The 15 most intriguing managerial appointments of the summer
Domenico di Carlo
It’s been a summer of few big-name signings, but plenty of interesting managerial moves across Europe. Here’s the most exciting 15…
15. Domenico di Carlo, Sampdoria
The first of many Serie A managers on the move this summer. Di Carlo had two solid seasons at Chievo, a club more than happy to finish in midtable. This challenge is something completely different – Sampdoria have Champions League football (as long as they progress past the qualification round), big expectations and some excellent players – aside from a complete overhaul of goalkeepers, the squad has remained almost identical to last season. Di Carlo’s major decision is whether to keep the attacking 4-4-2 system favoured by Luigi Delneri, or sacrifice a winger for another central midfielder, perhaps Fernando Tissone. Whatever happens behind the front two, it is the lethal combination of Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini that Samp are basing their side around.
14. Michael Preud’homme, Twente
After success at Standard Liege and a couple of decent years at Gent, Preud’homme has crossed the border to replace Steve McClaren at Twente. McClaren has not been the only departure from last season’s successful formula – captain and star striker Blaise N’Kufo, main creator Kenenth Perez, right-back Ronnie Stam and winger Miroslav Stoch are no longer at the club, and Twente looked out-of-sorts in their opening league game against Roda JC. Preud’homme has a small squad to work with, and the pressure of competing in the league and Champions League, McClaren might turn out to be a very difficult act to follow.
13. Paulo Sérgio, Sporting
Somewhat of a rebuilding job needed at Sporting – they may have only lost two players, but it’s been their two star names – Miguel Veloso and Joao Moutinho. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for both players and club – the two were stagnating at Sporting, and last season (28 points off the title in a 30 game season) was a complete disaster. Sérgio and Costinha, the club’s director of football, have concentrated on strengthening the squad at the back, signing three defenders, as well as veteran Maniche, who will probably play alongside Pedro Mendes in the centre of midfield. Further forward, a trio of Fernandez-Djalo-Liedson is deadly on paper – Sérgio needs to get it working on the pitch, but even if that happens, a title challenge is probably beyond Sporting this term.
Avram Grant
12. Avram Grant, West Ham
If a couple of penalties had not been missed, Grant’s reputation might be much more enhanced. Had John Terry converted his spot kick in Moscow in 2008, or had Kevin-Prince Boateng scored at Wembley in May, Grant would have recorded two astonishing victories. As it is, the West Ham job is a decent opportunity for him to further his career – they have a good squad that wasn’t utilized to anything like its full potential by Gianfranco Zola. In Thomas Hitzlsperger and Pablo Barrera he has signed two excellent technical players, and with the arrivals of Tal Ben Haim, Winston Reid and Frederic Piquionne the squad is stronger.
11. Bernd Schuster, Besiktas
A tremendously underrated manager who has experienced some level of success almost everywhere he has managed. This is his first appointment since leaving Real Madrid, where he won La Liga in 2008. He is in charge a side that stumbled to fourth place last season, but he has made two big signings – Guti from Real Madrid, and Ricardo Quaresma from Inter. He’s in the market for an experienced striker who will bring guaranteed goals – if that signing is completed, Besiktas could be a good bet for the title.
10. Andres Villas Boas, Porto
The new Mourinho? That’s the expected label for every promising new Portuguese manager, but Villas Boas is more likely to be Mourinho-esque than any other, as he worked with him at Porto, Chelsea and Inter. He’s distanced himself from the comparisons, but it’s hard not to notice the similarities – Villas Boas was never a professional footballer, instead he started working as a low level coach at Porto under Bobby Robson, eventually becoming one of Mourinho’s most important members of staff. He dresses sharply, is still only 33, and like Mourinho, struggled in his first assignment as a manager, leading Academica to 11th out of the 16 teams in the Liga Sagres last season. He takes over an extremely talented Porto squad that has lost previous captain Bruno Alves, but gained Sporting’s captain, Joao Moutinho.
Jean Tigana
9. Jean Tigana, Bordeaux
Tigana’s managerial career has been something of a disappointment. After his Ligue 1 win with Monaco in 1997 he seemed set to become one of the game’s leading coaches, but since then has only achieved mild success at Fulham and Besiktas – where he won two Turkish Cups but failed to win the title. Now he takes charge of Bordeaux, following the departure of Laurent Blanc to become the national team manager. After brilliantly winning the title in 2008/09, Bordeaux struggled to juggle league and Champions League commitments last season, and slumped to sixth in the league. Transfer activity has been quiet – largely a good thing, since Tigana’s main concern was keeping Yoann Gourcuff. He has started with a 1-0 defeat to Montpellier, where Bordeaux lined up with a fluid 4-4-2 diamond shape.
8. Max Allegri, Milan
A tremendously difficult job. Milan have the same old problems – literally. An ageing squad has still not been refreshed, and the summer transfer window has consisted of signing two defenders from midtable sides – Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Genoa, and 34-year-old Mario Yepes from Chievo. Allegri is in a strange position – surprisingly sacked by midtable Cagliari towards the end of last season, and suddenly finding himself in charge of a Champions League side. He had been widely praised until his departure from Cagliari for doing a decent job with unspectacular players and limited resources, but it’s difficult to see how he’ll be able to transform this Milan squad into genuine title challengers unless there is significant investment in the side.
7. Roy Hodgson, Liverpool
Having been a manager for 40 years, Hodgson has finally found himself taking charge of a big club in his home country, after his success in taking Fulham to the Europa League final last season. Opinion remains divided on how difficult his task is – on one hand Liverpool are coming off the back of a disastrous season, on the other they retain a very good first XI – assuming everyone stays at the club, which is looking increasingly likely. What Liverpool need is a more solid squad, and the pursuit of unspectacular players like Luke Young and Brad Jones signals that someone at the club understands this – it remains to be seen how much control Hodgson has over transfers, but we can be sure that Liverpool will be well-organised and positionally disciplined.
Gigi Delneri
6. Gigi Delneri, Juventus
Another crack at managing a ‘big’ club for a manager who has been tremendously successful at clubs with slightly lower ambitions. Delneri (not Del Neri) made his name with Chievo, guiding them to promotion to Serie A for the first time in their history, and fifth place in their debut season in 2001/02. More recently, he took Sampdoria to fourth place last season. Between that, however, he had two unhappy spells when given the responsbility of managing clubs with title ambitions. In 2004 he replaced Jose Mourinho at Porto, but was sacked before the season had even started. He then took the Roma job, but only lasted six months. Delneri has a distinctive way of playing – generally favouring a 4-4-2 / 4-2-2-2 system, with a focus on attacking, pacey wingers – so taking over a club distinctly lacking in that area last season will be a big challenge. He’s sounded ambitious so far, saying, “We want to reinforce our Italian brand through serious politics on youth players, and as well as this the team wants to win instantly.”
5. Michael Laudrup, Mallorca
One of the most exciting players of his generation, and potentially a wonderful coach too. Laudrup’s most impressive time as manager was in Spain, where he took unfashionable Getafe to the Copa del Rey final and the the last eight of the UEFA Cup, so it’s no surprise he has returned to La Liga after a disappointing period in charge of Spartak Moscow. He’s already promised to play attacking football, and has a good base to work from – Mallorca finished in fifth last season, just one point off Champions League football. With 3rd-placed Valencia having lost their best two players, and 4th-placed Sevilla giving a chance to the inexperienced Antonio Alvarez, Mallorca are in a prime position to push on.
4. Sinisa Mihajlovic, Fiorentina
Mihajlovic as a manager? His reputation as a player hardly makes him the most obvious candidate to become a successful coach, but perhaps, as Jonathan Wilson believes, he is a more complex and interesting character than often portrayed. He endured an unhappy period as manager of Bologna where he allegedly fell out with senior players, but impressed last season at Catania, taking charge in December when they were 20th out of 20th in the table, and guiding them to a comfortable 13th place finish. He inherits a Fiorentina squad with relatively few changes from last season, where they faded after their Champions League exit to Bayern. Unfortunately, he’ll have to do without Stevan Jovetic for most of the season after the Montenegrin’s serious knee injury, and Mihajlovic might therefore have to turn to Adrian Mutu oncer the Romanian’s drug ban expires in two months time. This would be a fiery relationship anyway, but factor in a previous altercation between the two, and we might see Mihajlovic’s on-pitch behaviour come back to haunt him.
3. Steve McClaren, Wolfsburg
It’s difficult to judge McClaren’s managerial career so far – a decent job with Middlesbrough, an embarrassing failure at England, incredible success at Twente. His decision to leave the Dutch Champions signals his ambition, and in Wolfsburg he is in charge of a tremendously talented bunch of players, who slumped to a disappointing 8th place finish last season. Free of European commitments, it’s not unrealistic to expect a title challenge. Wolfsburg had no problems with goalscoring last season, but had one of the worst defensive records in the league. McClaren has sought to solve this problem by signing the superb Simon Kjaer from Palermo, but his main concern will be preventing Edin Dzeko from leaving. Keeping the Bosnian might be the difference between a decent title push, and a season of consolidation.
Rafael Benitez and Jose Mourinho
2. Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid
What more can be said about Mourinho? An astonishing run of success since 2003 has made him by far the world’s most talked-about manager, and has seen him mentioned amongst the greatest coaches in history. That will divide opinion, but his track record cannot be disputed. A title win in Madrid, and he will become the first manager in history to win the league title in England, Spain and Italy, not to mention his initial success in Portugal. He has played down expectations, notably saying “I am successful at clubs, generally in the second year”, a more modest introduction than his opening pronouncements when arriving in London and Milan. The short-term question is what style of football he’ll play – the attacking game Real fans want, or the defensive style Mourinho has (slightly unfairly) become associated with. The long-term question is whether Mourinho can stay at a club long enough to build a true legacy, or whether he’ll become a modern day Bela Guttmann, always in demand, but never staying at one club for longer than three seasons.
1. Rafael Benitez, Inter
More intriguing than Mourinho in Madrid? Quite possibly. With Mourinho, only failure will change our opinion of him – he’s been successful wherever he’s gone, so further success in Madrid is expected. Benitez’ reputation remains in the balance, however – he followed a tremendous run of trophies at Valencia with an ultimately disappointing spell in charge of Liverpool, despite a European Cup in his first seson. Failure or success in Milan? It will be fascinating either way, but the suspicion is that his mentality will suit Serie A well. He’s in the difficult position of taking charge after the most successful season in Inter’s history, and since they have won the past five Serie A titles, anything but a sixth will see Benitez ridiculed. His probable gameplan? To change as little as possible. There have been few key transfers involving the club this summer, and Benitez will most likely stick to the 4-2-3-1 that Mourinho favoured towards the end of last season.
The 15 most intriguing managerial appointments of the summer
Hi, Point 11: Roberto Hilbert play some winger/fullback position, he’s no goalkeeper.
Greetings from Germany
Mihajlovic has been very impressive in preseason — he seems to have a strong sense of what the players need from him in non-footballing terms (there’s been a firm hand with egotistical young players, and a lot of genial straight-shooting with the press and the team), and quickly seems to have won over much of a fanbase that wasn’t at all sure about his appointment. Perhaps most importantly, he’s clearly working hard on a establishing a normal relationship with Mutu, and from what can been seen at training at in press conferences, has been quite successful.
None of that will matter if the results aren’t good and, as you say, the lost of Jovetic is an awful, awful blow, but Fiorentina were badly in need of a change of atmosphere, and Mihajlovic so far is at least giving reasons for optimism.
I disagree slightly that Mourinho’s tenure at Madrid will be less fascinating than Benitez at Inter. Madrid will start the season as underdogs despite collecting 90+ points last year and any domestic success this season will be reliant (whether anyone likes it or not) on Barcelona failing to match last seasons effort. Strangely Mourinho is not going to be the focal point of the Spanish season, unlike his time in Italy and England (with the exception of his 1st season at Chelsea).
On this basis there is likely to be a more concerted effort in the European Cup (and possibly Spanish Cup) until (and indeed if) Barcelona hit a run of poor league form. How Madrid will set-up against the European big guns will indeed be fascinating as this bizarrely represents their best chance of success this year.
However this is only taking into account a “purist” perspective, how will the fans react if Madrid find themselves significantly adrift of Barcelona and with a tough European tie. The fans will expect success in the 1st season which is not a certainty by any stretch of the imagination – if Madrdid are out of contention for honours by the beginning of April will Mourinho last the season?
In so many ways this is an impossible job, with one realistic chance of glory (European Cup) and with this in mind it is strange but equally fascinating that he has taken the offer. If he succeeds in his first season there will be nobody who can question his status as one the greatest managers ever, if he doesn’t he may not get another chance. The odds for Mourinho are so much greater than those for Benitez.
Oh please, Barcelona aren’t some unbeatable team. Real finished only 3 points behind them and that was with Ronaldo and some other important players missing tons of games as well as a pretty mediocre coach.
Mourinho has already showed he can dismantle Barcelona in head to head games and I think he also has a fantastic chance of beating them in a league season as well.
Bit harsh on Pellegrini that
I simply feel bad for Inter players and fans.
When talking about managariel appointments, here’s an interesting one.
Velimir Zajec was appointed this summer as Dinamo Zagreb manager. He was sacked last week after 8 games (3 in the league).
Nice article, as always, but just to point out 2 things:
- The Fernandez-Djaló-Liedson trio is very very unlikely to be used by Paulo Sérgio;
- Vilas Boas work at Académica de Coimbra as very good, he had to save what the previous manager had left, and with him the team played an higher level of football.
On #3. McClaren will have an even better defense becuase they also managed to sign Arne Friedrich who will be partnering Kjaer. Diego is also rumored to come over as Missimovic would most likely go to Schalke and join Magath who has been on his trail for a year now.
And thats precisely what the problem is. People expect Mourinho to hit the success button right away. Last season, Real hit an amazing 96 points. How will Mourinho top that? How much can he improve Real? If suppose Real had beaten Barca in atleast one of the two head-to-head encounters, considering the match had a six point swing, Real could have ended up winning the La Liga.
Mourinho has been brought in their side to help them achieve European success, precisely in the Champions league where they have been knocked out in the first knout out round for six straight seasons. Real may or may not win La Liga. But along with Barca, they will be the powerhouse of Spain. What they will achieve in the CL, will define Mourinho’s season at Real. I have a hunch, he will rock it.
At Chelsea, Avram Grant was a football version of Barry Switzer at the Dallas Cowboys.
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/sports/fb/nfl/98/01/10/10switzerera.2-0.html
Rafa an ultimate failure at Liverpool? Are you serious? For Istanbul alone he’d be a success. But he also won other titles like the FA cup and the lesser UEFA super cup and FA community shield titles.
But that’s not the half of it. He also got to another CL final 2 years after Istanbul and took a team never really challenging for European glory to the #1 ranked team in Europe and probably the last team any other team wished to draw. He finished 2nd and 3rd in the EPL and broke the EPL points record each time. Furthermore, he did it on the same budget Martin O’Neill got for 4 years, but in 6 years.
Also, behind the scenes he rejuvenated the Academy and actually has it producing talent – Pacheco, Kelly, Insua, Spearing amongst others. He understood the club and its fans and if it wasn’t for the owners would still be in a job. The fact that Liverpool fans by and large love the guy show he was anything but an ‘ultimate failure’.
Remind me how many league titles he won?
Community Shield? You having a laugh? The sensible Liverpool fans wanted him out.
So Wenger is a failure then too, right? He hasn’t won anything in what, 5-6 years?
You’ve really lost a lot of credibility with that comment. What has Wenger won since Rafa came to Anfield? Are you serious? After the FA cup – the last significant title we won – we were runner up in both CL and the League. What in god’s name are you talking about? As I said earlier, Rafa net-spent in 6 years what O’Neill did in 4 and achieved all that.
Go to any Liverpool message boards and look at the removal of Rafa and the hiring of Hodgson. To call Rafa a failure and be so wrong is appalling for someone whose business it is to know about football. If Hodgson wins the CL, an FA cup and gets to another CL final in his first 3 years he’d be knighted.
Incredibly ignorant stuff mate. Stick to tactics.
This site just went a lot down my estimation with that comment.
“Remind me how many league titles he won? ”
And it just shows your true colours. I know many coaches who were crippled as he was by the constant quarrels and lack of funds who actually won one CL and came to the final two years after.. oh wait, just the one: Rafa.
That’s incredibly short sighted of you. We should all expect better from a site with generally good articles about tactics. Don’t stoop to the level of the british media with the constant droning and myth that are absolutely not based on facts.
Are Liverpool fans still persisting with theis “the British media has got it in for Rafa” nonsense. He did a fair job. He won two trophies on penalties, and in those first two years he did his job well. After that, his task was to win the Premiership, and he didn’t. He failed. Last season he finished seventh, having finished second the year before – which was, IIRC, the second-biggest drop in points between two Premiership seasons. The players lost faith in him, and therefore lost lots of game.
“…myth that are absolutely not based on facts.”
As a wise man once said, this is facts.
“the constant droning”
Oh the irony.
Cor blimey, calm down. Absolutely gutted about my ‘loss of credibility’ for having an opinion different to yours – may as well shut the site down I suppose.
If you don’t like the opinions, you’re welcome not to visit. Bye!
Do we really need to have this conversation? If you think he was a failure just becuase he didn’t win the league then you obviously have no clue about what has happened to the club in the last 3 1/2 years.
We all want that title badly, but that doesn’t mean there is no merit in finishing 2nd or 3rd. In fact, if a manager with his 6 year record is deemed a failure, then the rest might as well pack up and go home.
Success, a big one. Made us europes finest and feared again.
I’d say the bigger problem is the condescension and presumption of speaking for “all sensible Liverpool fans.” Feel free to badmouth the man–outsiders always did–but perhaps you should avoid lecturing us on how we should feel about him as though those who follow the club more closely than you are daft schoolchildren for having an opinion different to yours.
TBF, the credibility part was about the fact that you wrote him off for simply not winning the league. Not looking at the squad he took over and the fact that he finished runner-up and 3rd with the most points in those positions ever in EPL history. The guy won the CL and got to another final. The managers who have done that in the last 2 decades you can count on one hand.
Rafa was always punching above his weight. What’s ironic is that people kid around the fact that Liverpool fans are delusional thinking “this year is our year” every year but the reality is the outsiders are the ones who think Liverpool winning the CL was expected. It wasn’t. We were a glorified UEFA cup team when Rafa took over and made us into the best team in Europe. How the hell is that a failure?
Also IIRC, Ferguson finished 11th after coming 2nd.
Look, no need to get cocky…
ZM: Cut here. As it says in the guidelines, “any antagonistic posts towards other users will be deleted”. Plenty of other forums for you to do this nonsense on – as always, if you don’t like the opinions, you’re welcome simply not to come back!
Invasion from Liverpool fan site, can’t see any decent discussion about Benitez’s merits (or otherwise) following from this as it’s already descended into tedious personal insults. So may as well close thread now. Apologies as would happily continue the debate re: Benitez, but don’t want to spent time moderating pure abuse.
What about Neil Lennon at Celtic?
Would have loved to have seen Schuster or Laudrup at Celtic….both excellent coaches with a track record unlike the gamble we’ve taken…
Did have him in there, but the CL exit made it a bit less interesting…but will keep an eye on it
I’m not convinced at all. He may become a good manager one day but Celtic isn’t a job for a rookie….people keep mentioning Guardiola, but he’s the exception – the norm is Alan Shearer, Ciro Ferrara, Gianfranco Zola, John Barnes….
His early signing policy has been manic rather than targetted….but here’s hoping.
What about Mano Menezes?
Here’s a tactical breakdown of Delneri and his preferred system for Juventus fans out there-
http://juventus.theoffside.com/team-news/delneris-juve-what-is-his-vision.html
Being a Beşiktaş supporter myself, I have watched every game since Schuster took charge of the club. It seems like he will use 4-2-3-1 for the upcoming season. Europa League qualification games and friendly match with Villarreal showed that team has no problem going forward, thanks to the skills of Quaresma, Nihat Kahveci and Guti. Guti played as a deep lying playmaker along with a holding player (Fabian Ernst) in friendly and played quite well despite that being his first match. But I think Schuster will play Guti as the central advanced playmaker with Quaresma and Nihat at his sides. Behind them will be Fabian Ernst and Necip Uysal (a young talent) but from a few matches that I’ve seen with Schuster is that Necip is playing as central midfielder with license to go forward in order to form triangles with the attacking midfield trio. Another thing I’ve noticed is the fluidity during attacking phase. Nihat, Quaresma and Bobo(Centre Forward) changing positions all game and confusing Villarreal defenders by doing so.
Team can also turn to 4-3-3 by pulling Guti deeper into midfield
So what do you think ZM, should Schuster utilise Guti as advanced playmaker or as a deep lying one? Answer will also determine formation of Beşiktaş (4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1)
I prefer him a little bit deeper, so 4-3-3, but in the Turkish league he might be more suited further up the pitch – the one season he played as a forward for Real, he scored a hell of a lot of goals. Cheers for this info -really interesting, excited to see how Schuster does.
Never seen this football website before and no wonder, utter gutter filth being spouted.
The media assassination of Benitez has convinced the sheep and all the other sponges that Rafa was a failure but someone who’s profression it is to know and write about football stooping to the same lows? Well done, bravo. Lazy journalism.
How you can call Rafael Benitez a failure is extraordinary. The short sightedness of people is truly astounding, he got us to the position of number 1 in Europe and he turned us into potential title challengers on a shoe string.
I find it blissful to the ears that you call Benitez’s tenure at Liverpool a failure because he elevated to the heights that not reaching the latter stages of the European Cup or challenging for the title was deemed a failure.
Rafa took us to 2, count them, 2 European Cup finals within the space of 3 years! We won a European Cup and an FA Cup under him plus a few minor trophies like the European Super Cup and the Community Shield.
I could write a volume of books as to why Benitez was a successs, don’t get me wrong, Benitez made mistakes but to say that his failings outweighed his success is absolutely ridiculous.
Well done on losing a lot of respect and reputation with this arse gravy.
“Never seen this football website before…well done on losing a lot of respect and reputation”
Amazing ZM lost the respect from someone who’s never been on the site before! Sorry to lose you, it’s been a pleasure having you here.
Hmm, different name but posting from the same computer? Interesting tactics, but kinda lame.