It’s safe to say that a club is only as good as it’s managers. Some clubs have been successful at hiring the correct managers to fit their goals and have achieved wonders in the process. After all, a manager is practically the 12th man in the squad and is the man leading truly leading the charge. When it comes to football, if a single piece falters, it will have a domino effect and the entire teams aspirations will remain aspirations. It’s the manager that makes sure not one of those pieces falters as well as keeping himself in check. Sure, it’s impressive to see clubs where a manager achieves trophies and becomes the definitive manager for the club. It’s also great to see clubs achieve success with multiple managers, which conveys a sense of flexibility and adaptability and it may invigorate not only a club’s players but fans as well. With this in mind, let’s take a look at some clubs that had multiple great managers over the years.
5. Barcelona:
One of the greatest and most decorated clubs in the world wouldn’t be able to achieve those big titles without a few managers to push the team forward. Even with players like Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho before him, there had to someone to coordinate the team in order to bring home the gold. And luckily they’ve had a terrific string of managers. It’s kind of obvious for the team that popularized the tiki-taka style of play. Louis Van Gaal had some of his best days at the club winning the La Liga twice in a row and paved the way for the superstar status of Luis Figo. There was Frank Rijkaard who kind of did the same thing(when it came to players) with Ronaldinho and Carles Puyol. Barca won the UCL under him. In the earlier days, there was the legendary Johann Cruyff who is one of the greatest players and managers of all time. He and Barcelona popularized and re-invented Total Football Barcelona was winning every trophy under the Sun including the UCL and La Liga. Lastly, there’s Pep Guardiola, the man who won them the treble and Barca’s tiki-taka-esque football evolved under him. He won the La Liga 3 times and the UCL twice. Even outside of Barca, he has been impressive, winning the Bundesliga thrice and the Premier League twice in a row.
4. Manchester City:
Manchester City underwent a positive metamorphosis when the Abu Dhabi United Group took over. The influx of money brought in some terrific players and managers. They spent exorbitantly but on the right people and as a result, within a small amount of time they had three incredible managers. Roberto Mancini that started their domineering revolution, winning the PL for the first time in 44 years. Pellegrini followed and won them the PL again retaining that level of ferocity thanks to players like Aguero, Yaya Toure, Vincent Kompany to name a few. And finally came Pep Guardiola who true to his reputation catapulted them to even greater heights, winning two consecutive PL’s and scoring 100 points in a season. Several great players like Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Laporte and Bernardo Silva became top-level players under him. The club simply reached incredible heights in a very short amount of time.
3. Bayern Munich:
Bayern Munich is the most decorated German football club in history so it stands to reason that they’d have some incredible managers. They’ve been mostly attack-minded and aggressive football is their forte’. Jupp Heynckes is an exceptional manager and former player. He won 4 Bundesliga’s and not only won the UCL with Bayern Munich but also with Real Madrid. Louis van Gaal won the Bundesliga with them too after illustrious careers at Ajax and Barcelona. Franz Beckenbauer, one of the all-time greats in football also won them the Bundesliga and UEFA Cup. He is one of the few people to have won the World Cup both as a manager and a player. Carlo Ancelotti, one of the best in business also had a brief but fairly successful stint at Bayern Munich after his fantastic run with Real Madrid. Pep Guardiola also managed the club and won the Bundesliga thrice.
2. Liverpool:
The most recent UEFA Champions League winners have had no shortage of talented managers. For every player like Van Dijk, they had an equally capable manager like Jurgen Klopp who assembled an incredible team and won the UCL. He nearly won the Premier League as well. They’ve had some of the greatest managers in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The ‘almost’ back to back combo of Garry Shankly, Bob Paisley, and Kenny Dalglish is something no club can boast of. Paisley won 3 European Cups while Shankly won 1. Garry Shankly actually built back Liverpool into titans after they were crumbling in the 2nd Division. Bob Paisley turned them into bigger trophy-mongering giants, winning 20 trophies in 9 seasons. Kenny Dalglish, who was a legendary player under the guidance of Paisley, came back as manager and was impressive as well, winning 3 First Division Titles. That’s just a few of some of the terrific managers who have coached the Reds.
1. Real Madrid:
Real Madrid is the heavyweight of all heavyweights so it’s no wonder they’ve made the list. They have the most Champions League and La Liga titles and have frequently been home to some of the greatest players to grace the game. It is perhaps the ultimate destination for all aspiring footballers and a large part of that is because of the managers there. They had Villalonga in the early days (50s and 60s) who won 2 UEFA Cups and 2 leagues and even became Spanish Champions with Atletico. Miguel Munoz was one of the greatest managers of all time. Players like Di Stefano, Puskas and Gento dominated the league because of him. Munoz won 9 La Liga titles and 2 UCL trophies. In more modern times they had Vicente Del Bosque who won them the UCL twice along with two La Liga titles. He utilized their squad with the likes of Raul and Figo (Zidane later on) to the fullest. He even went on to win the World Cup with Spain, outside of Real Madrid. In the most recent era, you have Zinedine Zidane, who is one of the greatest footballers of all time and seems to chase legendary status as a manager as well. The Frenchman won 1 La Liga and 3 back-to-back UCL trophies in his first three seasons. He left the club but soon came back and might bring even more glory to the club in the future. And with Real Madrid, that’s just scratching the surface as they also had other brilliant managers like Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti as well.
