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*** as the season reaches the midway point…
Chelsea, Manchester United and Real Madrid have donated managers to this list already in January. How benevolent.
10) Erik ten Hag
Ten Hag suggests his sacking at Bayer Leverkusen was an ‘unprecedented’ nonsense and some of his grievances are legitimate. He arrived in a summer during which Leverkusen sold a number of their best players and can any coach really make a mark in such little time amid such squad turnover?
Well, apparently, 62 days is long enough for the higher-ups at Leverkusen to decide that Ten Hag is absolutely the wrong man for them. Which reflects poorly on the club, but it will always be more damning on the manager. So what next for Ten Hag? Perhaps something closer to home, back in the Netherlands, or very far away, in Saudi or suchlike.
9) Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
The Norwegian was fired during a brutal week for ex-Manchester United managers, with Besiktas pulling the trigger an hour after defeat to Lausanne in the Europa Conference League play-offs.
Solskjaer was appointed in January with Besiktas sixth in the table and he had a positive impact steering the club to a fourth-placed finish after eight wins and a draw in his first 12 games. He certainly has form for strong starts. Besiktas didn’t wait, like United, for things to turn really sour. But Solskjaer’s ability to spark immediate improvement will appeal to some chairmen when they start to panic as winter takes hold.
Sack Race: Who will be the next Premier League manager out of a job?
8) 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.
But Terzic is becoming the nearly man of the managerial market given how many jobs he is linked to without an appointment materialising. Most recently, Roma were talking to the 42-year-old before they went all in on Gian Piero Gasperini, while Brentford are also mentioned as a possible destination but only speculatively.
7) Ruben Amorim
It feels a fair placement – just below the manager Amorim lost the Europa League final to and who has promptly been sacked twice.
Just over a year at Manchester United has been a remarkably chastening experience for the Portuguese, who lost almost as many games as he won, spent hundreds of millions and wedded himself so damagingly to a system and approach which simply never worked.
But Amorim will be back. This has hurt but not decimated the stock he built at Sporting and the 40-year-old can point to either myriad lessons learned at Old Trafford in his first job of such magnitude, or how Manchester United is toxic and turns basically everyone to some shade of shite or another.
6) Ange Postecoglou
Despite being sacked by Tottenham, Big Ange’s stock was still high having made good on his second-season-silverware promise. So it always seemed a weird marriage with Evangelos Marinakis, not a man renowned for patience, but an annulment on day 39 was fast even for the Forest owner. Where does that leave Postecoglou now? Probably looking abroad. Unless Celtic fancy another ride on the Ange train…
5) Enzo Maresca
A literal world champion manager at Chelsea and touted as a future Man City boss when the post-Guardiola era arrives. That may have in the end contributed to his acrimonious departure from Chelsea.
But Maresca leaves Chelsea with reputation enhanced by his 18 months there and, while he was far from perfect, he is unlikely to be short of options.
4) 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. He was offered £84million to boss Al-Hilal this summer but that wasn’t for Zizou. At this stage, he seems quite happy with his lot, and why the f*** wouldn’t he be? At least until the France job becomes available.
QUIZ: Identify the Premier League managers from their player paths…
3) Gareth Southgate
Southgate recognised the time for ‘a change and a new chapter’ – for himself and England. What might that represent for Southgate?
Weirdly, a Euro 2024 campaign that culminated in England’s first final on foreign soil probably tainted his chances of a big club chance somewhat. There was speculation over a Manchester United move which always seemed fanciful, especially now Dan Ashworth is long gone from 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.
2) Xavi
After an unnecessarily shambolic exit from Barca, Xavi spoke of taking a sabbatical year. Which has now passed, so can we expect the former midfield maestro back in the dug out?
It seems so. Xavi has been linked with Manchester United and Chelsea and he has spoken of taking a Premier League gig, though we doubt the job he’s looking for exists here: “There’s no hurry for me, but I’d like a good project. Like, ‘You have four years to work and make a project’. I’d love to work in the Premier League, I love the passion there. In Spain, it’s too much about the result.”
1) Xabi Alonso
Real Madrid and Xabi Alonso have parted ways by ‘mutual consent’, suddenly making the Spaniard the best available top-level manager in Europe.
Manchester United need a new boss, but would an ex-Liverpool midfielder really take the Old Trafford job, especially with Arne Slot on thin ice?
Los Blancos waited a year to appoint Alonso and took only seven months to part ways. He won 20 of 29 games, but trailing Barcelona by four points in La Liga and losing a Clasico Super Cup final was enough for Florentino Perez to pull the plug.
Still, Alonso is a proven winner. He guided Bayer Leverkusen to a Bundesliga title, a DFB Pokal victory, and a Europa League final, their only defeat all season, in 2022/23. He is a top manager.
