20 Greatest Managers.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #20 Guy Roux

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n this new series The Equaliser takes a look at the 20 managers who we deem to have made the biggest impact on football over the last 100 years, taking into account their levels of success as well as the tactical, philosophical and developmental changes to the game they may have introduced and/or mastered.

In reverse order, the first entrant on the list is the great French manager, Guy Roux.



He may not be one of the game’s most successful managers in terms of the sheer weight of trophies won during his career, but Guy Roux is a true footballing phenomenon. Having been appointed coach of Auxerre in 1961 on the modest salary of 600 Francs a month, Roux set about transforming what was a tiny provincial club into one of the powerhouses of twentieth century French football and arguably the most efficiently run institution in the European game.

Running the football club on a shoestring budget, Roux expertly managed Auxerre’s finances and focused on developing local talent through what would go on to become a world-famous academy. The likes of Basile Boli, Eric Cantona and Djibril Cisse have all come through the ranks at Auxerre, as well as players such as Laurent Blanc and Enzo Scifo having had their careers saved by the intervention of Roux who recognised their talent and helped them to fulfil their potential in Burgundy. Such was the relentless efficiency of the club’s youth development, Roux very rarely had to spend significant amounts of money in the transfer market to bolster his squad and, with a young team and a healthy bank balance , his club flourished.

Roux’s first major success came in the 1979/80 season when AJA were promoted to Ligue 1 for the first time in their history. Just a season earlier the club had reached its first Coupe de France final and, although they were ultimately beaten by Nantes, were a team on the cusp of the most glorious period in its history. Auxerre’s first Coupe de France triumph came 14 years later in 1994, as Roux’s team – featuring talents such as Alain Goma, Moussa Saib and Corentin Martins – comfortably overcame Montpellier to write themselves into the history books and establish themselves as an increasingly competitive force at the top end of the French football ladder.



Two years later came Roux’s crowning achievement as Auxerre won the league and cup double, a triumph that marked the astonishing transition that he had brought about during his 35 years at the club. Not only had he transformed Auxerre from a small and insignificant third-tier side into the undisputed kings of French football, but he had done it without spending huge sums of money and, in the most part, used players that he had scouted and developed himself. If it is possible for somebody to win titles single-handedly, than that is exactly what Roux had done. As a result, Auxerre’s 1995/96 campaign surely ranks as one of the most extraordinary achievements of the modern era.

Two more Coupe de France titles and a pair of Intertoto Cup wins were to follow before Roux departed the club in 2005 after an astonishing 44 years in charge, bowing out after guiding Auxerre to 25 consecutive seasons in the top-flight, something which would have been almost unimaginable when he took over almost half a century earlier.

Roux may not have contributed as much to the tactical and philosophical development of football as some of the other managers who will be featured in this series, but the way in which he implemented youth development programmes and a sustainable financial model is a gloriously alternative example in a sport that is increasingly driven by marketing and revenue. The Auxerre legend, now 71, has left an important and timeless legacy.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #19 Bela Guttmann

A footballing nomad and a wandering tactical evangelical, the hot-tempered Bela Guttmann has come to be regarded as one of the most astute coaches to emerge from the sporting intellectual set that arose in Eastern Europe during the 1930s. An adventurous centre-half by trade, Guttmann’s playing career saw him undertake spells in his native Hungary, Austria and New York before he joined Hakoah Vienna in 1933 to embark on what would become a marvellously successful, if fragmented, coaching career.

As Jonathan Wilson points out in Inverting The Pyramid, Guttmann’s mantra was “The third season is fatal” – a motto he appeared to take very seriously, few of his managerial engagements lasting longer than two years. After flitting from club to club throughout the war, the Hungarian got his big break in 1953 when he was hired by AC Milan and promptly guided the Rossoneri to within striking distance of the 1954/55 Serie A title before being dismissed after a series of disputes with the board. “I have been sacked even though I am neither a criminal nor a homosexual!” he pronounced in typically bombastic style upon his departure.

Just two years later, after crossing the Atlantic to undertake a tour of South America with Budapest club Honved, Guttmann decided to stay behind and take on a coaching role with Sao Paulo, Brazil being the place where he left what was arguably his most permanent of legacies. In 1957, his first season with the club, the fiery Hungarian guided Sao Paulo to the national championship and – at least according to his own version of history – introduced the 4-2-4 system to Brazilian football.

Through the work of Guttmann with Sao Paulo it is believed that the system – one which had long been theorised but rarely practised in South America – was gradually implemented as the default for a number of Brazilian teams. The 4-2-4, which became the foundation upon which the attacking ethos of the Brazil teams of the 1950s, 60s and 70s was built, certainly owed much to the progressive attitudes and imagination of Guttmann, even if a good deal of the groundwork had been done by his compatriot Gusztav Sebes.



The continually travelling coach departed Brazil in 1958 and cropped up at Benfica a year later where he was to win the most illustrious trophies of his career. After claiming both the 1960 and ’61 league titles, Guttmann guided his young team to the 1961 European Cup, Benfica becoming the first club to break Real Madrid’s five-year dominance of the competition.

A year later – spearheaded by an electric young Eusebio – the Portuguese team repeated the trick as they overcame the Madrid of Gento, Puskas and Di Stefano 5-3 in one of the greatest European finals ever seen. Guttmann, however, was infuriated by the Benfica directors’ decision not to award him a sizeable financial bonus after the second continental triumph and left the club with a hail of invective, joining Servette in the aftermath and bringing an end to the most bounteous spell of his career in the process.

The Budapest-born coach eventually retired from his labyrinthine career at Porto in 1974, leaving the game having, in the words of Wilson, “more than anybody since [Herbert] Chapman, defined the cult of the manager”. In many ways Guttmann was the last of his kind, an old-fashioned individualist intellectual steeped in an attacking ethos and a philosophy which demanded attractive football and unadulterated positivity at the expense of any semblance of negative defensive tactics.

With football evolving to become an altogether more defensive creature in the years after his retirement and quickly developing into a multi-billion pound industry with results its primary concern, whether we will ever see the like of Guttmann again is, sadly, very doubtful. However, for his work implementing the 4-2-4 in South America and his great success with Benfica, the Hungarian nomad deserves to be considered as one of the greatest coaches there has ever been.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #18 Jack Reynolds

A name that has unfortunately been lost in the mists of time, regularly overshadowed by those who followed in his footsteps, Jack Reynolds is arguably one of the most important figures in the history of twentieth century European football.

The Englishman – who enjoyed 27 golden years as the coach of Ajax – began his career in rather more modest surrounds, hopping between lower league clubs such as Burton United, Grimsby Town and Sheffield Wednesday at the turn of the century but never being considered as anything more than a mediocre player.

Following the conclusion of his playing career in 1911, Reynolds took up his first managerial position a year later with the Swiss club St Gallen. Unfortunately information as to how St Gallen got on under Reynolds’ stewardship was hard to come by, but from looking at a history of the Swiss league it’s clear that they neither won the league nor were relegated. In any case, Reynolds must have done fairly well as, in 1914, he was invited to coach the German national team, an offer he accepted with relish only to have to be prevented from taking up the role following the outbreak of the First World War.

Having put his international management ambitions on hold, Reynolds moved to the Netherlands where he was appointed by Ajax a year later in 1915. During his first spell in Amsterdam – which lasted a full ten years – the relatively inexperienced coach began to build his reputation as he put in place the infrastructure that was required to found Ajax’s now world-renowned youth academy. Demonstrating a philosophy and a set of methods radical for the time, Reynolds ensured that all age group teams at the club were coached in the same tactics and style of play, a continuity for which Amsterdam’s biggest club would become famed.

Having left Ajax to coach city rivals Blauw-Wit in 1925, Reynolds returned to de Godenzonen three years later and won five league titles in twelve years before the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in 1940. During those years before the invasion Reynolds had begun to instigate in his team a style and an ethos that would later come to be recognised as the forerunner to the “Total Football” of Michels and Cruyff, the most notable feature of which being Reynolds’ introduction of wingers, a position that had never before been seen in Dutch football. As David Winner points out in his book Brilliant Orange, Reynolds’ Ajax were constantly praised for their “technically controlled game, ball skills and tactics”, the team playing with a style, elegance and efficiency far superior to any other club in the country.



Unfortunately the progress Ajax were making under Reynolds was interrupted by the war, the Englishman being taken as a POW by the Germans and incarcerated in an internment camp in Upper Silesia between 1940 and 1945.

However, following the conclusion of the war the coach returned to Amsterdam for his third spell with his adopted club, winning another title in 1947 before calling time on his footballing career.

He may not be a particularly widely known figure outside Amsterdam, but Reynolds’ influence on Dutch football and the history of Ajax cannot be underestimated. His ultra-modern approach to management in an age still dominated by nineteenth century attitudes to football put in place the mechanisms and philosophies which would lead to Ajax’s domestic and continental dominance of the late sixties and early seventies.

Coaches that came later in the club’s history, most notably Vic Buckingham and Rinus Michels (who Reynolds coached briefly during the 1940s), may get more credit for the establishment of “Total Football”, but it is Jack Reynolds who deserves to be recognised as the true father of football’s most lauded of tactical and ideological systems.

Be interesting watching this progress but, and I won't mention them yet, I'll be disappointed if two managers aren't mentioned, one is one of ours, but that is obvious, the other just a personal opinion.

This is interesting keep it going.

Shanks has to be in there, I wouldn't be surprised to see Mourinho in here

Brian Clough,Alex Ferguson,Bill Shankly,Mourinho,and Matt Busby have to be there if its from a completely unbiased view.

Rinus Michels should be somewhere in there, maybe even 1st. If I recall right, FIFA named him manager of the last century or something. While Mourinho is a great manager and has won many prizes, I wouldn't say he made a big impact on football and changed the game in any way.

John Barnes should be in there some where!

That Roux story is brilliant, 44 years at one club, and completely transforming them.

We're all going to have our own opinions, but I hope the list isn't full of high profile names that we all already know about, I want to read about managers that I've never really heard of, like Roux.

There's a good argument for Rinus Michels being number 1. The guy pretty much invented modern football.

As good a manager Mourinho is I'd agree with the above comment that he's done nothing to revoloutionise the game. His style is fairly boring and not at all great to watch. Even though he's won less, the likes of Arsene Wenger deserve more praise. People like him make the game watchable and he really knows the importance of the term the 'beautiful game'. He may not have won anything the past 5 years but you've got to admit, he's built one hell of a legacy at Arsenal, bettering that of Herbert Chapmans.

No one betters Bill Shankly though.  

Football’s Greatest Managers: #17 Otto Rehhagel

Following Greece’s remarkable triumph at Euro 2004  under his stewardship, Otto Rehhagel has unfortunately come to be labelled as a master of “anti-football” and an exclusive proponent of negative tactics, an unfair assessment of a man who is arguably one of the finest tactical minds of the modern era.

Granted, during his nine-year spell with Greece from 2001 until their exit from the recently concluded 2010 World Cup, the Galanolefki were stylistically founded upon pragmatic principles of defensive solidity, but, as Rehhagel himself said, “We will play exciting football when we have Messi, Kaka, Iniesta and Xavi on the team”.

The veteran German coach was employed by the Hellenic Football Association to maximise the ability of the players at his disposal, something he emphatically succeeded in doing even if it did result in some observers getting hot under the collar.

But more on Rehhagel’s international exploits later. If we are to reach an understanding of just how the former Kaiserslautern defender was able to achieve such success with the Greek national side, then that particular period of his career must be placed into context and understood, as it was, as the pinnacle of an ideological approach that Rehhagel had been refining for the best part of thirty years.

After a frustrating series of brief and relatively unsuccessful stints in charge of Kickers Offenbach, Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund and Arminia Bielefeld throughout the 1970s, Rehhagel eventually began to build his excellent reputation at Fortuna Düsseldorf during the 1979/80 Bundesliga season. In his one and only campaign with the Rheinstadion-based outfit Rehhagel oversaw one of the most successful season in the club’s history, Fortuna winning the German Cup while also managing an eleventh place league finish despite the constraints of a relatively limited squad.

Built around the attacking talents of the gifted Allofs brothers, Klaus and Thomas, Rehhagel’s Fortuna side was, in contrast to some of the team’s he came to manage later in his career, a team constructed with a predominantly offensive ethos. Indeed, during the 79/80 domestic season Fortuna had the second worst defensive record in the Bundesliga, their goalscoring ability and attacking endeavour proving a saving grace.

However, Rehhagel, possibly frustrated with his team’s apparent defensive ineptitude, left Düsseldorf after the conclusion of the season and returned to Werder Bremen – who had just been relegated from the top flight – where he was to become recognised as one of the finest German coaches of his generation.



During his fourteen years with Bremen, Rehhagel transformed the club from a fallen giant into one of Europe’s strongest teams. After guiding his side back into the Bundesliga at the first time of asking, Rehhagel began to develop his philosophy of kontrollierte Offensive, a style of play that favours powerful physical attributes to flair, often featuring two or three centre-halves, a libero, wingers and at least one target man in attack.

It is certainly not an approach for purists or aesthetes, but Rehhagel has used it to make his teams play to a level above and beyond the sum of their parts for years.

No better was this ideology demonstrated than with Bremen, as Die Grün-Weißen marched to the league title in 1988 and 1993 and claimed the German Cup in 1991 and 1994 as well as winning the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1992. Combining stifling defence with attractive forward play, Werder, with a wise and experienced squad, had risen to become one of the pre-eminent sporting institutions in Germany and Rehhagel’s impact on German football, whether you deem it a positive or negative influence, was beyond doubt.

After some time managing both Bayern Munich and Kaiserslautern during the latter half of the 1990s, Rehhagel was appointed as the head coach of Greece in 2001 and the stage was set for kontrollierte Offensive’s greatest triumph. From the moment he took over the German implemented a strict man-marking system and greater levels of defensive organisation, seeing defence as the best form of attack if Greece were to become capable of matching “bigger” teams on the international stage.

Players such as Traianos Dellas, Michalis Kapsis and Theodoros Zagorakis were all groomed to take on weighty defensive responsibilities and, by the time Euro 2004 came around, the Greeks had a side that, although not as talented as many other European teams, was more than able to hold its own even when confronted with the most potent of attacks.



The Greece of 2004 may now be remembered as a stale and negative unit, but – as Zonal Marking points out  – was initially praised for its sleek passing and intelligent movement, the now prevalent incredulity towards the team not being felt until it looked like Rehhagel’s men might actually do the unthinkable and win the tournament.

During Greece’s run to the title Rehhagel showed himself to be the brilliant tactical mind that we know him to be, outsmarting the likes of Luiz Felipe Scolari and Jacques Santini as he astutely altered his team’s defensive shape to deal with the various attacking threats posed by the opposition. It may have been reactive football, but it was extremely effective. Again, it wasn’t necessarily pretty to watch, but it was hard not to marvel at the Greek defensive discipline and their efficiency in converting the few attacking set-pieces that they won.

Rehhagel’s tactical legacy may not be universally admired, but the German has been one of the most influential men in European football for several decades and was, with Greece, the man behind what was arguably the game’s most incredible achievement. For his contribution to strategic thought and almost unparalleled ability to get the most out of any given group of players, Otto Rehhagel is more than deserving of his place amongst the greatest managers of the last 100 years.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #16 Jose Mourinho

Such is the nature of the man, José Mourinho will always be a figure who divides opinions. His apparent arrogance, his forthright opinions and occasional petulance have all got under the skin of those on the receiving end of his psychological games in the past, but there is surely little doubt that he is one of the greatest managers of the modern era.

He may now be recognised as something of a managerial virtuoso, but the Portuguese’s road to the top was not a straightforward one. The son of a former international goalkeeper, Mourinho initially embarked upon a career as a player but brought an end to his endeavours in 1987 after accepting that he would never make it at the top level. “I’m an intelligent person,” he is quoted as saying. “I knew I was not going to go any higher. The second division was my level.”

Following the conclusion of his playing career, Mourinho went on to study sports science and became a PE teacher while looking for ways to get into the business of coaching. His first major breakthrough came with his hometown club, Vitória de Setúbal, where he took on a role training the youth team and began to work towards his coaching badges. Mourinho’s work in Setúbal greatly impressed the first team manager at the time, Manuel Fernandes, who wasted no time in making him his assistant when he was appointed as the head coach of second division side Estrela da Amadora.

However, Mourinho’s time in Amadora was short-lived, the then 29 year-old jumping at the chance to become Sir Bobby Robson’s translator when the Englishman arrived in Portugal to coach Sporting Lisbon. The two men became close friends during Robson’s time in Lisbon, Mourinho moving to Porto to continue working for the former England manager when he left the capital. Indeed, it was Robson who initially recognised Mourinho’s tactical awareness and exceptional ability to read the game, offering the future Chelsea boss the chance to take a more active role in first team affairs when he became the manager of Barcelona in 1996.

Relishing the extra responsibilities with which he was entrusted at Camp Nou, Mourinho planned training sessions and compiled reports on forthcoming opposition, reports that Robson once said were the best that he’d ever received. When his mentor departed Spain in June 1997, Mourinho stayed in Barcelona and struck up a good working relationship with the new manager, Louis van Gaal. The Dutchman increased the scope of the Portuguese’s role within the club yet further, even allowing Mourinho to take charge of the first team during minor cup competitions such as the Copa Catalunya in which he guided the Blaugrana to victory in May 2000, his first title in a coaching capacity.

With Mourinho’s stock within the European game continually rising, it was only a matter of time before he was offered his first independent managerial job. Such an opportunity materialised in the summer of 2000, “the special one” turning down Bobby Robson’s offer to become assistant manager at Newcastle United before taking the top job at Benfica. Yet his association with the Águias was fleeting, Manuel Vilarinho – a man who had pledged to bring in former player Toni as manager – being elected the club’s new president just weeks into his employment. Following a victory over city rivals Sporting Lisbon, Mourinho asked for a contract extension in order to examine Vilarinho’s loyalty to him and, when the president refused, he resigned with immediate effect less than six months into his tenure.

The following season he took over the reins at União de Leiria, guiding the club to fifth place in the Portuguese top flight – Leiria’s best ever league finish – and further building his burgeoning reputation. Mourinho’s success saw him offered the Porto job ahead of the 2002/03 season, the role that would kick-start his career at the very top level and one he accepted with relish.

Breathing new life into the careers of ageing internationals such as Jorge Costa and players struggling to fulfil their obvious talent like Maniche and Benny McCarthy, Mourinho created a tight-knit and highly motivated outfit, transforming the fortunes of his new club and spurring them on to an historic treble consisting of the league, the domestic cup and the UEFA Cup – beating Celtic 3-2 in the final. As debut seasons go, it was remarkably accomplished.



In 2003/04 Mourinho and Porto successfully defended their domestic crown with an eight-point margin, but it was in the Champions League that Os Dragões and their charismatic manager made the biggest impact. With Porto beating Manchester United, Lyon, Deportivo La Coruña and Monaco amongst others on their way to a remarkable continental triumph, it was during that European campaign that Mourinho’s reputation for efficient, pragmatic football came to the fore.

Only winning one game (the final) by more than two goals, the Portuguese champions displayed what we now recognise as the classic hallmarks of a Mourinho team; near-flawless defensive organisation and unerring efficiency on the counter-attack. This was a victory that had Mourinho’s name written all over it.

Later that summer the Portuguese arrived in London to manage Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea and, despite not ever quite achieving continental success, established the Stamford Bridge club as the predominant force in English football during his time there. Upon his arrival he declared, “Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one” and he certainly didn’t disappoint.

In both of his first two seasons in west London (2004/05 and 2005/06) Mourinho took Chelsea to the Premier League title, constructing a team that played a relatively cautious version of 4-3-3 which proved extremely effective against the rigid 4-4-2 systems deployed by such a large number of their domestic opponents. Two League Cup triumphs and the 2006/07 FA Cup were added to The Blues’ trophy cabinet before their coach left “by mutual consent” under something of a cloud just weeks into the 2007/08 campaign following a series of disputes with the board.

The following summer Massimo Moratti appointed Mourinho as Roberto Mancini’s replacement, the Italian having been sacked after failing to make sufficient headway in the Europe. During his first season in Italy the Portuèguese secured Inter’s fourth consecutive Serie A title, but elimination in the first knockout round of the Champions League saw some question his future on the peninsula.

However, the 2009/10 campaign was to see Mourinho achieve arguably his greatest feat to date, claiming an unprecedented treble consisting of the league title, the Coppa Italia and the Champions League, the first time such a feat had ever been achieved.



Regularly playing with a compact 4-2-3-1 system, it was in the Champions League that Mourinho’s style of football, in the words of Jonathan Wilson, reached its “nihilistic peak”. Doing just enough to overcome Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona with a meagre 16% possession in the second leg of the semi-final  was a triumph for the former Porto manager’s pragmatism which, despite the criticism it has drawn, is clearly a tactical theory and an ideology that wins football matches.

Mourinho’s detractors argue that his football is “boring” and overly negative, also claiming that he’s had a relatively straightforward career in that he’s always been at the club’s with the healthiest bank accounts in their respective leagues, but I don’t think those arguments stand up. Very few managers have achieved anything like the serial success that he has enjoyed over the last six years and, in my mind at least, the Portuguese has – at the age of just 47 – already done enough to be considered as one of the great coaches of the last 100 years.

Whether he will be able to continue to add to his list of honours as he prepares to lead Real Madrid’s second wave of Galácticos this season remains to be seen, but José Mourinho’s incredible managerial credentials are surely now beyond doubt.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #15 Giovanni Trapattoni

Giovanni Trapattoni, now 71, is one of the grand old men of European football and a manager who has won numerous titles across the continent; in Italy, Germany, Portugal and Austria. In fact, he is one of only two coaches to have won a league title in four different countries, the other being the great Austrian manager Ernst Happel. He may have opted to take on several lower-profile jobs in recent years, but Trapattoni more than deserves to be recognised as one of the most astute and relentlessly successful coaches of his generation.

A highly-regarded centre-half at Milan for the majority of his playing career, it was with the Rossoneri that Trapattoni was handed his first managerial role, intermittently taking charge of first team affairs between 1974 and 1976 before moving to Turin to take the reins at Juventus. It was to be with the Bianconeri that ‘Trap’ would make his name as a coach, managing the team for a decade and winning every domestic and continental competition the club participated in.

Trapattoni’s first campaign with the club, the 1976/77 season, saw the 38 year-old coach lead Juve to their second consecutive league title and, inspired by the two Robertos, Bettega and Boninsegna, won the UEFA Cup beating the likes of Manchester United and Athletic Bilbao on their path to victory. It was the start of what was to be an unprecedented run of success for La Vecchia Signora.

During the next nine seasons Juve claimed the Scudetto a further five times, Trapattoni instilling in his team his own interpretation of Helenio Herrera’s catenaccio system, his back four all being assigned to man-mark the opposition attackers with a libero – the elegant Gaetano Scirea in this case – providing vital extra cover from behind the primary defensive line. However, despite their obvious excellence at the back, Trapattoni’s Juventus were not a side that can be defined in terms of the negativity catenaccio has become a byword for.

During that golden era the Bianconeri became the masters of the swift counter-attack, gifted midfielders such as Marco Tardelli, Michel Platini and Franco Causio providing the team with the physicality, speed and precise movement of the ball that was needed to carry out Trapattoni’s instructions to the letter. The Juventus of the late seventies and early eighties were as finely-honed outfit as it was possible to find.

That iconic generation of Juve players reached the pinnacle of its achievements in 1985 when it won the European Cup for the first time in the club’s history. Tardelli, Platini, Paulo Rossi and Zibi Boniek, the players that represented the team’s creative heart, all played crucial roles as Trapattoni guided his side past, amongst others, Sparta Prague, Bordeaux and Liverpool en route to securing the continent’s ultimate prize.



The enigmatic manager joined Internazionale a year later, staying with the Nerazzurri  for five years and winning both the 1989 Scudetto and the 1991 UEFA Cup. During his time with Inter, Trapattoni constructed a team comprised of a number home-grown talents including Walter Zenga and Riccardo Ferri as well as some of the mainstays of the West German 1990 World Cup-winning team, Andreas Brehme, Lothar Matthäus and Jürgen Klinsmann all key components in what was a well-rounded and famously defensively sound system.

Following the conclusion of the 1991 campaign, Trapattoni moved back to Turin for his second spell with Juventus, enduring a less successful spell during an era dominated by Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan – though still lifting the 1993 UEFA Cup – before departing for Bayern Munich in 1994. The Italian’s first season in Germany was a difficult one, Bayern only managing a sixth place finish in the Bundesliga and suffering humiliation in the DFB Pokal after a first round exit at the hands of fourth-tier TSV Vestenbergsgreuth in his first game in charge.

Trapattoni left Munich after just one season to take on the vacant Cagliari job ahead of the 1995-96 campaign, but returned to coach the German giants just a year later for what would be a far more positive two years in charge. In 1996-97 he guided Bayern to a Bundesliga and Ligapokal (League Cup) double, the goals of Klinsmann and the excellent form of emerging players such as Dietmar Hamann and Mehmet Scholl making Trap’s team the dominant domestic force. However, his relationship with the club was to take a turn for the worse the following season, tensions rising to the surface despite triumphing in the Pokal as Otto Rehhagel’s Kaiserslautern pipped Bayern to the title.

Frustrated with his team’s apparent lack of progress, Trapattoni departed Munich for the second and final time, heading to Fiorentina for two years and guiding La Viola to a place in the Champions League before taking charge of the Italian national team in 2000 following their defeat to France in the final of the European Championships of that summer.

During his four years with Italy, not unlike his compatriot Fabio Capello, Trapattoni struggled to transfer his supreme skills as a club manager over into the international arena, the great man being criticised throughout his tenure for the lack of results achieved by his perceived negative approach. A disappointing showing at the 2002 World Cup – where Italy were eliminated at the hands of South Korea 2-1 in the Last 16 – was followed by a disastrous group phase exit at Euro 2004. However, the veteran coach was quickly back to winning ways after taking over at Benfica the following season.


                       Simao was key to Benfica's success

With the legendary Portuguese club having endured a fallow period during the majority of the 1990s and first years of the 2000s, Trapattoni wrote himself into the history books of the Águias by claiming the title as he got the very best out of the likes of Simão, Luisão and Nuno Gomes to finish three points clear of Porto. Yet Trap resigned after that one triumphant season, apparently not entirely satisfied with life in Portugal and wanting to be based closer to his family.

A brief spell with Stuttgart followed before the Italian moved to Austria to coach Red Bull Salzburg. The two years he spent at the Red Bull Arena between 2006 and 2008 brought one title – in 2006/07 – and re-established Die Bullen as Austria’s preeminent force after a decade having ceded dominance to Sturm Graz and Austria Wien. In 2008 Trapattoni moved to take up his second international job with the Republic of Ireland and, had it not been for that pesky main of Thierry Henry, could well have taken them to the World Cup in South Africa. 

He may not have achieved the flawless record of others that have and are still to appear in this series, but Trapattoni is the only manager in history to have won all official UEFA competitions and, for developing the philosophy of catenaccio beyond Herrera’s initial strategies and combining it with an attractive brand of counter-attacking football at Juventus, he deserves to be noted as one of the finest tactical minds there has ever been.

Only Europeans so far. 

Great read on Mourinho

Only Europeans so far.  

Football’s Greatest Managers: #14 Carlos Bianchi

Almost certainly the finest South American coach there has ever been, Carlos Bianchi was first a successful player before embarking upon his glittering managerial career. A prolific striker (and an uncanny Larry David look-a-like) for Vélez Sársfield, Stade de Reims, Strasbourg and Paris Saint-Germain, Bianchi is recognised by FIFA as the highest scoring Argentinian in the history of top-flight football, topping a list populated by famous names such as Alfredo Di Stefano, Angel Labruna, Diego Maradona and Martin Palermo.

In 1985, Bianchi, having concluded his playing career in France, took his first managerial job with Stade de Reims, also coaching at Nice and Paris FC with limited success before returning to Argentina in 1993 to take charge of his boyhood club, Vélez. It was back in Buenos Aires that Bianchi was to win his first major titles as a coach, guiding Vélez to the 1993 Clausura title – the club’s first major honour since 1968 – and re-establishing El Fortín as a significant force in Argentinian football.


                     Velez's class of '94

The following year was to be one of the most successful of Bianchi’s career and undoubtedly the most glorious season in this history of Vélez Sársfield.

Despite not repeating their domestic success of the previous campaign, Bianchi led his team to an historic Copa Libertadores triumph as they overcame the likes of Palmeiras, Cruzeiro, Boca Juniors and São Paulo (the latter on penalties in the final) to claim the biggest prize in South American football.

Just four months later Vélez were back on the big stage, facing Fabio Capello’s AC Milan in the Intercontinental Cup final and beating the Italians 2-1 in Tokyo with goals from Roberto Trotta and Omar Asad. The victory sealed a glorious double for the club and sealed Bianchi’s growing reputation as one of the most astute managers in the South American game.

Two more domestic titles and a Copa Interamericana followed before Bianchi left Vélez to first join Roma for a brief spell in 1996 before being handed the reins at Boca Juniors in 1998, the club where he would go on to oversee an unprecedented run of domestic and continental success.

Coaching a team filled with blossoming talents such as Walter Samuel, Juan Román Riquelme, Sebastián Battaglia and the aforementioned Palermo, Bianchi restored Boca to what many fans see as their rightful place as the kings of South American football. One Clausura and two Apertura titles came in Bianchi’s first two years in charge, the first of three Libertadores titles arriving in 2000 with a 4-2 aggregate win over Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Palmeiras in the final.

Bianchi’s second Intercontinental Cup success came in the same year, Boca overcoming Vicente Del Bosque’s Real Madrid courtesy of a double-salvo from Palermo within the first five minutes of the game. Indeed, Boca’s victory over the Spanish giants at the peak of the galáctico era served to drive the Argentinian club on to even bigger and better things as Bianchi’s charges, by now at the peak of their powers, stormed to the 2001 Libertadores in impressive fashion, Riquelme pulling the strings in midfield with Guillermo Schelotto prolific in front of goal.

A one-season hiatus in the procession of silverware was to follow when Bianchi left the club for a short time in 2001, only to return in 2003 and deliver an historic treble consisting of the Apertura, Libertadores – incidentally the continental campaign Tim Vickery describes as the best he’s witnessed – and Intercontinental Cup. The Apertura was won by a margin of three points over the nearest challengers, San Lorenzo, with Carlos Tévez firing the team to success and transferring his excellent league form over into the Libertadores.

With the goals of Marcelo Delgado (who scored two in the final against Santos) and Schelotto having seen Bianchi claim the fourth continental title of his distinguished career and prove his ability to build teams anew every few seasons, Boca travelled to Yokohama to take on Carlo Ancelotti’s Milan in an attempt to claim the third Intercontinental title in the club’s history.

                                                        Boca win the 2003 Intercontinental Cup

Again demonstrating his immense tactical capabilities, Bianchi stunted the creativity of a Milan team at the peak of their powers, setting Boca out in a compact 4-4-1-1 which largely negated the creativity of Kaka and Andrea Pirlo in the Italians’ midfield.

The combative performances of Battaglia and Matias Donnet were a particular highlight and prevented the Rossoneri from finding their usual rhythm, Boca coming back from a goal behind to draw 1-1 and win the tie on penalties.

After leaving La Bombonera for a second time in 2004, Bianchi – by this point widely considered the greatest South American manager of all time – spent a brief and relatively unhappy time at Atlético Madrid where he was sacked just a few months into a three-year contract after a poor run of results.

However, his stock in his native continent remains as high as ever and, although Bianchi has been out of the game since 2006, he would be a popular selection to replace Diego Maradona at the helm of the Argentine national team, something the man himself has not ruled out.

For his consistent success, uncanny ability to revive the fortunes of slumbering giants and his outsmarting of Del Bosque’s Madrid and Ancelotti’s Milan (arguably the two finest European sides of the 2000s) in respective Intercontinental finals, Bianchi undoubtedly deserves to go down as one of history’s great coaches. And he may not be finished just yet…

Football’s Greatest Managers: #13 Matt Busby

There are two types of great manager. There are those who jump from club to club, spreading their ideas and philosophies across continents as wandering tactical evangelists, football’s travelling professors. And then there are those who build legacies, shape rich histories and become inextricably linked with the fortunes of an individual club. Sir Alexander Matthew Busby is emphatically one of the latter.

Born into a modest mining family in North Lanarkshire, the Manchester United legend began to forge his way as a footballer in adolescence, playing part-time for Denny Hibernian as a young man before attracting interest from several professional teams. Somewhat ironically, Busby – by all accounts a neat-passing right-half – made his name as a player with two of United’s biggest rivals, signing for Manchester City in 1928 before finishing his career with Liverpool in the late 1930s.

Following the conclusion of the Second World War Busby was hired as the manager of Manchester United, an appointment which ushered in a run of success that was, at the time, unprecedented in the club’s history. Indeed, United’s fortunes were to be immediately revived, the team finishing second in the league during Busby’s first three years in charge as well as winning the 1948 FA Cup.

The Scot claimed his first league title as a manager in 1952 when his experienced team won the club’s first championship for 40 years, beating Tottenham Hotspur to top spot by just four points. However, impressive as the league success was, Busby really made his name drastically and effectively regenerating his playing staff over the seasons that followed. The older players in the squad were slowly phased out and replaced with some of the country’s finest young talents, the likes of Jackie Blanchflower, Bobby Charlton and Duncan Edwards all arriving at Old Trafford during the mid-fifties.

Having won back-to-back titles in 1956 and 1957 and become the first English club to participate in the European Cup in the process, the “Busby Babes” – so called for the relative youth of the squad – looked set to go on to dominate domestic football for the foreseeable future. However, in 1958 the team was tragically involved in the Munich air disaster, an accident which resulted in the death of eight United players and saw the team’s hopes and ambitions shattered in heartbreaking circumstances.


                Busby's 1968 European Cup winners

In typical fashion, Busby refused to let the club go into decline following the 1958 tragedy and doggedly set about rebuilding his squad. The likes of George Best and Denis Law were brought through the youth system and the Old Trafford outfit quickly rose back to the summit of English football, titles being won in 1965 and 1967 before United became the first English club to win the European Cup in 1968.

The team that conquered the continent has since become known as one of the finest teams Britain has ever produced; Bill Foulkes, Pat Crerand, Best and Charlton all being considered some of the great talents of their era. Organised in Busby’s classical 4-4-2 (he is considered, alongside Alf Ramsey, regarded as one of the best exponents of the formation), the Scottish coach’s second great side may have disbanded relatively soon after their European success, but their impact on the British game is still being felt.

Busby retired from management in 1969, briefly returning to Old Trafford in a caretaker capacity in 1970. A true great of the British game, the Manchester United legend more than warrants his place amongst such exalted managerial company for his unsurpassed ability to constantly regenerate his squads and the way in which he single-handedly steered the Red Devils to the top table of European football.

He may not have been an innovative tactician, but Sir Matt Busby’s very modern use of youth academies and ground-breaking success in Europe make him an integral figure in the history of English football and a worthy entrant on any list of the game’s greatest managers.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #12 Bob Paisley

“Mind you, I’ve been here during the bad times too. One year we came second.” (Bob Paisley)

It would not be unreasonable to ask why, having won six league titles and three European Cups with Liverpool, Bob Paisley is only twelfth in our list of the finest managers of all time. A name synonymous with the Merseyside club, Paisley made over 250 appearances for The Reds between 1939 and 1954 before retiring from the playing staff to become a physiotherapist at Anfield, only to be appointed manager in 1974.

The reason why Paisley is only twelfth is, not to detract from his incredible achievements, because the team that he enjoyed such success with was not entirely “his” team – Liverpool had been driven into a position to succeed by the work of his predecessor, Bill Shankly. That said, although Paisley may not have built the Liverpool team that dominated both England and Europe in the 1970s, few managers have been able to match the relentless success which Paisley brought about at club level.

Taking over in the wake of Shankly’s unexpected and shocking resignation, Liverpool looked to Paisley – a member of Shankly’s famous “Boot Room” – for continuity and a steady hand during what could have been a difficult transitional time for the club. With no previous managerial experience, his first season in charge – the 1974/75 campaign – saw Liverpool finish second to Dave Mackay’s Derby County in the First Division, but it wasn’t to be long before Paisley began to fill the Anfield trophy cabinet with a veritable procession of silverware.

The 1975/76 season was a successful one on Merseyside, Liverpool winning their first title for three years thanks to the goals of John Toshack and Kevin Keegan and starting a run which would lead to an incredible six titles in nine years. Throughout that time Paisley turned the Anfield club into a true sporting dynasty and oversaw the best years of a team that included such famous names as Emlyn Hughes, Terry McDermott, Alan Hansen, Ray Clemence and Kenny Dalglish. This was the generation that defined Liverpool Football Club, and Bob Paisley was the man subtly pulling the strings in the background.


Liverpool claim the 1981 European Cup

Although Paisley’s triumphs on the domestic front were hugely impressive, it was to be on the European stage that the Sunderland-born manager was to mark himself out as one of the finest coaches the game has ever seen. Throughout the late 1970s and early 80s his Liverpool side dominated the European Cup, winning the competition in 1977, 1978 and 1981 (overcoming Borussia Mönchengladbach, Club Brugge and Real Madrid in the respective finals) as well as claiming the 1976 UEFA Cup.

It was a run of success unparalleled by any British club before or since and Paisley, who rarely gets assigned the great credit he deserves, should be far more widely lauded for attained during his time at Anfield.

He may not have been the most imaginative of tacticians in terms of the shape of his teams – Paisley was very much an advocate of the traditional 4-4-2 – but he was revered as an expert in applying the pass-and-move ethos which was at the heart of Liverpool’s sustained run of success. Added to that, Paisley was by all accounts an astute man-manager, something which was reflected in Liverpool’s astonishing run of 85 games unbeaten at home between 1978 and 1981. If not a particularly eloquent man, Paisley was said to be astute in the subtle way in which he motivated his players, tactical in his use of criticism in order to get his charges fired up to prove him wrong.

He may not have been the most modern of managers in terms of his methods, but what he did worked to great effect and it would seem from some reports that he had a far more analytical eye for the game than he liked to let on. Indeed, his signing of Kenny Dalglish in 1977 proved that he was an excellent judge of a player and was a master at finding the right personnel to fit his system.

Retiring in 1983 as a one-club man, Paisley became a board member and served the club until his death in 1996. As I said at the top of the profile, the Anfield legend may not be regarded as the most important or formative manager in Liverpool’s history, but he was unquestionably the man who took the club to the peak of its powers. For the astonishing success he achieved in a relatively short space of time, Bob Paisley should forever be considered one of the greatest managers in the history of both British and European football.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #11 Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson, a name synonymous with the success that has created the modern footballing behemoth of Manchester United, was born into the humble surroundings of 1940s Glasgow and grew up to become a modest professional footballer with St Johnstone and Rangers (amongst others) before setting out on the managerial career for which he has become so well-known.

So remarkable has Ferguson’s success been at Old Trafford over the last 24 years, his previous feats with St Mirren and Aberdeen have unfortunately been somewhat eclipsed. Starting his managerial career with East Stirlingshire at the age of 32 following his retirement as a player in 1974, Ferguson was convinced to join St Mirren by Willie Cunningham and Jock Stein after just a few months with The Shire.

It was to be with St Mirren that Ferguson established his reputation as one of Britain’s best young coaches, taking The Saints from their status as a relatively nondescript Second Division club to First Division champions in just three seasons. In Ferguson’s first full season in charge – the 1975/76 campaign – St Mirren finished sixth in the second tier with a relatively unspectacular record and a goal difference of zero.

However, just a season later the Love Street outfit showed signs of the newfound strength and confidence they had gained under Ferguson’s tutelage. With an astonishingly low average age of just 19, their brand of attractive passing football saw The Saints dominate the Second Division in 1976/77 and comfortable secure promotion to the Scottish Premier League.

The following campaign saw St Mirren’s young team narrowly escape the drop after a prolonged battle against relegation, an impressive achievement in itself, but behind the scenes Ferguson’s relationship with club chairman Willie Todd had dramatically worsened. Towards the end of the season Todd presented Ferguson with a list of ways – nearly all of which he still contests – in which the manager had breached his contract with the club, most of them involving disciplinary issues. Ferguson was promptly sacked, the only time he has ever been dismissed from a managerial post.

After attempting (and failing) to sue the club for wrongful dismissal, Ferguson took on the vacant managerial position at Aberdeen in the June of 1978 and set about transforming the club into a genuine force on both the domestic and European stages. His first season at Pittodrie was fairly underwhelming, The Dons – who had finished second the previous year – only managing a fourth-place finish to go with appearances in the semi-final of the Scottish FA Cup and the final of the League Cup.

As was the case with St Mirren, it was during his second season at the helm that Ferguson made a decisive and dramatic change to Aberdeen’s fortunes and its history. In 1979/80 Aberdeen pipped Celtic to the Premier Division title by just a solitary point, spurred on by the bewitching performances of a young Gordon Strachan on the wing. Despite missing out on the title a year later Ferguson’s Aberdeen were back to winning ways in 1982 with a Scottish Cup triumph before an astonishing Scottish Cup and Cup Winners Cup double in 1983.


         Aberdeen claim the 1983 Cup Winners Cup

The European success – which culminated in a 2-1 extra time victory over Real Madrid  – was, before his time with Manchester United, Ferguson’s crowning achievement. Having clearly demonstrated his supreme managerial talent, the Scot left Aberdeen to join Manchester United in 1986 after Ron Atkinson’s sacking with The Dons established as one of the Scottish Premier League’s eminent forces.

Appointed at Old Trafford in the November of 1986, Ferguson’s tenure in Manchester didn’t start with the relentless success he has since come to be defined by. He had inherited a club with a strong drinking culture and what was rumoured to be a rather poor work ethic, the new manager being concerned that talented players such as Paul McGrath and Bryan Robson were squandering their careers with off-field excesses. A 2-0 defeat to Oxford United in Ferguson’s first game in charge did not bode well as the Red Devils stumbled to an eleventh place finish.

Ferguson’s first English title may not have come until the 1992/93 season, but all the while he was laying plans, changing the internal culture at the club and steadily constructing the team that would go on to dominate domestic football during the early 1990s. Mark Hughes, Steve Bruce and Viv Anderson all joined the club in 1987 and quickly improved United’s fortunes as they finished second to Liverpool in Ferguson’s second season. A very disappointing campaign was to follow in 1989/90 – the closest the Scot has ever come to losing his job at Old Trafford – before an FA Cup triumphed salvaged United’s pride.

It may not have been a particularly smooth start to life in Manchester for Ferguson, but as soon as the first title arrived – in the inaugural season of the Premier League – he didn’t look back. A master of refreshing his team season after season, Ferguson continually added to his squad players of a remarkable calibre. The likes of Roy Keane, Eric Cantona and Andy Cole all arrived at Old Trafford during the mid-1990s and had an enormous impact on the club, United steamrollering their way to four titles in six years.


            1999: United make history with the treble

One of the main features of Ferguson’s time at Old Trafford has been the effective way in which he has nurtured young talent, a policy that paid dividends during the 1998/99 season which saw United claim an historic treble  – Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League – inspired by a maturing generation of youth players including David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers.

It was during that season that Manchester United were at their imperious best under Ferguson, the team perfectly balanced in all departments all the way from Peter Schmeichel in goal through to Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke’s prolific strike partnership. The late drama of the Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich was a fitting tribute to the excellent football and fighting spirit of what has gone down as one of the greatest British teams of all time.

It would have been easy for Ferguson to rest on his laurels after the treble but again he set about regenerating his squad. The early 2000s saw another three league titles claimed with a new generation of players including Rio Ferdinand and Ruud van Nistelrooy coming to the fore and continuing the club’s domestic dominance. A brief barren spell in the league beset the club between 2003 and 2006 before United emphatically returned to form during the 2006/07 season

Indeed, the late 2000s, with his team spearheaded by Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, was to be prove yet another glittering period in Ferguson’s career. Demonstrating an increasing tactical flexibility “Fergie” guided his team to three consecutive league titles and, in 2008, another Champions League triumph as Chelsea were beaten on penalties in the final in Moscow. Despite occasional rumours that the Scot was soon to retire resurfacing intermittently throughout the last decade, United’s recent achievements have shown that Ferguson is as capable as ever and just as astute in his tactical strategy and development of young players.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s success in British football is unmatched and his legacy continues to grow at an astounding rate. A true managerial great.

May I add, I feel all used and dirty and in need of a shower after that.

Only 1 non-European so far Eurocentrism.

Obviously I am biased, but if Shankly's not number one I think this list is flawed. I look at his winnings and his time at the club, but what really stood out to me is his mind set....when I read some of the stories of how he viewed Liverpool football club, it wasn't a job, it was his life. Every quote that was noted, every tactic that was ever used, every trophy that was won, it all means so much to this club. God I wish the man was still here, I never knew him, or was around when he set things right for Liverpool, but I know if there was one man who could single handedly force the two **** out, it would be Shanks. 

It's a pile of sh*t, Fergie over Paisley, you've got to be F***ing kidding me.

Paisley had a bit of class about him, unlike that bullying, horrible sh*t for a human being, chewy-eating tw*t.

Shankly at number 10.

Fabio Capello - wonder if he'll get a look in. Loads of people think he's a bit of a clown (for failing at the World Cup with England...please) but winning the league in Spain and Italy in some challenging clubs is no mean feat. World Class no matter what other people think.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #10 Bill Shankly

“It was my idea to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility. Napoleon had that idea and he conquered the bloody world.”

There have certainly been managers who have won more than him, but few coaches have bestridden the English game with the same indelible intensity and force of character as Bill Shankly. Widely considered the greatest manager in Liverpool’s long and illustrious history, this most engaging of individuals is more than worthy of closer examination.

Born in an East Ayrshire mining village in 1913, Shankly endured a difficult childhood as his large family suffered from the poverty which blighted the area at that particular time. Indeed, Shankly’s difficult upbringing is thought of as being the catalyst for the staunch socialist views and tough exterior he later became famed for.

Discovering his gift for football at an early age, Shankly developed into a talented wing-back during his formative years at Cronberry Eglinton FC and the Glenbuck Cherrypickers. Attracting a good deal of interest from professional clubs Shankly signed for Partick Thistle in 1929 before getting his big break with Carlisle United in 1932. It was during his year at Brunton Park that the Scot became well-known in English footballing circles, gaining a £500 (a significant fee for the time) move to Preston North End.

Spending sixteen years as a first team player at Preston, Shankly established himself as a member of a successful side and played sufficiently well to be handed five caps for his country. Indeed, had it not been for the Second World War interrupting his career, Shankly could have gone on to become far better known as a player.

Following the conclusion of his playing career in the late 1940s Shankly immediately sought to forge a career in management, his former club Carlisle United presenting him with such an opportunity. The Scot’s impact on the club was immediate and impressive, Carlisle being transformed from a mid-table nonentity into title contenders within two years under his stewardship.

However, Shankly grew tired of the perceived tight-fistedness of the Carlisle directors and dramatically walked away from the club at the conclusion of the 1951 season. It was then that Shankly was to have his first interview for the Liverpool job but, lacking in significant managerial experience, was not selected to replace George Kay at Anfield.

During the remainder of the 1950s Shankly flitted between a number of clubs, the still green coach having modest spells in charge of Grimsby Town, Workington and Huddersfield Town. However, despite success deserting him during his formative years as a manager, Shankly’s force of character and his ability to motivate players was evident for all to see.

It was these traits, so it is said, that attracted Liverpool to him when Phil Taylor left the club in the November of 1959, an appointment which would change the course of British football history forever.

The Liverpool Football Club Shankly found himself at as the fifties drew to a close was nothing like the world-renowned institution we know it to be today. All those years ago the Anfield club was in the midst of an alarming decline, languishing in the second tier with just a single title having been won since 1923 and both the stadium and training facilities in a state befitting of a tawdry amateur outfit.

But Shankly changed all that.

In a radical shake-up of the club Shankly promptly released twenty-four members of the playing staff shortly after his arrival and, greatly to his credit, increased communication between the coaches in an effort to shape more coherent policies throughout the club. “The Boot Room“, as it became known, was where the likes of Shankly, Joe Fagan and Bob Paisley would sit and discuss tactics and ideas, formulating the strategies which would eventually see Liverpool rise to the top of English football.

In the early sixties, with Shankly modernising the club all the while, Liverpool’s new approach under their charismatic Scottish manager finally began to pay off. The 1961/62 season saw the club promoted to the First Division and continue to be shaped in Shankly’s defining image. Just two years later, on the back of a phenomenal ascent, Liverpool became the champions of England.

While the rest of the world concerned itself with the Cuban missile crisis and the perceived threat of Communism to the world order, Shankly was staging a revolution of his own, deposing Everton from the summit of the English game and forcibly dragging managerial methods into the modern era in the process.

His team of the 1960s – which contained club legends such as Ian St. John and Peter Thompson – went on to win another title in 1966, also enjoying some success on the continent as they reached the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1965 as well as the ’66 Cup Winner’s Cup final.

The turn of the decade saw Shankly undertake a transition as he laid the foundations for the incredible success Liverpool would enjoy latter half of the 1970s. The first wave of players that had flourished under the Scot were largely released and replaced by a younger crop of players, the likes of Ray Clemence and Kevin Keegan being given the chance to establish themselves at Anfield.

By that time Liverpool had, through Shankly’s sheer dogged persistence, become one of the most forward-thinking clubs in England. As Keegan once said of the iconic manager, “He put his character into the club in every facet from bottom to top”, the transformation of Liverpool Football Club was largely achieved through the sheer determination of Shankly to realise his ambitious vision for the club.

After a hesitant start to the new decade, Liverpool eventually found their feet again in 1972/73 as The Reds expertly navigated their way to the UEFA Cup title, Borussia Mönchengladbach being defeated 3-2 in the final with goals from Keegan (2) and Larry Lloyd. The same season also saw the Anfield side regain their First Division crown, Arsenal being beaten to the title by three points to confirm the permanence of Shankly’s incredible legacy.


               Shankly parades the 1974 Charity Shield

The season which followed the double-winning year was to be Shankly’s last in charge of the club whose fortunes he had dramatically revived. 1973/74 saw Liverpool finish runners-up to Leeds in the league, but the club did not go without silverware as they beat Newcastle United 3-1 in the FA Cup final in what was to be Shankly’s final game at the helm.

With Shankly having taken on what was a struggling and poorly-financed Second Division club in 1959 and turned it into one of the most modern, visionary and successful teams in England by 1974, the Scot’s achievements with Liverpool cannot be underestimated.

The first manager since Herbert Chapman to truly revolutionise football management in the UK, Shankly’s charismatic and engaging approach to leadership we see reflected in top-level coaches to this day.  For that, for his commitment to Liverpool’s cause and his legendary rapport with the Anfield faithful, Shankly has become near-messianic figure on Merseyside.

William Shankly. One of football’s great modernisers.

Football’s Greatest Managers…#9 Vittorio Pozzo

A name that has unfortunately faded into obscurity in recent years, Vittorio Pozzo is undoubtedly one of the greatest managers of all time. One of the most relentlessly successful international coaches the game has ever seen, Pozzo led Italy to two World Cup triumphs and Olympic gold during his twenty years in charge of the Azzurri in three spells between 1912 and 1948.

A prolific traveller during his youth, Pozzo studied in England at the turn of the century, learning English in Manchester and discovering football in the throes of a nascent professionalism. The game fascinated Pozzo and, overcome with an evangelical zeal, embarked on a playing career which saw him appear for Grasshopper Club Zurich before returning to Italy with Torino in 1906.

Back in Italy and determined to ingrain football into general society on the peninsula, Pozzo volunteered to coach the Italian national team at the Olympics of 1912 in Stockholm. Despite being eliminated at the first hurdle at the hands of Finland the tournament had been a significant learning process for the Azzurri and a notable milestone on the country’s road to footballing development.

On his return from Sweden Pozzo went back to Torino in a managerial capacity, the club at  which he stayed until 1922. During that time the rising coach was forced to juggle football with his job as a middle manager at Pirelli as well as having his blossoming sporting commitments disrupted by the First World War. In 1922 he left Turin and headed south, taking the reins at AC Milan and overseeing a relatively quiet time in the Rossoneri‘s history before returning to the national team in 1928.

Pozzo, known to many as il Vecchio Maestro (the Old Master), was eventually handed the Italy job on a permanent basis in the winter of 1929 – although he was initially unpaid – and promptly set about building one of the most successful teams there has ever been. The most significant aspect of Pozzo’s position was that he was given free reign over the national team, becoming one of the first international managers to be able to make decisions without the often smothering influence of a technical committee.

Italy didn’t take part in the first World Cup in 1930, but all the while Pozzo was developing his tactical theories – the ‘Metodo‘ system being the most famous of his ideas. The formation was loosely based on the 2-3-5 system which had become popular in central Europe during the 1920s, but differed in several crucial ways.

Rather than risking a sheer lack of defensive cover by playing five out-and-out strikers, Pozzo dropped two of the forwards back into what would now be considered an attacking midfield position. This created what became known as “inside forwards” and gave Italy, in what was essentially a 2-3-2-3 shape, far greater flexibility than many of their rivals.


          Pozzo is held aloft as Italy claim the 1934 World Cup

By the time the 1934 World Cup  came around Pozzo had as good as perfected his system and was in a position to mount a realistic bid for the game’s biggest title on home turf. The Italians cantered past the United States with a 7-1 victory in the first round before struggling to a draw against Spain in the Quarter Finals, eventually beating the Iberians 1-0 in a replay the following day.

The Azzurri‘s most notable win, however, came in the last four against Hugo Meisl and his Austrian Wunderteam. Inspired by the likes of Giuseppe Meazza and Angelo Schiavio, Pozzo’s team upset the odds by triumphing 1-0 in San Siro with a goal from 24 year-old striker Enrique Guaita. Not only was it a triumph over one of the best teams on the planet, it was also a triumph of the new over the old. The seemingly all-powerful Danubian 2-3-5 had been displaced by Metodo, Pozzo’s ideas leading to a dramatic change in the confluence of strategic thinking.

The final was an even more dramatic affair, Czechoslovakia being beaten 2-1 in Rome with late goals from Raimundo Orsi (81st minute) and Schiavo (95th minute) overcoming Antonín Puc’s earlier strike. The ’34 World Cup had signaled a juncture in the evolution of tactics, Pozzo being the central figure in this move away from the attack-biased systems on the 1920s and towards a more cautious, counter-attacking future. This was il Vecchio Maestro‘s finest hour.

Pozzo and Italy’s run of success continued throughout the 1930s, the Azzurri winning the Central European International Cup in 1935 before claiming the Olympic title in Berlin a year later. The Olympic final saw Austria slain yet again, the Italians running out 2-1 winners in extra-time with two goals from Frossi to kill off the Austrian golden generation once and for all.

Pozzo’s Italy were widely considered the best team on the planet going into the 1938 World Cup in France, but were having their stranglehold on the international game threatened by the up-and-coming Hungarians. After comfortable passage through to the final the two teams clashed in the tournament’s climax, the rampant Italians up against Alfred Schaffer’s majestic team. Despite Hungary arguably having played the more impressive football during the competition, Italy refused to be phased as Pozzo led them to a famous 4-2 victory in Paris.

A brace each for Gino Colaussi and Silvio Piola gave Italy their second consecutive world title, Pozzo outsmarting a Hungary side still attempting to adapt to the tactical changes that had been brought about four years earlier. However, where Hungary would continue improving until well into the 1950s, ’38 marked the point from which Italian football began something of a decline.

Pozzo remained in his job until the after the Second World War, but resigned in 1948 following a 5-3 defeat to Denmark in the Olympic quarter-finals. By that time the great coach had become unfortunately tainted by association to Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime, many believing him to be at best a puppet and at worst a voracious supporter of the right-wing dictator. He returned to life as a sports journalist for La Stampa after quitting management with his reputation far from as strong as it deserved to be.

A tactical visionary and arguably the game’s most prolific international coach, any list of the football’s greatest managers would be thoroughly incomplete without mention of il Vecchio Maestro, the godfather of Italian football as we know it today.

Paisley and Shankly not even really in the top 10, Shankly just scraping in? Bullshit.

At least Shankly is ahead of that c**t ferguson. Still should be a lot higher IMO.

Shankly and Paisley were so closely tied together during Shankly's regime, that I would make Shankly 1A and Paisley 1B

I wonder if Arsehole Whinger makes it into the top 10.

I wonder if Arsehole Whinger makes it into the top 10.

He probably will. Bet ye Fergie will be given 1st.

I can't believe Shanks is 10th. I mean, even people from outside the clubs fanbase recognise how great the man was.

So far 11 managers and only one non-European, even Mussolini's manager is there. Facist c**t.

He probably will. Bet ye Fergie will be given 1st.

Fergie is 11th, between Bob and Shanks.

Nice one for posting these, RedBlood. I'm getting an education.

Knew Pozzo would be in. Two world cups - great manager although questionable about the legality of the first world cup in '34. But he deserves to be there. Had a 6 year unbeaten run with Italy in the 30s.

Rinus Michels is a certainty for number 1. It's probably favouring those who play 'total football' so I wouldn't be surprised about Wenger's inclusion. He has made one hell of a club out of Arsenal almost single handedly.

Nice one for posting these, RedBlood. I'm getting an education.

No worries mate, it's an interesting topic and deserves sharing.

cant believe Taggart is on there at all! Whiskey nosed b***ard

cant believe Taggart is on there at all! Whiskey nosed b***ard

Remove our rose tinted glasses for a moment mate and he has been successful and won plenty of trophies and that is what greats are inevitably judged on.

Still hate the w**ker though.

Great thread and less of the cheek . And for the record there isn't 10 managers better than Sir Alex. Is this your view Red?

Great thread and less of the cheek . And for the record there isn't 10 managers better than Sir Alex. Is this your view Red?

As anyone who's anyone in football is ultimately remembered by what they achieved and won then removing my rose tinted specs, its fair to say Alex Ferguson deserved his place in the list.

As anyone who's anyone in football is ultimately remembered by what they achieved and won then removing my rose tinted specs, its fair to say Alex Ferguson deserved his place in the list.

 

 

He's a bit of a c**t, though. Wouldn't you agree?

As anyone who's anyone in football is ultimately remembered by what they achieved and won then removing my rose tinted specs, its fair to say Alex Ferguson deserved his place in the list.

Totally agree. I mean I hate him as much as you do but without him Manchester United would be rotten bacon. 2 Champions Leagues is certainly no mean feat and the fact he won the European Cups Winners Cup with Aberdeen was certainly an incredible achievement. Just thank God he's nearing retirement! Total arse though.   

He's a bit of a c**t, though. Wouldn't you agree?

He can be a pain in the arse sometimes, but can't we all    

He's a nobody, to me. A thug, a manipulator, an arrogant being who is so self-indulged that no matter what anyone else does he has to portray himself as some sort of god and outdo them.

He can F**k off that list, the c**t.

Un F***ing believable, Shankly at 10 and Paisley at 12!!!
Shankly ranks well above that and in my humble opinon Bob Paisley shoud be near the summit, we know his achievments and the character of the man - that list is total bollocks.
I was reading the text and it stated "although he won THREE European cups and SIX championship titles he won it with somebody elses team" or words to that effect, who the F**k writes this sh*t and tries to tell us that black is white. The list is without an iota of credibility.

He's a nobody, to me. A thug, a manipulator, an arrogant being who is so self-indulged that no matter what anyone else does he has to portray himself as some sort of god and outdo them.

He can f**k off that list, the c**t.

No need for that Crouchy    He's a all time great no matter what you think of him as a person. His record speaks for its self  . Even you can see that 

Un f**king believable, Shankly at 10 and Paisley at 12!!!
Shankly ranks well above that and in my humble opinon Bob Paisley shoud be near the summit, we know his achievments and the character of the man - that list is total bollocks.

My own opinion is Shanks & Fergie should be in the top 3 or 4

My own opinion is Shanks & Fergie should be in the top 3 or 4

No way Keith Bob Paisleys' record speaks for itself, he may have inherited the squad from Shanks but you know as well as i do unless they are coached with an ultimate professionalism it doesn't mean sh*t what you inherit, Bob Paisley was the ultimate professional.

No way Keith Bob Paisleys' record speaks for itself, he may have inherited the squad from Shanks but you know as well as I do unless they are coached with an ultimate professionalism it doesn't mean sh*t what you inherit, Bob Paisley was the ultimate professional.

The only thing i would add Stuey is like you said, Paisley inherited a good side. However, it still takes a top manager to get them playing at the same level Shanks did. That's why i would always have Shanks better than Bob Paisley. Both legends of course, but Shanks the better of the two in my opinion 

I'm not going to bemoan the list until I see the final 20, all of the managers listed so far have been highly successful in the game in one way or another, so it will be interesting to see who gets thrown in.

The only thing i would add Stuey is like you said, Paisley inherited a good side. However, it still takes a top manager to get them playing at the same level Shanks did. That's why i would always have Shanks better than Bob Paisley. Both legends of course, but Shanks the better of the two in my opinion  

We'll to agree to disagree Keith.

We'll to agree to disagree Keith.

I think we can both agree their legends 

No need for that Crouchy    He's a all time great no matter what you think of him as a person. His record speaks for its self  . Even you can see that 

He's an all time w**ker, that's for sure. Not many greats take 7 years to do something credible and get their arse saved by a last minute FA Cup goal.

He's an all time w**ker, that's for sure. Not many greats take 7 years to do something credible and get their arse saved by a last minute FA Cup goal.

He still did it though 

In 20+ years at the job you'd F***ing hope he did something!

I'm made up he's still there cos all the nobs don't realise he's an advert for alzimers and while he remains they gonna win F**k all.
Let's hope he stays as long as pos.

Remove our rose tinted glasses for a moment mate and he has been successful and won plenty of trophies and that is what greats are inevitably judged on.

Still hate the w**ker though.

Aye, agreed.

Still, Paisley above him IMO. Fergie deserves to drop more spots simply cos he is a c**t

Lawrenson said he felt Paisley was the greatest because 3 European Cups speak for itself doesn't it. Can't argue with Lawrenson there...for once!

Managers like Shankly, Paisley and the likes did it at a time when football wasn't corrupted by money, fat cat owners and greedy immoral players. They really did it in the purest of times and they were the purest of successes which values them at an incredibly higher level than the modern day managers and players regardless of whether they are as or more successful than the fathers of the sport!

p.s - really enjoying the thread RedLFCBlood. Thank a lot!

I've got a feeling this one is going to be rather controversial.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #8 Brian Clough

Few football coaches have grabbed the public’s attention through sheer force of personality in quite the same fashion as Brian Howard Clough. An intoxicating mix of intelligence, arrogance and abrasiveness, Clough was the antithesis of the mid-twentieth century stereotype which saw British managers as gentlemanly sorts who played the game to strengthen their moral fibre rather than to win at all costs.

Born into the humble surrounds of a Middlesbrough council estate in 1935, Clough was a keen schoolboy sportsman and began his youth career with his home town club in 1951 at the age of 16 before moving on to Billingham Synthonia in 1953. After attracting covetous glances from a number of professional clubs through his performances as a young striker, Clough eventually returned to Middlesbrough for whom he signed in 1955.

Between 1955 and 1961 Clough made 213 league appearances for Boro, scoring a remarkable 197 goals and going on to earn two England caps in the process. In 1961 ‘Cloughie’ moved to Wearside to play for Sunderland and continued to hit the net with great regularity at Roker Park, scoring 54 in 61 league games for the Black Cats. However, in 1962 Clough sustained a serious injury to his cruciate ligament from which he didn’t recover. After managing just three appearances in two years, Clough brought the curtain down on his playing career and immediately sought a fresh challenge.

In 1965, aged just 30, Clough was appointed manager of Hartlepool United – at the time an impoverished Fourth Division outfit – and so embarked on what would become a glittering coaching career. It was during his time at Victoria Park that Clough struck up his iconic professional relationship with Peter Taylor who became his assistant in the North East in those early days.

Clough’s first season with Hartlepool saw the club finish a disappointing eighteenth, but the 1966/67 campaign was one of great improvement as the ‘Monkey Hangers’ achieved a respectable eighth place finish. However, that was where Clough’s association with the club ended as he promptly walked out as a result of both boardroom strife and the fact that he has received an offer to take the reins at Second Division Derby County.

It was at Derby that Clough would make his name as one of the country’s finest young managers, guiding The Rams from second-tier obscurity to First Division champions in just five seasons. Indeed, when the Clough-Taylor partnership arrived at The Baseball Ground Derby had been stuck in the Second Division for over ten years, seemingly bereft of the talent and imagination required to progress any further.

The 1967/68 season saw Clough set about transforming Derby County from top to bottom, laying the foundations for the success that was to follow. The club may have endured a poor campaign that year, but Clough and Taylor had signed the likes of John McGovern, Dave Mackay and Roy McFarland and constructed a team that looked capable of pushing for promotion. That much sought-after promotion came the following season as Derby topped the Second Division by the significant margin of seven points and returned to the top level of English football.

Rather than merely aiming to survive the drop in his first season as a top-flight manager, Clough’s indomitable spirit saw him drive his team on to achieve a remarkable fourth-place finish in the 1969/70 campaign. The Rams may have been some thirteen points off the top, but they were separated from the great Chelsea side of Ron Harris and Peter Osgood by just two points, with Don Revie’s Leeds United (of whose style Clough was continually critical) only four points clear.

1970/71 saw the club take something of a backward step, Derby barred from competing in European competition due to financial irregularities and ending the league season in a frustrating ninth. However, that particularly underwhelming season ended up leading into the most successful campaign in the history of Derby County Football Club.



Inspired tactically and psychologically by Clough, Derby marched to their first ever top-flight title as they pipped Leeds to the championship by a single point on the final day of the season. For a club with relatively limited resources and several veterans amongst the playing staff, it was a truly incredible achievement and a career-defining one for Clough.

In 1973 Clough’s relationship with both the FA and the Derby board began to break down, the manager being accused of misconduct after writing an article criticising Leeds’ style of play as well as being caught making an obscene gesture in the direction of Matt Busby during a league game against Manchester United. In typical fashion Clough refused to apologise for either incident and eventually resigned (along with Taylor) in the October of 1973 with his exchanges with chairman Sam Longson having become increasingly hostile.

A brief and unspectacular spell in partnership with Taylor at Third Division Brighton & Hove Albion followed, only for Clough to leave the South Coast – this time without Taylor – to replace Don Revie at Leeds for an infamous 44-day spell at Elland Road which has come to be immortalised in David Peace’s fictionalised account, The Damned United.

It has been famously reported that Clough, intent on drastically altering the stylistic ethos of Leeds, announced to the players on his arrival that they could “throw their medals in the bin because they were not won fairly”. Predictably, this drew an exclusively negative response from the Leeds players who failed to respect his methods and, after a dreadful run of results, saw Clough unceremoniously sacked from the Yorkshire club.

The following season, having recovered from the Leeds fiasco, Clough took on what would be his last – and most successful – managerial post. Taking over at second-tier Nottingham Forest in January 1975, Clough and Taylor guided the club to eighth place before again proving their incredible capacity for transforming the fortunes of their teams by gaining promotion in 1976/77.

Having achieved an impressive promotion, Clough wasted no time in establishing Forest as a force in the division, masterminding the club’s unbelievable league title and League Cup double in their first season back in the First Division. That team, consisting of such talents as Martin O’Neill, Viv Anderson, John McGovern and John Robertson, would go down in history as the finest Forest team of all time as they continued to add to their list of astonishing achievements as the seasons went by.

The club’s greatest feat came in 1979 as Forest overcame Malmö in the European Cup final with a goal from Trevor Francis - the player who Clough had signed for £999,999 in order not to break the £1m mark for a player (although subsequent fees took the transfer over that particular milestone). For a club which had only claimed its first top-flight title a year earlier, Forest’s conquering of Europe was simply astounding and was the ultimate tribute to Clough’s tactical and psychological methodology as well as his uncanny ability to spot players ideal for his preferred system, usually 4-4-2 with attacking full-backs and traditional wingers.


                  Trevor Francis with the 1979 European Cup

Even more remarkably, Clough was able to defend the European Cup in 1980 as Forest beat Hamburg (another 1-0 scoreline) to further emphasise their dominance of the continental game and write their manager into history as one of the greatest of all time.

Clough spent a further thirteen years at The City Ground, Forest winning another two League Cups during that time, although, tragically, a rift grew between the great manager and Peter Taylor, something which sadly led to Taylor’s departure from the club in 1983.

In poor health and struggling to rebuild his team in the early 1990s, Clough resigned from Nottingham Forest after relegation to the second tier in 1993. It was a disappointing end to a truly wonderful career, but it did not take the gloss off Clough’s astonishing managerial record.

Like many of the game’s great coaches, his was a divisive personality, but Clough’s impact on the game cannot be denied. His ability to get clubs to excel despite a lack of money or a particularly high level of talent was exceptional and the ways in which he drilled his players in systemic intricacies and psychological toughness were unrivalled at the time and have since been echoed in the methods of other serially successful coaches.

An enigmatic figure, a master of domestic football and a double European Cup-winning manager, Brian Clough is arguably the best British manager the game has ever seen. His legacy lives on.

Paisley/Shanks > Clough. Period. Finito. Facht.

Where do you suppose Rafa will fit into this list? 

Where do you suppose Rafa will fit into this list? 

Number 1 no doubt

Where do you suppose Rafa will fit into this list? 

He shouldn't even be in the top 100 let alone the top 20.

Bloody idiot ruined the club and took us 500 step backwards.

*sarcasm*

Clough above Paisley and Shankly? Really don't get that.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #7 Valeriy Lobanovskyi

A figure of colossal footballing importance who once bestrode the European game, Valeriy Lobanovskyi’s impact on the game both in Ukraine and the continent as a whole should not be underestimated.

A famous Dynamo Kyiv winger – not to mention the inventor of the “banana shot” – in the late fifties and early sixties, Lobanovskyi hung up his boots in 1968 aged just 29 before setting out on a 32-year managerial career which would see the inscrutable former USSR international achieve worldwide recognition. His first job, at Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, lasted for four years between 1969 and 1973, although Lobanovskyi made relatively little impact at Stadium Meteor during his time there. However, when he returned to Dynamo as head coach in 1974, he began to put in place the methodology that would come to be viewed as his enduring legacy.

Famed for being as pragmatic a coach as he was exuberant a player, Jonathan Wilson eruditely describes Lobanovskyi in Inverting the Pyramid as the embodiment of “the great struggle between individuality and system: the player in him wanted to dribble, to invent tricks and to embarrass his opponents, and yet, as he later admitted, his training at the Polytechnic Institute (his University) drove him to a systematic approach, to break football down into its component tasks”.

An immensely gifted schoolboy mathematician, Lobanovskyi’s view of football as a deeply compartmentalised game was perhaps to be expected. Taking a highly scientific approach to tactical instruction, Lobanovskyi developed a theory of football as a system comprising of twenty-two elements moving with the confines of the given area of the pitch and subjected to the restrictions of the rules. Again as Wilson points out, the Ukrainian came to the conclusion that football was not about individuals, but the coalitions and connections between them.

In his first season as Dynamo manager the club won a double, claiming both the Soviet Top League championship and the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup to become the first team from the USSR to win a continental title. Indeed, inspired by the goals of the prolific Oleg Blokhin and the dynamic midfield play of Viktor Kolotov, Lobanovskyi’s side embarked upon an unparalleled period of dominance in the domestic game over the fifteen years that were to follow.

Eight league titles and six Soviet Cups under Lobanovskyi’s stewardship saw Dynamo become the dominant force in Eastern European football, excelling domestically as well as winning two Cup Winners’ Cups to make their mark on continental competition. Usually deployed in their iconic 4-1-3-2 formation with Anatoly Konkov anchoring the midfield and Blokhin and Onyshchenko providing the fire-power, Dynamo’s first incarnation under Lobanovskyi has gone down in history as one of the greatest Eastern European club sides of all time.

His success with Dynamo aside, Lobanovskyi also enjoyed a fruitful time in three spells as manager of the USSR, guiding the team to a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics as well as finishing runners-up to the Netherlands of Rinus Michels in the 1988 European Championships. Several years in charge of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in the 1990s yielded little, but his return to Kiev in 1997 heralded an upturn in the fortunes of a club that had slumped since his departure.



Between 1997 and 2002 Lobanovskyi developed a new generation of Ukrainian talent which included Andriy Shevchenko and Sergei Rebrov, taking his young team all the way to a Champions League semi-final in 1999. However, hamstrung by his best players being cherry-picked by Europe’s biggest clubs and modern players who were less responsive to his authoritarian approach, the legendary coach was unable to develop his squad to quite the level he would have wanted.

However, it was not necessarily Lobanovskyi’s serial success that made him such an instrumental figure in the history of European football. Taking his scientific approach to its extremes, the great Ukrainian introduced meticulous dietary and training regimes for his players, collated masses of data prior to every game, gave each member of his team specific tactical tasks and individual technical coaching in order for them to better fulfil their tasks – methods we see mimicked by the likes of Rafael Benitez in the modern era. As Wilson writes of Lobanovskyi, “What happened off the field in terms of physical preparation and, particularly, rehabilitation, was just as important as what happened on it”.

Lobanovskyi claimed that his ambition was to achieve uniformity amongst his players; he wanted his forwards to be capable defenders and his defenders to be capable forwards. He also instructed his players in numerous pre-planned moves, moves which became embedded in Dynamo’s play and were able to be adapted to suit a variety of circumstances.

Such practices may not seem particularly visionary to the modern football fan, but Lobanovskyi was, albeit with the advantage of having learnt at the feet of Victor Maslov, something of a pioneer in terms of the increasing professionalism and scientific regulation of football.

Today, football at the highest level is analysed right down to the microscopic level by coaches seeking to gain advantages, no matter how small, over their opponents. Although the process may have been started by Maslov before him, it was Lobanovskyi who really brought science and football together in order to attain an obviously higher standard of performance.

Mathematical tactical precision and strict dietary regimes for players – all can be traced back to Valeriy Lobanovskyi. Cutting through all of his incredible achievements, perhaps the greatest tribute to Lobanovskyi was given by Andriy Shevchenko in 2003, a year after the manager’s death. Having just won the Champions League with Milan, Shevchenko flew back to Kiev at the earliest possible opportunity to place his medal on his former coach’s grave.

Valeriy Lobanovskyi, arguably the greatest technical pioneer of them all.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #6 Arrigo Sacchi

“A jockey doesn’t have to have been born a horse.” (Arrigo Sacchi)

His time coaching at the very highest level may have been, in comparison with a number of the other managers in this series, relatively short, but Arrigo Sacchi’s impact on the modern European game was absolutely phenomenal.

A man with virtually no formal experience as a player, Sacchi broke down barriers of snobbery and crashed through countless glass ceilings in the late eighties and early nineties to become arguably the most influential coach of his generation.

Never a professional footballer, Sacchi famously held a job as a shoe salesman before embarking on his managerial career. Frustrated at his inability with the ball at his feet, Sacchi became fixated with the notion of becoming a coach and, in 1972, took charge of Baracco Luco, his local club, at the age of just twenty-six.

Despite encountering initial problems of acceptance amongst players that were both older and far more skilled than himself, Sacchi eventually won his charges over and, even at that formative stage, was clear about the attractive, attacking passing game he wished to impress on his team.

Like the great Ukrainian coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Sacchi viewed the game as a dynamic system rather than a collection of individuals, seeing every member of the team unit – whether with or without the ball – as equally significant at any given moment.

After leaving his home town club, Sacchi spent some time as a youth coach at Serie B outfit Cesena before taking on his first professional job as a first team manager at Serie C1′s Rimini in 1982.

After guiding his new club to a respectable fourth-place finish in his first season in charge, Sacchi attracted to attentions of top-flight Fiorentina who offered him a role as the head of their academy. This was to prove an invaluable springboard on his journey to the very top of the European game.

His exemplary work at the Florentine Primavera between 1983 and 1985 led to the former shoe salesman being offered his second job as a head coach, this time at Parma, which, at that time, was languishing in Serie C1.

Sacchi’s first major managerial triumph came during the 1985/86 season, his first at Il Tardini, when he inspired i Ducali to the third tier title, pipping Modena to top spot on goal difference and gaining promotion to the dizzying heights of Serie B.

With Parma playing a stylish brand of football to finish seventh in their first season back in the second tier, Sacchi had built himself a growing reputation as one of the most talented young coaches in Italy.

His meteoric rise was confirmed in the 1986/87 Coppa Italia as Parma overcame the mighty AC Milan in the group phase of the competition, winning 1-0 at San Siro before knocking the Rossoneri out in the Second Round with a goal from Mario Bortolazzi.

Parma’s achievements were enough to attract interest from Silvio Berlusconi, the Milan President, who, seeing his club gradually slide into decline, offered Sacchi the San Siro hot-seat after Fabio Capello had stepped aside in a desperate attempt to revive his club’s fading fortunes. Sacchi accepted, and it was in Milan that he would make his name as one of the greatest coaches the game has ever seen.

***

“Great clubs have had one thing in common throughout history, regardless of era or tactics. They owned the pitch and they owned the ball. That means when you have the ball, you dictate play and when you are defending, you control the space.” (Arrigo Sacchi)

After facing a barrage of media criticism regarding his lack of pedigree upon his arrival at Milan, Sacchi let his coaching do the talking and quickly constructed one of the best club sides to have ever graced Italian football, his personal pursuit of perfection driving his team on to exceptional levels of performance.

Sacchi’s Milan were built around the trio of Dutch players – Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard – that he brought in between the summer of 1987 and the conclusion of the 87/88 campaign.

That season had seen the San Siro outfit march to their first Scudetto since 1979, beating Diego Maradona’s Napoli to the title by three points and deploying a 4-4-2 system which combined pace and dynamism with a rare grace and intelligence.

According to Sacchi himself, the key to Milan’s success was the abandonment of man-marking and its replacement with a focus on pressing and a refined system of zonal marking. In the manager’s own words, “My zone was different. Marking was passed from player to player as the attacking player moved through different zones”. Both defensive and attacking movement of the precision Milan achieved under Sacchi had never been seen before – that generation of Rossoneri were tactical revolutionaries.

As Jonathan Wilson has pointed out, despite many of the innovations that Sacchi’s team have come to be associated with being of a defensive nature (staunch pressing and an aggressive offside trap to name just two), the team itself were far from being negative. “I always demanded, when we had possession, five ahead of the ball and that there would always be a man wide right and wide left”, Sacchi has said about his methods.

Everything Milan did was as a unit, movement was a collective exercise. On the training ground Sacchi was famed for putting the players into position without the ball and drilling them endlessly in the science of exactly where they should be on the field in any given situation. The team moved as one, and they did it better than everybody else.

                                         

Despite not winning the title again during his time at San Siro, Sacchi enjoyed his greatest successes in Europe. Milan brushed aside all who stood in their way during their march to the 1989 European Cup, Real Madrid being annihilated 6-1 on aggregate in the last four before Steaua Bucharest were demolished 4-0 in the Final with a brace each from van Basten and Gullit.

According to Sacchi, it was the closest he ever got to perfection and, along with Barcelona’s triumph in 2008/09, Sacchi’s Milan stand as one of the most inexorable continental forces there have ever been.

The following season, 1989/90, saw Milan retain their title in impressive fashion; Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Benfica being overcome on the way to a second domination of Europe. It was to be Sacchi’s last title with Milan, the man from Fusignano leaving the club in 1991 to take charge of the Italian national side.

***

Sacchi never quite attained the heights he had with Milan again in his career, but his time with Italy was fruitful enough. Failure to qualify for Euro 1992 was, seeing as he came in half-way through the campaign, not entirely Sacchi’s fault, and the way in which he resurrected the country’s fortunes was spectacular.

Two years later, having qualified for the tournament with relative ease, the Azzurri reached the 1994 World Cup Final having kicked into gear in the quarter-finals after a sluggish start to the competition. Indeed, had it not been for some erratic penalty taking against Brazil in the Pasadena Rose Bowl, Sacchi could have added the greatest title of them all to his collection but, as it was, Italy were consigned to a painful defeat at the hands of Carlos Alberto Parreira’s side.

Having quit his post after a disappointing group stage exit from Euro ’96, Sacchi returned to Milan for a single season in 1996/97 but, shorn of the majority of the players who he had worked with previously, was unable to recreate the success he had enjoyed during the late eighties.

Brief spells at Atletico Madrid and Parma followed, Los Colchoneros claiming the 1999 Copa del Rey under his stewardship, but, by the end of the century, Sacchi’s time in management had reached a natural conclusion.

The latter part of his career may have been marked by a failure to return to the near-impossibly high standards he had set for himself at San Siro, but Arrigo Sacchi will be remembered, quite rightly, as one of the finest tacticians of the age and the man who re-invented pressing and zonal marking for the modern game.

Arrigo Sacchi e il suo Milan degli Immortali

Football’s Greatest Managers: #5 Herbert Chapman

Like so many of the game’s greatest managers, Herbert Chapman was little more than a mediocre player, travelling the lower leagues as a journeyman inside forward and never once getting his hands on any silverware. However, Chapman’s impact on the British game as a coach and tactical innovator remains unparalleled, the man famous for taking Arsenal to the very pinnacle of English football bestriding the modern game like a colossus.

Unlike some players who become set upon the idea of becoming a manager early in their careers, Chapman came to the profession almost entirely unintentionally. In 1907, having decided that he would retire from football after the conclusion of his final season with Tottenham Hotspur, Chapman had planned to pursue a career in mine engineering but was unexpectedly offered the chance to coach Northampton Town, a position he accepted and took on initially in a player/manager capacity.

At the time Northampton were languishing in the lower reaches of the Southern League and, frustrated with the total vacuum of tactical organisation he had witnessed throughout English football, Chapman took it upon himself to transform The Cobblers both in terms of results and methods.

He got Northampton playing a style of football which saw the midfield drop deeper in order for the forwards to be afforded more space (of course, in those days teams regularly fielded four or five forwards) and drew the opposition defenders further up field to create space in behind. These tweaks to Northampton’s game eventually led to the creation of an effective counter-attacking methodology, one with which Chapman’s team enjoyed great success.

Indeed, the local media at the time recognised the extraordinary nature of Northampton’s tactics under their Yorkshire-born coach, the Northampton Daily Echo noting at the time “The forwards wove no fancy patterns…but, given the ball, straight they sped for the goal. Just a brief run, enough to draw part of the defence to the spot, and over it went with almost amazing accuracy to the other side of the field. There the operation was repeated.”

Having finished a respectable eighth in Chapman’s first season in charge, Northampton won the Southern League in 1908/09 although were not promoted due to the lack of a system for automatic promotions or relegations being in place. Angered by the absence of a coherent meritocracy of any kind in the footballing pyramid, Chapman proposed the idea to the Football Association and, although rejected at the time, was introduced a decade later – the basis for the idea being credited to the visionary coach.

Famed for his scouting abilities, Chapman proved his supreme eye for a player over and over again during his time with Northampton, the signing of 21 year-old winger Fred Walden from Wellingborough Town being a case in point. Walden, deemed by many to be too skinny and lightweight (he was a little over five feet tall) to make it in the rough-and-tumble world of early twentieth century English football, blossomed into one of the finest wide players of his generation under Chapman’s tutelage, even going on to represent England.

Three consecutive top four finishes in the Southern League with Northampton led to a host of other clubs seeking to hire their talented young manager, Chapman (who was still working part-time at the local collieries at this stage) eventually leaving for Leeds City in 1912. A team struggling in the Second Division, Chapman’s influence quickly transformed the original tenants of Elland Road into a competitive force, finishing sixth in his first season with the club and fourth in his second. By the time the First World War broke out and disrupted the footballing calendar, Leeds City were widely expected to win the Second Division title but, during the conflict, were forced to participate only in regional competitions.

In the wake of the Great War, Leeds City were charged with financial irregularities and found guilty of making illegal payments to players during wartime matches. In October 1919 the club was dissolved and its top officials, Chapman included, were summarily given a lifetime ban from football. It looked as though Chapman’s promising managerial career had been brought to an abrupt end.

However, just a year later Huddersfield Town approached Chapman with a view to making him their new assistant manager. Supported by the Huddersfield board, Chapman successfully appealed his lifetime ban claiming ignorance of the underhand dealings that had been going on at Elland Road during the war.

Shortly after his arrival at Huddersfield Chapman was installed as manager following the departure of Ambrose Langley in February 1921 and quickly set about implementing his counter-attacking philosophy. Central to Huddersfield’s tactical approach was Clem Stephenson, an experienced England forward whom Chapman signed from Aston Villa shortly after taking the reins from Langley. Stephenson was famed for the innovative – now recognised as conventional – way in which he broke the offside trap, dropping back into his own half before getting forward at pace.

Having ingrained his philosophy in the players and modernised Huddersfield’s facilities by re-turfing the pitch and making huge improvements to the press box amongst other things, Chapman began to further develop his tactical theory and introduced a deep-lying centre-half to his system. Tom Wilson, the player Chapman chose for the role, was deployed far deeper than was conventional at the time and was used to break up opposition attacks and provide extra defensive cover in a similar fashion to the likes of Sergio Busquets today.



Huddersfield’s new tactics in an era when the majority of teams played a rigid 2-3-5 formation did not go down well in the wider footballing community, but they were successful nonetheless. Despite drawing criticism from certain quarters, Chapman led his team first to the 1922 FA Cup before going on to win two consecutive First Division titles in the 1923/24 and 1924/25 seasons. So effective was Chapman’s management style becoming that he was offered the job at Arsenal, at that time a very wealthy club despite occasionally battling against relegation from the top flight. Chapman jumped at the chance and was installed at Highbury by the start of the 1925/26 campaign.

It was to be with Arsenal that Chapman transformed himself from an excellent manager to the footballing icon he is seen as today. Indeed, Chapman’s claim upon arrival in north London that it would take him a maximum of five years to win silverware demonstrated his ever-increasing confidence in his own abilities. As it happened, it took him a little over four years to start winning trophies with The Gunners as Arsenal marched to the 1930 FA Cup, but it was tactical development and infrastructural modernism, not silverware, that most characterised Chapman’s time at the club.

                                     

Having signed international striker Charlie Buchan from Sunderland and inspired by the change in the offside law in the summer of 1925 (the number of players required to be between the attacker and the goal line was revised down to just two), Chapman scrapped 2-3-5 and set about developing the 3-2-2-3 formation, more famously known as the W-M.

With the centre-half in the 2-3-5 converted to a conventional centre-back and the inside-forwards far deeper than they originally had been, the W-M facilitated an even more extreme and direct interpretation of Chapman’s counter-attacking philosophy.

All the while Chapman was attempting to push through changes at the highest level, proposing ideas for shirt numbers and floodlights only to be initially turned down by the FA, but introduced the now famous white sleeves on Arsenal’s kit, the Highbury clock and, in an almost unprecedented move, organised formal tactical sessions as a part of the club’s training regime.

From 1930 onwards, trophies flowed into Highbury at an incredible rate. A hat-trick of league titles were won in 1930/31, 32/33 and 33/34, those successes being supplemented by the aforementioned 1930 FA Cup and several Charity Shield victories. By the winter of 1934 Arsenal were on their way to a third title in four years and were unquestionably the strongest team in England despite rebuilding what had become an ageing squad.

Tragedy, however, was just around the corner as, shortly after New Year 1934, Chapman was suddenly taken ill with pneumonia and died on the 6th January aged just 55. His premature death rocked the football community, the game having lost its most visionary and pioneering manager. Arsenal went on to win yet another league title that season and again in 1935, Chapman’s enduring legacy being demonstrated by those who had played under him and still living on in Arsenal Football Club today.

I will leave the last words to Jonathan Wilson, who wrote extensively on Chapman in his book, Inverting the Pyramid:

“What was significant was not merely that Chapman had a clear conception of how football should be played, but that he was in a position to implement that vision. He was – at least in Britain – the first modern manager, the first man to have complete control over the running of the club.”

Shanks and Paisley, and in all fairness Fergie, should be higher on this list. Some of those managers are there because they made an impact in a short period, rather than sustained success, it seems.

So Rafa is looking good for a top 3 finish at least anyways eh?

Shanks and Paisley, and in all fairness Fergie, should be higher on this list. Some of those managers are there because they made an impact in a short period, rather than sustained success, it seems.

So Rafa is looking good for a top 3 finish at least anyways eh?

I think Wenger is going to be in the top 4.

Shanks and Paisley, and in all fairness Fergie, should be higher on this list. Some of those managers are there because they made an impact in a short period, rather than sustained success, it seems.

So Rafa is looking good for a top 3 finish at least anyways eh?

Fergie should be in the top 3 at least. He's sustained  success for the last 20 years now 

I think Wenger is going to be in the top 4.

If he is, this list is totally meaningless.  It is a joke anyway with Clough ahead of Shankly and Paisley. 

Shanks and Paisley, and in all fairness Fergie, should be higher on this list. Some of those managers are there because they made an impact in a short period, rather than sustained success, it seems.

For me personally it's more important what influence a manager had on the game itself than the success he had, even though obviously success matters too.

Still expecting/hoping to see Rinus Michels in there too.

Fergie should be in the top 3 at least. He's sustained  success for the last 20 years now 

Shame that won't continue when the Mancs are in the Championship an have debts of 40000000000 billion pounds

If you want to go fishing and catch put this on








in stead of this




you might catch then 

Looks like your feeding off worms then

juveniles are a bit like children! seen and not heard 

juveniles are a bit like children! seen and not heard 

A bit like Man United at Old Trafford when we twatted you 4-1?

juveniles are a bit like children! seen and not heard 

Children are juveniles... and I don't know what they make kids like in Manctown but in Liverpool you can't shut the buggers up.

A bit like Man United at Old Trafford when we twatted you 4-1?

Your wrong mate. It's like that on their best days!

At least it's consistent

A bit like Man United at Old Trafford when we twatted you 4-1?

It certainly was that day 

Football's Greatest Managers: #4 Helenio Herrera

“I don’t believe in good luck. When someone has won so much in twenty years, can it be luck?” – Helenio Herrera

A nomadic coach and a man of a cosmopolitan nature, Helenio Herrera was born in Buenos Aires around 1910 (the exact date was never recorded) to exiled Spanish anarchists and was granted French citizenship after moving to the Moroccan city of Casablanca aged just four. Constantly on the move, Herrera played football professionally as a full-back of some repute between 1931 and 1945, initially featuring for Racing de Casablanca before representing a number of clubs spread throughout the length and breadth of France.

In 1944, while still on the books as a player at Puteaux in the suburbs of Paris, Herrera was appointed coach at the club in the wake of liberation from Nazi rule and impressed with his leadership of the small amateur club. Less than a year later Herrera had called time on his playing career and joined Stade Français as manager, also taking a job on the coaching staff of the French national team.

When Stade Français passed into the hands of new owners in 1948 Herrera moved to the land of his parents, spending a brief time with Real Valladolid before joining Atlético Madrid in 1949. It was to be his time at the Estadio Metropolitano de Madrid that brought Herrera his first true recognition as a coach, winning consecutive domestic championships with Los Colchoneros in 1950 and 1951.With balletic Moroccan midfielder Larbi Benbarek the creative heart of his team, Herrera’s Atléti drew praise from around Europe and established his growing reputation as one of the continent’s most innovative coaches.

However, not being a man to spend too long in one place, Herrera left Madrid in 1952 and, after a particularly itinerant period which saw him take in Malaga, La Coruña, Seville and Lisbon, eventually arrived at Barcelona in 1958. He may have begun to construct his reputation in Castile, but it was to be in Catalonia – a region fighting against Francoist repression – that he and his methods achieved legendary status.

Believing that his phenomenally talented group of players (a group which included Sándor Kocsis, Luis Suárez and László Kubala) had been intimidated by the achievements of Real Madrid in the early years of the European Cup, Herrera set about instilling a great self-confidence and pride within FC Barcelona. Famed for his motivational slogans and rousing speeches, Barcelona’s eccentric genius of a coach instilled a greater discipline amongst the players and got them to be more comfortable and less nervous with each other off the field, something which was eventually reflected in their aesthetic style of play.

Although he is famed for being the master of catenaccio, something to which we will return shortly, it is important to recognise the entertaining attacking play Herrera’s Barcelona were known for. L’equip Blaugrana won consecutive titles in 1959 and 1960, scoring 182 goals over the course of the two seasons and establishing themselves as the most attractive team in Spain, if not in the whole of Europe. Herrera may get stereotyped as a destructive, negative tactician, but during his time in Spain he was nothing of the sort.

Indeed, when he was fired from Camp Nou in 1960 after defeat to Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the European Cup he was, according to Catalan folklore, carried down the Ramblas on the shoulders of adoring fans.

***

“His emphasis on fitness and psychology had never been seen before. Until then, the manager was unimportant.” – Luis Suárez



Now one of the most highly respected managers in world football, Herrera was immediately offered the job at Internazionale following his departure from Catalonia, one which he gratefully accepted. Inter, then owned by Angelo Moratti (the father of current owner, Massimo), had been through a turbulent period prior to Herrera’s arrival and had failed to win anything of significance for the best part of a decade. Promising success to Moratti, Herrera was signed on a then-record salary for a manager (£35,000 p/a) and began imposing his methods on the Nerazzurri.

A total disciplinarian and control-freak, Herrera demanded influence over many facets of his players’ lives, everything from their diets to their sleeping patterns was dictated by their well-travelled manager. Indeed, it was Herrera who invented the concept of the ritiro, taking players away days before their next game in order to focus on the coming match and exercise even greater control over the exercise they did, the hours they slept and the food they ate. The majority of the players, if reports are to be believed, hated the retreats, but they soon paid off handsomely for the San Siro club.

Inter won their first Serie A title for nine years in 1963, going on to claim their first ever European Cup in 1964 with an emphatic 3-1 victory over the Real Madrid of Puskás and Di Stéfano in the final. In 1965 Herrera’s team went one better, winning the domestic and European double before claiming yet another Scudetto in 1966 to cap a golden era for La grande Inter. Herrera had emphatically delivered on his promise of success, but it was Inter’s tactics rather than their accumulation of silverware that had got the footballing public of Europe talking most fervently.

What came to be known as catenaccio was a development of a tactical approach pioneered in Switzerland by a coach called Karl Rappan, a man who attempted to find a tactical system which allowed for both systemic discipline and individual freedom simultaneously. His quest led him to deploy a system known as verrou (bolt) which was essentially a more defensive interpretation of Herbert Chapman’s W-M formation. The most distinctive element of the verrou was its deployment of a spare man in defence, the verouller, what we would recognise today as a sweeper or libero.

Rappan’s theories were first used in Italy by Giuseppe Viani at Salernitana in the late 1940s, the strides the team made using the system that had become known as catenaccio making the system popular on the peninsula. However, it was not until it was adopted by Nereo Rocco at AC Milan and then Herrera’s Inter in the 1960s that it became a truly mainstream and acceptable tactical method.

Setting up his team with four man-marking defenders and a libero, Herrera’s Inter were extremely defensive on paper but the reality was not quite as simple. With captain Armando Picchi the free man in defence, legendary attacking full-back Giacinto Facchetti was afforded the freedom to get forward and added to the stellar forward line which included Suárez and Sandro Mazzola.

In fact, Herrera was known to be irritated at the reputation for negativity that became attached to catenaccio, believing it to be a result of less capable teams imitating the style rather poorly. That said, defensive security was undoubtedly the priority of the catenaccio philosophy, “conceding one less” rather than “scoring one more” being its central tenet.



Despite the debate which surrounds the ethos of catenaccio, what is absolutely beyond doubt is that the system worked superbly for Inter throughout the 1960s. However, towards the end of that particular decade the quasi-divine luminescence that the Nerazzurri had been basking in had begun to fade. Rumours of steroid abuse amongst Inter players were rife and, though the accusations were never proved and thus should not detract from the team’s achievements, dogged the club towards the end of Herrera’s reign in 1968.

The innovative, disciplinarian coach joined Roma shortly after leaving Inter, winning the Coppa Italia in 1969 but never being able to lift the Giallorossi to the heights he had achieved with the Milanese club. Brief and underwhelming returns to Inter and Barcelona as well as a short time at Rimini followed before his retirement in 1981, Herrera’s creative and organisational energies apparently expended during the halcyon days at San Siro.

Like many of the great coaches, his career may have fizzled out towards the end, but for his pioneering work in developing nutrition and psychology in football, not to mention the sustained success he achieved with the catenaccio philosophy he claimed to have invented, Helenio Herrera more than deserves to be recognised as one of the most influential managers of all time.

Roy must have made the top three!!!

Still expecting/hoping to see Rinus Michels in there too.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #3 Rinus Michels

“The Dutch are at their best when they combine the system with individual creativity.” – Hubert Smeets

Rinus Michels’ association with Ajax was a truly lifelong one. Born in February 1928 just a stone’s throw from the Olympisch Stadion, Michels began playing in the club’s junior ranks in 1940 aged 12 and quickly marked himself out as an industrious young forward. Having had his career put on hold by the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War Two, Michels eventually broke into the Ajax first team in 1946.

The man who would one day come to be recognised as the mastermind behind “Total Football” certainly didn’t waste time making an impression in the senior side, scoring five on his league debut against ADO Den Haag. With Michels becoming an increasingly important player for the Amsterdam side, Ajax won consecutive league titles in his first two seasons in the first team (1946/47 and 47/48) and further strengthened their reputation as the most attractive, most successful team in the Netherlands.

Indeed, Michels’ first campaign in the side saw him play under the stewardship of the legendary English coach Jack Reynolds, the man credited with laying the foundations for Total Football almost certainly having a significant influence of the thinking of the young Rinus Michels.

After his retirement from the playing side of the game in 1958, Michels immediately embarked on a coaching career, managing amateur side JOS in two spells between 1960 and 1965 before returning to Ajax ahead of the 1965/66 domestic season as the replacement for the forward-thinking Vic Buckingham. The six years that followed dragged Dutch football out of its surprisingly conservative shell and transformed it into a hotbed of tactical innovation, the very forefront of footballing development. It was Michels’ vision of how the game should be played that put the wheels of Total Football in motion.

Like the great Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Michels believed that football was primarily about the usage and control of space. Their shared theory was that making the pitch ‘big’ when you have the ball makes it easy to retain possession, while making it ‘small’ when without the ball makes life much more difficult for the opposition. At the root of this approach was an obsession with both pressing and the need for versatility amongst the players – Michels wanted his players to be capable of playing in any given outfield position with equal proficiency at any given time.

However, in his early years as manager of Ajax the concept of “Total Football” simply didn’t exist. Michels was known as a tough disciplinarian and a manager who promoted the constant refinement of technique, and, when Ajax won the Dutch title in his second season in charge, their aesthetic football was noted but not believed to be anything out of the ordinary. In fact, Michels freely admitted that he didn’t have a fixed footballing philosophy when he became manager at Ajax, instead allowing his ideas to develop over time and, combining logic and creativity, arrived at the conclusion which came to be recognised as Total Football.

Two of the major changes Michels made at Ajax were to revolutionise training methods and then to ensure that all players were signed to professional contracts by the end of his second season in charge. The changes he made to the training regime were centred on drastically increasing the amount of work the players did with the ball, the coaching staff continually emphasising the important of technique above all else. Michels, it seems, believed that once the players had reached a sufficiently high level of technical prowess, more complex tactical systems could follow, a theory that started to prove itself towards the end of the 1960s.

Acting quickly to introduce a new strategic blueprint, Michels ditched Ajax’s traditional W-M formation in favour of a 4-2-4 which featured Piet Keizer, Johan Cruyff, Sjaak Swart and Henk Groot as its stellar forward quartet. It was this system that brought Ajax the result which first gained Michels and his new crop of players continental recognition, a 5-1 thrashing of Bill Shankly’s Liverpool in the second round of the 1966 European Cup. The victory shocked Europe and awakened observers to the new power rising in the Netherlands, a team that were starting to play some of the most mesmerising football that has ever been seen.

Ajax didn’t go on to win the 1966 European Cup, but they did win the league title on four occasions between ’66 and ’70 as well as finishing runners-up to Milan in the 1969 European Cup. As Jonathan Wilson points out in Inverting the Pyramid, Ajax came to be known for their attacking brilliance but Michels focussed on building from the back in his early years with the club. Velibor Vasović was brought in from Partizan Belgrade as sweeper and formed a strong defensive partnership with the excellent Barry Hulshoff, providing the extra security the numerous creative attacking players needed as a counterbalance.

Despite Ajax’s great success during the second half of the 1960s, Michels relentlessly pursued perfection and, after a particularly disappointing draw with Ernst Happel’s Feyenoord in 1970, modified the 4-2-4 (which he came to believe made it difficult to regain possession) into a more balanced 4-3-3 with Vasović becoming a libero and acting as the third man in the midfield. The change in shape, combined with an increasingly intense form of pressing and an aggressive offside trap meant that, by 1970, Ajax were playing Total Football in all but name. The system was in place, but it would become most famous and get its name at the World Cup in West Germany four years later.



Having left Ajax in 1971 for a four year stint with Barcelona which had seen Michels re-implement Total Football, sign Cruyff for a world record fee and win the 1974 league title, the Dutchman agreed to take the reins of the national team ahead of the World Cup of the same year. The squad he took to West Germany was filled with some of the most tactically intelligent players there have ever been, players well versed in the intricacies of Total Football who came extremely close to winning football’s biggest prize.

After a glittering run through the competition which included sublime victories over Bulgaria, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and East Germany, it seemed inevitable that the Dutch mastery of Total Football would see them overcome the hosts in the final. However, in what has come to be, somewhat over-romantically, painted as one of football’s greatest tragedies, Michels’ team fell to the West Germans in the final. Despite having taken the lead, the likes of Cruyff, Haan, Neeskens and Rep unable to prevent Paul Breitner and Gerd Müller snatching victory for the hosts and bringing a cruel end to what was, historically, undoubtedly the Netherlands’ best chance to win a World Cup.

The Clockwork Oranje returned home empty handed, but had entertained a global audience with their supreme mastery of Michels’ complex but beautifully balanced system. The legend of Total Football had been written into footballing folklore.

In 1975 Michels returned to Ajax for a single season, guiding a team that was entering decline after the incredible highs of the late sixties and early seventies to third place in the league before leaving the Amsterdam club for the last time in 1976 and spending two more seasons at Barcelona, winning the 1978 Spanish Cup in the process.

Time with the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League and FC Köln was to follow, Michels eventually returning home for two more spells in charge of the Dutch national side between 1984 and 1988. It was to be the second of those periods which emphatically sealed Michels’ place in history, the great manager shaping a new generation of Dutch talent into one of the strongest forces in world football.

With a team including the likes of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Ronald Koemen and Frank Rijkaard, Michels re-invented Total Football for a new generation as his team used space with a characteristic expertise and played with a flowing confidence that saw them become European Champions in 1988. It may have come 14 years later than many had imagined, but Rinus Michels was the man who brought the Netherlands their first major international title – something for which he will never be forgotten.

1988 was to be the final major achievement of Michels’ incredible career, a career which had seen him revolutionise football with his own unique interpretation of how the game should be played. One of football’s greatest visionaries and the man who brought the complex elegance of Total Football into the mainstream, Rinus Michels’ legacy is one of imagination, one of aesthetics and one of success. The breathtaking footage of the 1974 Dutch team in action stands as a permanent monument to his greatness.

Total Football

Football’s Greatest Managers: #2 Viktor Maslov

“Football is like an aeroplane. As velocities increase, so does air resistance, and so you need to make the head more streamlined.” – Viktor Maslov

Viktor Maslov’s is a name that has been somewhat lost amidst the sands of time, his influence often attributed to those who came after him and his significance diluted by the chronic myopia that seems to affect a disconcertingly large number of contemporary football historians. This amiable Russian, however, can legitimately lay claim to what is arguably the most influential legacy that any football coach has ever imparted through their body of work. Maslov was, as I will hopefully come to make clear, one of the true patriarchs of what we now recognise as the ‘modern game’.

Born in Moscow in 1910, Maslov was surrounded by the darkness of war and the electricity of revolutionary fervour during the early years of his life, eventually overcoming the societal maelstrom to embark on his footballing career with RDPK Moscow in 1930. A year later he joined one of the Russian capital’s newest clubs, Torpedo, and it was to be with the ZiL-owned team that Maslov made his name as a player, by all accounts an unspectacular but efficient midfield player with a good eye for a pass. Maslov stayed at Torpedo until 1942, captaining the side between 1936 and 1939, before eventually calling time on his playing career at the age of 32 in 1942.

Maslov wasted no time in fulfilling his desire to become a coach, taking over as Torpedo boss immediately after he finished playing and had four short spells in charge – periods which yielded one Soviet league title in 1960 – before eventually departing for Rostov-na-Donu in 1962. A single season in Rostov brought little and, tempted by the offer of the top job with Dynamo Kiev, Maslov left for Ukraine in 1964.

Before his time with Kiev, Maslov had been thought of as a reasonable if unspectacular coach who had achieved modest results with a strong Torpedo squad. During the six years he spent at Dynamo, however, his footballing philosophy and technical ability as a coach came to the fore as he forged ahead with the revolutionary implementation of many of the tactics which have come to be such a staple of modern football.

The early 1960s represented the peak in popularity of the 4-2-4 formation, Russian clubs having adopted the system in their droves following the USSR’s success with it at the inaugural European Championships in 1960. Maslov, however, had studied the Brazilian 4-2-4 at the 1958 World Cup and had recognised the importance of bringing one of the forwards back to create a three-man midfield when required.

The Russian took the idea one stage further, dropping both of his wingers back to create a midfield quartet and, by design, the 4-4-2 formation. Sir Alf Ramsey’s England of 1966 may often be credited as the pioneers of 4-4-2, but in reality Viktor Maslov had reached the same strategic conclusion several years earlier.

Using the 4-4-2 to devastating effect, Maslov’s Dynamo side dominated Soviet football during the late sixties as they stormed to the 1966, 67 and 68 Soviet titles as well as the 1966 Soviet Cup. Maslov, almost single-handedly, had shifted the balance of power in Soviet football from Moscow to Kiev, success almost literally following his physical passage across the vastness of the USSR.

Famed for the collective ethos encouraged by Maslov (Dynamo became known for their communal discussion of tactical ideas, both players and staff together), the Ukrainian team continued to generate advances in strategic thinking and are believed to be the first team to regularly implement zonal marking and pressing in their defensive play. Indeed, as Maslov once said, “Man-marking humiliates, insults and even morally oppresses the players who resort to it.” His philosophy was patently clear.



With an increasing emphasis on total organisation in all areas of the field, the hallmark of Maslov’s Dynamo became the team’s ability to over-man across the pitch, negating opposition movement with the brilliance of their positioning and the aggressiveness of their pressing. As Jonathan Wilson writes, “Their (Dynamo’s) midfield was hunting in packs, closing down opponents and seizing the initiative in previously unexpected areas of the pitch.”

Romantics may blame Maslov for bringing about the end of the era of true attacking flair by abolishing the traditional winger and dramatically decreasing the amount of space available to opposition forwards, but the developments the Russian brought about worked brilliantly for Dynamo and have emphatically stood the test of time.

Yet Maslov’s innovations were not limited simply to on-field strategy, the masterful coach was also a pioneer in the field of sports nutrition and conditioning. Dynamo were noted for their superior levels of fitness under his management and, obsessive about even the smallest of details, Maslov introduced strict dietary plans to maximise the physical potential of his squad. His methods may have been rigorous and at times strenuous for the players, but they were undoubtedly effective and paved the way for both modern tactical thinking and the detailed sports science that we see today.

Having enjoyed a golden six years in Kiev, Maslov returned to Moscow in 1973 for one last spell with Torpedo. Going back with a reputation far more glittering than that with which he had left, great things were expected of Maslov back in his home town but he failed to turn Torpedo into a team capable of challenging for the title. Like so many other great managers before and since, it seemed like Maslov’s creative energies had been sapped after leaving Kiev, the revered coach unable to rouse himself to enter wholeheartedly into a new project. His next job, with FC Ararat Yerevan in what is modern-day Armenia, was to be his last, the great man retiring in 1975.

Maslov died just two years after his retirement in 1977 at the age of 67, leaving behind one of football’s most significant legacies. He may not be as well known as he ought to be outside of Eastern Europe, but the man known simply as ‘Grandpa’ by many of his players shaped the direction of modern football in a most distinct and decisive way. Viktor Maslov was not only a great manager, but the founding father of modern tactical thinking.

Football’s Greatest Managers: #1 Jimmy Hogan

“We played football as Jimmy Hogan taught us. When our football history is told, his name should be written in gold letters.” – Gustav Sebes, Hungary coach 1949-57

The 25th November 1953 was English football’s anagnorisis. Amidst the fog that enveloped Wembley Stadium that day, Walter Winterbottom’s England team were taught an emphatic lesson in technique, in style and in tactical proficiency. The sense of superiority the English had harboured throughout the first half of the twentieth century was exposed as unfounded pomposity by the Hungarians who, with goals from Nándor Hidegkuti (3), Ferenc Puskás (2) and József Bozsik, tore England’s rigid W-M formation apart with a mesmerising display of synchronised ability. The game finished 6-3 to the visitors and English sporting narcissism lay ruined on the heavy North London turf.

After the game, as the president of the Hungarian FA, Sandor Barcs, spoke to assorted journalists he made a comment that surprised swathes of the English press, “Jimmy Hogan taught us everything we know about football.” The diminutive Lancastrian may have been labelled a traitor by his own FA for spending the vast majority of his coaching career abroad, but his impact on the continent in terms of tactical and instructive development was unparalleled. It is often said that Brian Clough was the best manager England never had; in reality it was Jimmy Hogan.

Born in Nelson just north of Burnley in 1882, Hogan lived through football’s fastest and most significant period of development and became hooked by the game at a young age. Hogan embarked on a playing career with Rochdale Town in 1902, quickly coming to be known as a talented inside forward of some repute. Spells at Burnley and Nelson followed before he moved south to join Fulham, reaching the FA Cup semi-finals with The Cottagers in 1908 before leaving for Swindon Town and, finally, Bolton Wanderers.

A meticulous, obsessive character, Hogan is reported to have had a consuming desire for self-improvement, his extensive fitness regime and the onus he placed on conditioning being remarkably rare for a time when formalised training was generally frowned upon. This compulsion to achieve excellence at all costs would serve Hogan well during what would become a distinguished coaching career, his drive to succeed feeding and shaping the talent of the players who had the privilege of learning from his studied insight and motivation.

During his time as a player at Bolton, Hogan had already begun his delve into the world of coaching, returning to the Netherlands after a summer tour to the country in 1910 to “teach them how to play”. He may only have spent a short amount of time there, but Hogan impressed sufficiently to be allowed to take charge of the Dutch national team for a game and is credited with sowing the seeds of a greater professionalism and more advanced tactical and technical thinking in Holland. Indeed, the Lancastrian is thought of by some as the true father of Total Football, the inspiration to Jack Reynolds and Rinus Michels who made the style famous with Ajax.

***

Having eventually hung up his boots in 1913, Hogan set about looking for full-time coaching work and was put in touch with Hugo Meisl, the head of the Austrian Football Association. Meisl, frustrated at what he perceived to be the underachievement of the Austrian national team, had been looking for a coach to raise the level of technical ability amongst the players and it was Hogan who was recommended to him. Hogan moved to Austria and linked up with Meisl ahead of the 1916 Olympics in Berlin, his brief being to give the Austrians the best possible opportunity to win gold in Germany.

However, with the outbreak of the First World War, Hogan’s ambitions of Olympic glory evaporated as the games were cancelled. The cancellation of the Olympics was not the only logistical problem that the start of the conflict caused for Hogan, he also found himself stuck in Austria-Hungary when the violence began, an Englishman in the middle of ‘enemy’ territory. Days later he was arrested as a foreign national, negotiating passage back to the United Kingdom for his wife and children in March 1915 while he was rescued by the intervention of the British vice-president of Budapest club MTK, Baron Dirstay, who took Hogan on as coach in order to prevent him being taken to a prisoner of war camp.

Enchanted with the stylish, flowing way in which football was played in Central Europe, Hogan didn’t attempt to change the philosophy of his players at MTK, but rather made gradual improvements to their tactical understanding and technical proficiency. Hogan’s methodology reaped great rewards, MTK winning the 1917 and 1918 titles playing widely lauded football under his stewardship before he eventually headed back to Britain following the conclusion of hostilities in Europe.


                                           The 'Mighty Magyars'

His time in Hungary may have been relatively fleeting, but it is Hogan’s philosophy and methods that are held to be the blueprint for the great Hungarian side of the 1950s, the Mighty Magyars who inflicted that painful defeat on England in the bitter winter of 1953. The thoughtful ethos of short passing and fast movement off the ball was one which stuck with Hungarian football for several generations, an aesthetic style that Hogan had championed. He was a true footballing revolutionary.

***

On his return home Hogan was treated extremely poorly by an English FA that viewed him with great suspicion and refused to listen to his ideas. As Norman Fox described in a Guardian piece from 2003:

‘When the war ended he returned to England and was told that men who had suffered financially as a result of the war could claim £200 from the FA. He was almost destitute but when he went to London the secretary, Francis Wall, opened a cupboard and offered him a pair of khaki socks. “We sent these to the boys at the front and they were grateful.” The unsubtle message was: “Traitor”.’

Incensed, Hogan departed him homeland once again, moving to Switzerland where he spent several years with Young Boys Berne before returning to MTK and then joining SC Dresden in Germany in 1925. Hogan toured German clubs on lecture tours, instructing players and coaches alike in tactical philosophies and When we think of Hogan his time in Germany is not what first spring to mind, but such was the impression that he left that, on his death in 1974, his son received a letter from the German Football Federation describing him as “the father of modern football in Germany”. Hogan’s singular influence on European football simply cannot be underestimated.

At the start of the 1930s, as the political situation in Germany became increasingly concerning, Hogan returned to Austria to work once again with his old friend Hugo Meisl. With the likes of the great Matthias Sindelar in the side, the Austrians undoubtedly had the talent to achieve great things but seemed to suffer from a crippling naivety and lack of self-confidence. It was Hogan who instilled the tactical intelligence that the side was lacking, employing a defensive yet fluid version of the W-M formation that was given its first outing against England at Stamford Bridge in December 1932. Austria may have lost that game 4-3, but the British press eulogised about the visitors, flooding newsprint with words praising the Austrian’s exceptional passing football and evidently superior technical ability. It was a defeat, but the legend of Hogan and Meisl’s Austrian Wunderteam had been born.


               Hugo Meisl

Throughout the 1930s Austria thrilled Europe with the quick pass-and-move game that had been impressed upon them by Hogan, a style which instigated an ideological shift across much of the continent and, alongside the work of Herbert Chapman in England, gave tactics a far more elevated standing within the game.

During the 1934 World Cup the Wunderteam, with Hogan’s adaptation of the W-M which was founded on the freedom of movement and extra creativity given to the centre-half, reached the semi-finals before losing to Italy. Meisl’s team by all accounts played a beautiful brand of football that directed their collective artistry towards the end of victory in a manner never seen before.

***

By 1934, however, Hogan had departed Austria was back in England coaching his old club Fulham in the Second Division. He moved on to manage Aston Villa a year later, staying in the Midlands for four years with mixed results (there was both relegation from the top-flight and then promotion back to it) before deciding to call time of his formal managerial career. He remained in the game as a youth coach for several years afterwards, watching the game develop from afar, the fruits of his labour taking shape.

Hogan may not be the most successful manager in terms of, but he is without doubt the most important individual figure there has ever been with regard to the professional and theoretical development of football. Hogan represents the developmental genesis of the game, the catalyst from which sprung the vast majority of modern ideas surrounding tactics, technique and physical conditioning. Without Hogan’s ingenuity we would likely not have had the Wunderteam or the Mighty Magyars, we may not have seen other great managers that developed his ideas such as the great Bela Guttman.

Without Jimmy Hogan football simply wouldn’t be the tactically diverse, organised and professional game it is today. He was a wandering footballing prophet and his ideas remain enshrined as the alpha of modern football. In my mind, there is no manager who deserves to be recognised as the greatest of all time more than James “Jimmy” Hogan.

Amazed Arsene Wenger was nowhere.

Amazed Arsene Wenger was nowhere.

Bet your absolutley gutted Benitez did not make it then. 

Not a bad list at all that, made for a great educational experience too. Kind of opens your eyes to some of the great managers that helped shape the game when it was still a relatively young sport.

Glad that Cloughie is in there too, but above Shankly and Paisley? Controversial indeed to be fair to the man though he definitely deserves to be up there, very successful in his time.

RedLFCBlood

There is no one on here that respects your opinions more than me. I love reading your post and you do know your football. However, how fergie isn't in the top 3 is unbelievable  

No Arsene Wenger either?

RedLFCBlood

There is no one on here that respects your opinions more than me. I love reading your post and you do know your football. However, how fergie isn't in the top 3 is unbelievable 

No Arsene Wenger either?

I think Daz is free from blame as far as compiling this list goes

Obviously if there was a list of managers who've won a considerable amount of trophies then of course Fergie would be there(as much as it pains me to say it) but i think this list goes more on what they've contributed to the development of the game as we know it rather than accolades gathered. 

Great read all that, but as I've already said, the European bias is pathetic.

Wouldn't it be easier to admit the ignorance about South American football and simply list the 20 greatest European managers?

By the way, I was reading about Jimmy Hogan earlier this week, to be honest I didn't know much about him before that. I love early football history, great stuff!

RedLFCBlood

There is no one on here that respects your opinions more than me. I love reading your post and you do know your football. However, how fergie isn't in the top 3 is unbelievable 

No Arsene Wenger either?

Sorry mate I never wrote these articles or conducted the list, my football knowledge/opinion during this series simpoly ammounted to copying and pasting someone elses work

Sorry mate I never wrote these articles or conducted the list, my football knowledge/opinion during this series simpoly ammounted to copying and pasting someone elses work

That's a great answer my mate So let me ask you this then  Who in your opinion are the best 5 managers then

That's a great answer my mate So let me ask you this then  Who in your opinion are the best 5 managers then

My Biased top 5 in no particular order.

Paisley
Shanks
Dalglish
Fagan
Benitez

My non Bias top 5 throughout history in no particular order.

Rinus Michels
Ernst Happel
Bill Shankly
Sir Matt Busby
Bob Paisley

My non Bias top 5 over the last 15 years in no particular order.

Wenger
Mourinho
Ferguson
Benitez
Guardiola

Great Selection, but the title should read Top20 Greatest European Managers.
Cant Believe some of the following are missing

Carlos Bianchi
Zagallo
Roque Gaston Maspoli

Just to name some well known

Why am I not in any lists? I won the champions league with Swansea on football manager 2011