Top 10 best available managers has two new entrants after Sacking Sunday

Chelsea and Leicester have shaken things right up here, haven’t they? Here’s how we’ve ranked the best managers currently out of work…

10) Graham Potter
The shredding of a managerial reputation has taken just a few short months at Chelsea but this was a marriage that always looked absolutely doomed. Does another club (Spurs?) accept that the Blues was a disaster not of Potter’s making? Or will he have to go lower to rebuild that reputation? This is a fascinating and utterly batsh*t Premier League season.

9) Rafael Benitez
Hindsight is 20/20 but Rafa at Everton never seemed a good fit. Should he be applauded for taking a chance, or judged for not seeing the problems that lay ahead?

Either way, Benitez is on the market but, weirdly, he was barely even been mentioned as a contender for Leeds or Southampton.

Liverpool and Newcastle fans will certainly vouch for Rafa’s managerial talents; Real Madrid fans less so. But there is no doubting his credentials when it comes to organising and preparing a struggling side and making them harder to beat. It’s not for everyone in the modern game, but it might be for Palace in the long-term after Roy Hodgson’s brief return.

8) Joachim Low
The German is one of only 21 managers to have won the World Cup. But no-one has given him a route back into club football just yet after he stepped down in 2021 from the Germany post which he occupied for 15 years – the longest international reign for a European nation.

“The will is there,” Low said last summer. “I would like to coach a club again. That would be fun for me.”

Low ‘studied one or two offers’ and was heavily linked with the Fenerbahce job but his last club position remains the manager’s role at Austria Vienna, which he stepped away from 18 (eighteen) years ago. He might fancy Bayern but doesn’t everyone?

7) Marcelo Bielsa
Being sacked and leaving Leeds in the relegation mire might be a blot on some managers’ records. But Bielsa’s reign at Elland Road deserves far, far greater context.

It was he who got them back into the Premier League when, at times, it seemed they were destined never to return. And while he was at it, he made a city fall in love with its club once more with the kind of football that made Dirty Leeds a popular watch among the neutrals.

Bielsa will remain sanctified in West Yorkshire long, long after he moved out of his granny flat above a Wetherby sweet shop. And there’s barely a chairman out there who wouldn’t be intrigued by the possibility of replicating that impact elsewhere, especially since Bielsa prefers to rely on his coaching expertise more than his employer’s cheque book. Everton certainly were, even if they couldn’t give him the half-season he wanted to drill the Under-21s before taking over the first team.

6) 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 to Zidane to take the chance to prove he’s brilliant beyond the Bernabeu.

5) Brendan Rodgers
It honestly sounds utterly mental wondering if failed Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers is a more coveted manager than various World Cup and Champions League winners but the truth is that he is always successful in his first two years in a job and Leicester is a fine example of how a non-elite club can fall apart after a few poor decisions.

He would likely make a fine Spurs manager and is quite rightly the early favourite after Chelsea dispensed with Graham Potter.

4) Luis Enrique
Big clubs and countries are reported to be considering hiring Luis Enrique following his departure as Spain manager in the wake of the World Cup. Chelsea are said to be keeping tabs on the ex-Barcelona boss, while Brazil were considering offering him the chance to return to the international stage; disgraced Spurs technical director Fabio Paratici is also a confirmed fan.

Enrique has turned down Chelsea before, when Roman Abramovich was in control. He has managed outside of Spain only once before, for a solitary season at Roma over a decade ago.

The 52-year-old isn’t in a hurry to return – he’s spent much of his time since the World Cup on his bike – but when he does, it’s likely to be to a club side. “I will surely wait for next season. I see myself joining a club and developing a squad with greater finesse and precision than I had time to do with the national team.”

3) Mauricio Pochettino
We’re not sure when Pochettino slipped from the top spot in this ranking. Perhaps when he was overlooked by Manchester United for the umpteenth time.

His spell at PSG didn’t really enhance his credentials, despite winning his first silverware as manager at the Parc des Princes. That said, you could stick a PSG bench jacket on an onion and it would probably win Ligue 1.

At no point did it ever appear that Pochettino was particularly happy in Paris. The lure was obvious and understandable, but never did it seem the kind of project that suited him. He built his reputation in the Premier League with Southampton and Spurs by building from the ground up, trusting young players and inspiring others to play above themselves.

Pochettino’s body of work remains strong enough to put him in the conversation for any job in the world. But he needs a chairman or owner ready for a project, rather than instant gratification. And how long can he remain out of work but remain relevant when vacancies arise?

Maybe Poch and Daniel Levy should just kiss, make up, and crack on.

2) Julian Nagelsmann
Brutal from Bayern, who faced with the unacceptable prospect of an actual fight for rather than procession to the Bundesliga title have sacked Nagelsmann and snaffled the previous holder of top spot on this list, Thomas Tuchel. And just as Tuchel replaces Nagelsmann at Bayern, so Nagelsmann replaces Tuchel here. And thus we are all connected in the Circle of Life.

Obviously it’s going to be absolutely fascinating to see what the still outlandishly young and outlandishly clothed Nagelsmann does next. Or at least it was until Chelsea sacked Potter and it all became clear.

1) Antonio Conte
Yes, it got toxic at Tottenham in the end but he still made them their fourth-best side in the Premier League under his reign. Add that to a Premier League title at Chelsea and he is still the sixth-best Premier League manager of all time.

But that undoubted success pales in comparison to what he has achieved in Italy. Four Serie A titles and a PPG record of 2.26 make him the best of all time in Italy. He should sashay into a new job having finally escaped Daniel Levy, Tottenham and English football.