	10	69	43	48%[nb 14]	–	[2][18]
	Roberto Di Matteo	Italy	4 March 2012	21 November 2012	262	42	24	9	9	43	23	57%[nb 15]	see below	[2]
	Rafael Benítez[nb 2]	Spain	21 November 2012	27 May 2013	187	48	28	10	10	99	48	58%	see below	[2]
	José Mourinho (2)	Portugal	3 June 2013	17 December 2015	927	136	80	29	27	245	121	59%[nb 16]	see below	[2]
	Steve Holland[nb 3]	England	17 December 2015	19 December 2015	2	1	1	0	0	3	1	100%	–	[19]
	Guus Hiddink (2) [nb 2]	Netherlands	19 December 2015	30 June 2016	194	27	10	11	6	52	34	37%	–	[15]
	Antonio Conte	Italy	1 July 2016	12 July 2018	741	106	69	17	20	212	102	65%[nb 17]	see below	[2]
	Maurizio Sarri	Italy	14 July 2018	16 June 2019	337	63	39	13	11	112	58	62%[nb 18]	see below	[2]
	Frank Lampard	England	4 July 2019	25 January 2021	571	84	44	17	23	163	106	52%[nb 19]	–	[2]
	Thomas Tuchel	Germany	26 January 2021	7 September 2022	589	100	60	24	16	168	77	60%[nb 20]	see below	[2]
	Graham Potter	England	8 September 2022	2 April 2023	206	31	12	8	11	33	31	39%	–	[2]
	Bruno Saltor[nb 3]	Spain	2 April 2023	6 April 2023	4	1	0	1	0	0	0	0%	–	[2]
	Frank Lampard (2) [nb 2]	England	6 April 2023	28 May 2023	52	11	1	2	8	9	21	9%	–	[2]
	Mauricio Pochettino	Argentina	1 July 2023	Present	196+	27	13	5	9	45	34	48%	–	[2]

Managers with honours

Name	Nationality	Tenure	Honours
Ted Drake	England	1952–1961	1955 First Division 1955 FA Charity Shield
Tommy Docherty	Scotland	1961–1967	1965 Football League Cup
Dave Sexton	England	1967–1974	1970 FA Cup 1971 European Cup Winners' Cup
John Neal	England	1981–1985	1984 Second Division
John Hollins	England	1985–1988	1986 Full Members Cup
Bobby Campbell	England	1988–1991	1989 Second Division 1990 Full Members Cup
Ruud Gullit	Netherlands	1996–1998	1997 FA Cup
Gianluca Vialli	Italy	1998–2000	1998 Football League Cup 1998 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1998 UEFA Super Cup 2000 FA Cup 2000 FA Charity Shield
José Mourinho	Portugal	2004–2007 2013–2015	2005 Football League Cup 2005 Premier League 2005 FA Community Shield 2006 Premier League 2007 Football League Cup 2007 FA Cup 2015 Football League Cup 2015 Premier League
Guus Hiddink	Netherlands	2009 2015–2016	2009 FA Cup
Carlo Ancelotti	Italy	2009–2011	2009 FA Community Shield 2010 Premier League 2010 FA Cup
Roberto Di Matteo	Italy	2012	2012 FA Cup 2012 UEFA Champions League
Rafael Benítez	Spain	2012–2013	2013 UEFA Europa League
Antonio Conte	Italy	2016–2018	2017 Premier League 2018 FA Cup
Maurizio Sarri	Italy	2018–2019	2019 UEFA Europa League
Thomas Tuchel	Germany	2021–2022	2021 UEFA Champions League 2021 UEFA Super Cup 2021 FIFA Club World Cup

Notes

Footnotes