Ten Hag joins icons in top three of 10 best available managers…
Some of these managers can afford to be picky, even if a couple risk being too choosy. Others are waiting for clubs to panic like f***…
10) Sean Dyche
You know what you’re getting with Dyche and there’s a lot to be said for that, especially for any club prioritising a quick fix over long-term aesthetics. A few tentative links with Rangers, who are choking on Celtic and Brendan Rodgers’ dust right now.
9) Roger Schmidt
Won the Portuguese title with Benfica to end a four-year wait following a run of four titles in five years, while also steering the club to the quarter-finals of both the Champions League and Europa League. Sacked last August after only managing two wins and a draw in his first four games this season. Currently being linked with RB Leipzig assuming Marco Rose leaves in the summer.
8) Joachim Low
The German is one of only 21 managers to have won the World Cup. But no-one has given him a route back into club football just yet after he stepped down in 2021 from the Germany post which he occupied for 15 years – the longest international reign for a European nation.
“The will is there,” Low has previously said. “I would like to coach a club again. That would be fun for me.”
Low ‘studied one or two offers’ as well as possible returns to the international stage with Brazil, Turkey and Belgium, but his last club position remains the manager’s role at Austria Vienna, which he stepped away from almost 20 years ago. Having been without a job for three and a half years, how long is too long to be out of the game while remaining relevant?
7) Julen Lopetegui
A largely miserable half-season stint at West Ham has certainly damaged the Spaniard’s reputation. His excuse for being the Hammers’ shortest-serving permanent manager: he inherited a woefully unfit team. Apparently, they were just getting fit and ready to storm the league when he was shown the door. AC Milan were sniffing prior to his West Ham stint. His next suitors might not be so grand.
NEXT PREM BOSS TO GO 👉🚪 Van Nistelrooy still clear favourite, but might this season’s Sack Race already be run?
6) Edin Terzic
The nearly man of Dortmund, Terzic was so close to glory, leading his boyhood side to the Champions League final last season, a year after a final-day collapse gifted Bayern Munich another Bundesliga title. The 42-year-old was linked with Tottenham while Ange Postecoglou’s head was on the chopping block.
5) Gareth Southgate
No longer the England manager, Southgate recognised the time for ‘a change and a new chapter’ – for himself and the Three Lions. What might that represent for Southgate?
Weirdly, a Euros campaign that culminated in England’s first final on foreign soil has probably tainted his chances of a big club chance somewhat. There was speculation over a Manchester United move which always seemed fanciful, especially no Dan Ashworth is no longer pulling strings at Old Trafford.
There’s a fair chance a statesman like Southgate decides he doesn’t even need the hassle of a high-profile club job. Perhaps a foreign club might hold more appeal than a domestic gig. Regardless, it would be fascinating to see how Southgate fares among players every day rather than every couple of months.
🤔 QUIZ: Identify the Premier League managers from their player paths…
4) Max Allegri
Sacked by Juventus after the Coppa Italia victory for ‘certain behaviours during and after the Italian Cup final which the club deemed incompatible with the values of Juventus and with the behaviour that those who represent it must adopt’.
He did go a bit mad, ripping off his jacket and confronting the fourth official, but the cynic in us wonders whether those behaviours would have been so incompatible with the values of Juventus (which is, let’s face it, a pretty hilarious concept in and of itself given their history) had Allegri been spearheading a title bid rather than overseeing a fourth straight failure to challenge after nine years of dominance.
Allegri is nevertheless a man with six Serie A titles to his name as a manager among plenty of other pots and pans if never quite the big one. And Sir Alex Ferguson likes him.
3) Erik ten Hag
It turned out to be a really quite miserable relationship for all involved by the end as both Ten Hag and Manchester United tried for far too long to convince themselves they could make it work.
While season one delivered a trophy and Champions League football, it largely unravelled from there in a mess of tactical uncertainty, humiliating defeats and signing loads of players from the Eredivisie.
Ten Hag had been revealed as the wrong manager for Manchester United (is there a right one?) long before the trigger was finally pulled, raising questions of his Big Club credentials. But he remains an obviously talented coach who might just need a better framework which emphasises his strengths rather than highlighting his weaknesses.
2) Zinedine Zidane
Is Zizou a great coach, or just a great Real Madrid coach?
That isn’t to denigrate his achievements at the Bernabeu. Only Carlo Ancelotti has won the Champions League more often than the three occasions Zidane has lifted it. And the Frenchman stockpiled his winners’ medals in consecutive seasons. Add a couple of La Liga titles and Zidane’s record is unimpeachable.
Still, though, we’d love to see Zidane take another job. He seems to be very choosy – fair f***s, he’s certainly earned that right – having been linked with PSG, Manchester United and Chelsea in the past. He has spoken about his level of English being a barrier to managing in the Premier League, but we all want Zidane to take the chance to prove he’s brilliant beyond the Bernabeu.
That prospect, though, gets more remote the longer he turns his nose up at a return to the dug-out. At this stage, he seems quite happy with his lot, and why the f*** wouldn’t he be?
1) Xavi
After some shambolic Barca back-and-forth, when he was leaving, then he wasn’t, then he rather forcibly was, Xavi is available for hire. Though little is known of his intentions.
Before the first U-turn, it was reported that the Spaniard planned to take a break before resurfacing in 2025. Ideally in the Premier League, apparently, though the Bundesliga or Serie A might appeal too. Another club in Spain? Apparently not.
