The top 10 greatest football managers of all time: Where do Guardiola, Ancelotti, Ferguson rank?

Superstar footballers will always grab the headlines, but there is absolutely no question that teams will not be successful without the presence of an inspirational manager.

There have been some sensational managers in the history of football, and putting together a top 10 list is incredibly difficult considering the different eras in this wonderful sport.

Indeed, times have changed, with managers, especially at major clubs, being backed more now in the transfer market than ever before, and the resources on offer are huge.

Sports science has changed the game, with new information becoming available, while the role of a manager has also changed due to the structure put in place at the top of football clubs.

Managers are now often viewed as 'head coaches' - placed in charge of the team, while other matters are dealt with by those holding higher positions.

Here, Sports Mole have taken a crack at naming the top 10 greatest football managers of all time, and it was an incredibly difficult list to put together, with a number of factors needing to be taken into consideration.

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10: Valeriy Lobanovskyi

A hero of the Ukrainian game, Lobanovskyi enjoyed a long and storied managerial career, despite going under the radar to many in Western Europe, with his successes coming at Dynamo Kyiv, and the USSR national side.

Lobanovskyi was one of the trailblazers who implemented Total Football in the 1970s, but he continued to modify his approach as the decades went on, allowing him to enjoy great longevity as a manager, winning nine Soviet titles and five straight Ukrainian titles, while also guiding the USSR to the Euro 88 final.

With Cup Winners Cup successes in 1975 and 1986, Lobanovskyi was the first manager to win a European trophy twice with an Eastern European club, and Dynamo even got to three European Cup/Champions League semi-finals with him, while famously beating Barcelona 4-0 at Camp Nou with a young Andriy Shevchenko in the lineup.

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9: Jurgen Klopp

A modern-day great, Klopp will forever be loved by fans of Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool for lifting both clubs from mid-table mediocrity to title winners and European contenders.

While he was unable to win the Champions League in his spell at Dortmund, Klopp was a German champion twice, despite the usual dominance of Bayern Munich during this era, but it was the Bavarians who beat them in heartbreaking circumstances in the 2013 UCL final.

Liverpool then pulled off a major coup to bring him to Anfield in 2015, and in eight phenomenal years, he guided the club to every major honour available, including a first league title in three decades, and a sixth Champions League, while also laying the groundwork for Arne Slot to lead the Reds to another title a year after he departed the club.

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8: Bob Paisley

From one Liverpool legend to another, Paisley's affiliation to the club stretches decades, firstly working as Bill Shankly’s assistant for 14 years, he then took the reins himself, and oversaw dominance never before seen in English football.

In a seven-year spell, Paisley became the first manager to win three European Cups, while domestically, he won six titles and three straight League Cups, making him the most successful English manager of all time, averaging over two major honours per season during his time at Anfield.

With the foundations Paisley left behind, Joe Fagan came in and won a treble in the 1983-84 season, briefly continuing the most sustained period of success ever from an English club.

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7: Arsene Wenger

Overhauling fitness standards and nutrition, with a measured, clever approach to scouting and tactics, Wenger revolutionised English football in the mid-1990s, and is arguably the driving force behind why the Premier League has grown to the level it is at now.

Coming in as a relative unknown, Wenger spent 22 years in charge of Arsenal, becoming the club’s longest-serving and most successful manager, and forming memorable rivalries with the likes of Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho.

Wenger was the first foreign manager to win the domestic double in England in 1998, before repeating the feat in 2002, but Le Professeur’s most notable achievement was going the entire 2003-04 season unbeaten, making Arsenal the first English club to do that in 115 years.

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6: Rinus Michels

The father of the Total Football movement, Michels’s legacy remains untouchable for the way he revolutionised the game in the late-60s and early-70s with his famous Ajax team, and later on with the Netherlands.

Michels won four titles with Ajax, and then guided them to the European Cup in 1971, as the Amsterdam club dominated Europe in the early 70s, despite the manager moving to Barcelona shortly after, eventually taking Johan Cruyff with him, nurturing the Dutch icon and allowing him the freedom to play in a role that has now essentially been named after him.

A La Liga title came Michels’s way in 1974, just before he led Holland at the 1974 World Cup, becoming one of the greatest teams never to win that illustrious competition, but his feats are still held in high esteem, as he was named Coach of the Century by FIFA in 1999.

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5: Fabio Capello

While there is a plethora of Italian managers from the 80s and 90s that could be included, such as Arrigo Sacchi, Marcello Lippi and Giovanni Trapattoni, Capello’s achievements trumps those of his peers, in particular, his time at AC Milan in the early 90s.

Managing one of the greatest club sides of all time, Capello won three straight Scudetti with the Rossoneri, going unbeaten in 1991-92 in what was ultimately a 58-game run and conceding just 15 goals across the entire 1993-94 campaign, while also reaching three successive Champions League finals, one of which ended in a 4-0 success over Barcelona in 1994.

Capello also won La Liga twice in two spells with Real Madrid, led Roma to their third and most recent Serie A success in 2001, while also guiding Juventus to back-to-back titles, even though they were eventually revoked due to the Calciopoli scandal, but his strictness and pragmatism did not always rub off well on some people, such as during his ill-fated spell as England manager.

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4: Pep Guardiola

While Guardiola is a titan of the managerial landscape, it is important not to get clouded by recency bias, as he has enjoyed more recent success than any other man in this list, but that does not rank him at number one.

Guardiola’s influence on football in the modern era is extraordinary though, as he single-handedly reshaped the game across 15 years at the very top, playing eye-catching football and winning trophies galore.

While he is accused of being something of a chequebook manager nowadays, Guardiola’s legendary Barcelona team was organic and showcased the best of Catalonia, winning the Champions League twice in three years and three straight La Liga titles, before doing the same in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, and becoming the first manager to win the English title in four successive seasons with Manchester City, a club that he also brought UCL glory to for the first time.

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3: Jose Mourinho

A fan favourite to both supporters of his clubs and neutrals, Mourinho was the new kid on the block that burst onto the scene in the early 2000s, guiding Porto to the UEFA Cup, and then a shock Champions League success in 2004 as huge underdogs.

That led to a move to an ambitious Chelsea side bankrolled by Roman Abramovich, and Mourinho enjoyed instant domination of the Premier League, seeing off Manchester United and Arsenal to the title in his first two years in charge, before leading Inter Milan to a famous treble in 2010, beating Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona superteam along the way in an infamous semi-final.

Mourinho beat Guardiola to the La Liga title as Real Madrid manager in 2011-12, and he enjoyed further success despite many questioning whether he still has the nous to manage at the very top, winning two trophies with Man United in 2017, before guiding Roma to their first European title in 61 years.

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2: Carlo Ancelotti

With longevity few can match in the history of football, Ancelotti has enjoyed 25 years at the very top, and doing so with a charm that has made him universally loved by fans and even foes.

Ancelotti is the only manager to have won all five top European league titles, and he is out on his own at the top of the list of Champions League winners medals for a manager, claiming European glory on five separate occasions, twice with AC Milan and three times with Real Madrid.

In the modern era, he is the only manager who can claim to have regularly got the better of both Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, and having now joined Brazil, if the Italian can add the World Cup to his glittering trophy cabinet, it may just make him the greatest ever.

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1: Sir Alex Ferguson

Until then though, the honour remains with Ferguson, who has won more professional trophies than any manager in the history of the game, with the vast majority coming during an all-conquering two-decade spell at Manchester United.

Ferguson led the Red Devils to 13 titles, becoming the first manager to win three in a row - a feat he managed twice - as well as five FA Cups, four League Cups, and most famously, two Champions League triumphs, including the famous late comeback in the 1999 final which came during a treble-winning campaign.

After an underwhelming spell following Matt Busby’s departure, Ferguson revived United, and his nurturing of the Class of 92 was a big reason behind their success in the 90s and 00s, and the club’s demise since he left illustrates the level he was operating at during his long spell at Old Trafford.

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