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Chris Davies on record-breaking pace to become one of Birmingham City's greats

Birmingham City manager Chris Davies after the win at Lincoln
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Listen to most League One managers and they’ll tell you Chris Davies has been handed the golden ticket with which to start off his management career.

There’s no disputing Birmingham City have the deepest pockets in the division and are therefore rightly installed as hot favourites to return to the Championship at the first time of asking.

Indeed Tuesday’s vanquished manager Ian Evatt has been about the only one to point out you still have to mould players into a team – and Davies is on record-breaking pace to that end.

We compared the win ratios of every Blues boss since 1945 and if there’s one big takeaway, it’s how stability at ownership level can affect outcomes on the pitch. Davies is arguably the biggest ever beneficiary of that.

Many of BSHL’s manager rank towards the bottom of the list, Davies is well clear at the top. Anyway, without further ado, he’s the raw statistics. Matches included league and cup, statistics taken from soccerbase.com.

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Managers win ratios (wins/games played)

1. Chris Davies 73.33% (11/15)

2. Harry Storer 50.85% (60/118)

3. Trevor Francis 47.93% (139/290)

4. Arthur Turner 43.92% (83/189)

5. Chris Hughton 41.94% (26/62)

6. Stan Cullis 41.18% (91/221)

7. Tony Mowbray 40.00% (4/10)

8. Barry Fry 39.86% (57/143)

9. Pat Beasley 39.72% (29/73)

Gary Rowett
Gary Rowett

10. Gary Rowett 39.62% (45/114)

11. Lou Macari 38.89% (7/18)

12. Bob Brocklebank 38.78% (102/263)

13. Alf Ramsey 37.93% (11/29)

14. Fred Goodwin 37.15% (94/253)

15. Steve Bruce 37.04% (100/270)

16.. Alex McLeish 36.90% (62/168)

17. Terry Cooper 36% (45/125)

18. Dave Mackay 35.63% (31/87)

19. Ron Saunders 35.47% (72/203)

20. John Eustace 33.33% (21/63)

21. Jim Smith 32.40% (58/179)

Garry Monk
Garry Monk

22. Garry Monk 32.30% (19/59)

23. Willie Bell 31.82% (28/88)

24. Gil Merrick 31.68% (64/202)

25. Harry Redknapp 30.77% (4/13)

26. Lee Bowyer 28.81& (17/59)

Lee Clark
Lee Clark

27. Lee Clark 28.45% (33/116)

28. Pep Clotet 27.65% (13/47)

29. John Bond 25.39% (16/63)

30. Steve Cotterill 25.93% (7/27)

31. Joe Mallett 21.05% (4/19)

32. Aitor Karanka 21.05% (8/38)

33. Garry Pendrey 20.83% (20/96)

34. Wayne Rooney 13.33% (2/15)

35. Gianfranco Zola 8.33% (2/24)

What do you make of Davies' work so far? Leave your comments here