If one has to take a more general view, then probably the greatest success factor for a football club remains its manager or coach, since they are responsible for everything: development of players, tactics, transfers, and management in general.
Many times the managers turn out to be the driving source for the success of the club.
Even to the best players, it can prove difficult to play as one without a good manager at the head, which often translates into unorganized plays, weak attacks, and fragile defense.
This is just one of the reasons why teams that are stacked with star players do not always live up to expectations.
As much as there are discussions about the greatest football player ever, so little or none is when it comes to the greatest managers; and in the few instances this unknowingly is seen, the only driving factor in the conversations is the trophy count.
There is more to greatness than just the number of titles won. I have combined what I would say is a list of the greatest football managers of all time.
And I have taken the liberty of ranking them because that is mainly what might cause debate. It also makes the list worthwhile, you either boil down and separate the wheat from the chaff or you don’t.
To determine true greatness, I considered both influence and trophy success.
1. Alex Ferguson
One might very well say Ferguson is the most legendary manager the game of football ever had. He was a prolific striker, and he simply loved the beautiful game.
It all started with Aberdeen, where he tasted great success by winning many league championships of Scotland, Cups, and even the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
This was only the beginning. A brief spell as manager of the Scottish national team showed he could cope with the intense pressure and manage at the very highest level.
Next came Manchester United, where Ferguson would remain for 26 long years and work miracles in turning the club into a force across the globe.
With 38 trophies to his name, he has 13 Premier League titles and 2 UEFA Champions League titles, thus easily making him one of the greatest managers of all time.
The influence far outweighed the amount of silverware taken home, but what created was that a generation of players went on to turn out as managers in their own right, and his stamp on the game was made.
With 49 trophies, he remains the most successful coach in football history. He has further been knighted—in 1999—for services to the game.
2. Pep Guardiola
He is one of the youngest managers and the brains behind some of the most spectacular teams in football history.
As a player, he formed part of Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team, who also won the European Cup and four successive Spanish league titles.
It is, however, through management that Guardiola made his impact on the game. Soaked in Cruyff’s philosophies, Guardiola redefined modern football—a reputation-maker of an innovator and genius.
It was a sweet time in Barcelona; he and his squad played beautifully in a style called “Tiki-Taka.”
He turned out to make such great history by winning the first-ever historic sextuple in the year of 2009 with wins in the Champions League and La Liga but never stopped there.
He won three Bundesliga titles with FC Bayern Munich before making Manchester City the bastion in English football, winning four Premier League titles, four League Cups, and the FA Cup.
In 2022 he led City into history by winning the Champions League, the Premier League, and the FA Cup.
By doing so, Guardiola had to be one of the greatest coaches the game had ever known—the kind of man to go all out with experimentation and resourceful tactics.
3. Arrigo Sacchi
A lasting influence on the game today is the influence he consequently had on both Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.
When Sacchi was handed the AC Milan mantle in 1987, he set about creating his masterpiece with the team. Inspired by Ajax’s achievements in the 1970s, he ushered in a brand new—radical—style, much to the shock of many traditionalists in Italy.
His team pressed high, held a defensive line, employed zonal marking, and played a flat-back four, which at the time was anything other than the norm.
Sacchi’s Milan team is the greatest club side to have ever been; they won the European Cup two years in succession, in 1989, and 1990.
His genius, where fluid 4-4-2 formations and a high-pressing game were concerned, altered the face of Italian football. The brilliance of Sacchi was felt even beyond Milan, as he would march on to coach the Italian national team to the finals of the 1994 World Cup.
Although he lost out to Brazil, his legend lives on. His is a story of passion and innovation in football, evidence that even the most improbable of figures can etch an arguably eternal impression in the game.
4. Matt Busby
Sir Matt Busby did little short of creating modern Manchester United, a legacy from which all of Sir Alex Ferguson’s success came and which still serves the club to this day.
Busby took over a club in 1945 that had narrowly avoided bankruptcy twice in just 43 years and was setting out to bring a hitherto unseen philosophy of developing young players at the time it wasn’t the done thing
Busby’s career can be divided into two parts divided by one date: prior and after 6 February 1958, which was when the Munich air disaster happened. He rebuilt the team: in 1945, brought the FA Cup: year 1948, league title: in 1952.
By the latter, however, United were at the end of their cycle.
Football fans were expecting Busby to conduct big-name signings; instead, he promoted a clutch of young players whose story is well known by now: the ‘Busby Babes’ would celebrate two First Division titles between 1955 and 1957, with an average age of just 22.
They would have won so much more, had eight members of the squad not been killed on that fateful night in Munich. Bruised and broken-hearted, the Scot went on to win another two titles and the European Cup.
5. Carlo Ancelotti
From working under Arrigo Sacchi in the early days to his induction today as one of the greatest managers of all time, Ancelotti’s journey most certainly was a witness to this dedication and passion for the beautiful game.
But it is not even about the trophies; it is about Ancelotti’s genius in bringing out the best in players and designing systems very well, something that translates very well with what each player has in his locker, and at the same time, how he handles human egos.
With his legendary charisma and man-management skills, he gets work out of the most temperamental of superstars. Then there is his sense of style: on the touchline, Ancelotti is as sleek and sophisticated as he is on the red carpet.
Ancelotti stands out as a real all-time great in the discipline and has managed top clubs like Milan, PSG, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid.
He has left a solid mark on football wherever he has gone. He is a sensational manager, and his legacy in the footballing world is going to inspire people, be it his fellow counterparts, players, or overall football fans.
6. Helenio Herrera
During an era when players were stars and Herrera was the brain behind the mightiest teams, he won four La Liga titles in Spain and three Serie A in Italy—proof a coach could be a real hero.
His finest hour, of course, was Grande Inter, the all-conquering Inter Milan team of the 1960s which annexed three Serie A titles and two European Cups.
Herrera’s innovative tactic—the ultra-defensive sweeper system—inspired a whole generation of Italian coaches. He was a tactician, but much more: psychologist, motivator, and disciplinarian.
He knew that to win lay in the mind and in teamwork, and he was on the case—subjugating his players with fierce passion and attention to detail.
Herrera stood as a true original, and his legacy goes on to inspire coaches to this very day. He was the first person to refer to the fans as the ‘twelfth player’, recognizing the power of the crowd in driving his team toward victory.
7. Johann Cruyff
So powerful was his impact that it is tempting to divide the history of the club into two eras: BC (Before Cruyff) and AC (After Cruyff).
When Cruyff returned to the Camp Nou as coach in 1988, Barcelona was a sleeping giant, with just 36 trophies in 89 years and no European Cup to their name.
Fast-forward 32 years, the club has been started to an incredible 54 trophies, amongst which is counted five Champions Leagues. But that just illustrates some of what the vision, innovation, and legacy of Cruyff entailed.
A player of uncanny brilliance, Cruyff mastered “Total Football,” the pioneering philosophy that made Ajax and the Dutch national team nearly unbeatable in the 1970s.
He then took this same spirit with him to Barcelona as a coach, insisting on technique more than physicality, more creativity over caution, and possession-based playing.
The influence runs through the club’s style of play to date. But Cruyff’s influence stretches so far beyond Barcelona.
He is simply a legend of football, one of the true icons of the game, and his influence will continue to shape the sport for generations to come.
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8. Bob Paisley
Bob Paisley served Liverpool for almost 50 years as a player, assistant manager, and manager.
He became an assistant manager to the legendary Bill Shankly when Liverpool had been relegated to the Second Division, and both men turned things around in the club’s favor for success.
When Shankly retired in 1974, Paisley took over as manager, leading the Reds to an almost unparalleled period of dominance in the game on home soil and in Europe.
In 9 years, he won 20 trophies: 6 League Championships, 3 League Cups, 6 Charity Shields, 3 European Cups, 1 UEFA Cup, and 1 UEFA Super Cup.
He did this at an average of 2.2 a season—an amount matched by only one other, Pep Guardiola.
By the time of his retirement, he had won a then-record 6 Manager of the Year Awards.
He still is one of only three managers ever and still holds the distinction of being the first, to have won a total of 3 European Cups – now called the UEFA Champions League.
He is one of the 5 managers to date who have won the English top-flight title both as a player and manager with the same side.
9. Giovanni Trapattoni
He is one of a few who boast league titles won in four European countries, with an outstanding count of 10 titles in Italy, Germany, Portugal, and Austria.
But that was not all, as Trapattoni entered the enviable class of three coaches to win the treble of the big European club competitions; he holds a distinction as the only coach to have done so with the same team—Juventus.
His great resume speaks of successes like winning every official continental club competition and the world title to his credit, thus attesting to his tactful disposition and leadership.
However, success did not only stop at club level for Trapattoni. He manned Italy at the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004 and later took Ireland into their first European Championships in 24 years.
While his international career was blighted by controversy and narrow misses, his 39-year legacy is a glittering testament to the lasting impact he has made in the game. Love him or decry him, the achievements of Trapattoni are hard to refute.
10. Brian Clough
His managerial magic first came to the fore at Derby County, where he led them from the Second Division into the top flight and then on to their first-ever league title in 1972.
And if all that wasn’t enough, he guided them to the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1973.
The crowning glory for Clough came when he served Nottingham Forest, repeating the act of claiming back-to-back European Cup victories in 1979 and 1980.
Thanks to his revolutionary approaches and man-management skills, he remains one of only four managers ever to win the English league with two different clubs.
The secret of Clough lay in the perfect cocktail of strong love and inspiration that was to later give him the nickname ‘Ol’ Big ‘Ead’.
Though his partnership with Peter Taylor was, of course, central to his eventual successes, Clough’s standing in history was secured even before Taylor left in 1982.
He is one of the finest managers ever to have enriched the English game, a quite genuine colossus of management.
Other Greatest Football Managers/Coach
- Rinus Michels
- José Mourinho
- Arsene Wenger
- Bill Shankly
- Jürgen Klopp
- Ottmar Hitzfeld
- Fabio Capello
- Vicente del Bosque
- Zinedine Zidane
- Valeriy Lobanovskyi
- Ernst Happel
- Vicente del Bosque
- Marcelo Lippi
