As football became a very lucrative business over the past two decades, more money has been made available to top managers to ensure they can compete with the best and realise the club’s ambitions of winning trophies. To a certain extent, it has increased the gap between the top clubs and those below them but that is pretty much the law of the football jungle – only the strong (read as rich) survive.
Since 2000, we have seen a number of world class managers do well on a consistent basis and win trophies across Europe. But they have been aided by huge transfer budgets at their disposal. We look at 10 active managers who have spent the most in the market to sign players.
10) Massimiliano Allegri: £494m
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Major clubs managed: Sassuolo, Cagliari, AC Milan, Juventus
Manager since: 2003
Trophies won: 8
Record transfer: Gonzalo Higuain (Napoli to Juventus) – £76m
After playing in the lower leagues of Italy, Max Allegri moved into management in 2003 with Aglianese where he had retired as a player. But it wasn’t until he helped Sassuolo gain promotion that he was noticed. Cagliari was the first Serie A club that signed him on and despite being a weaker club, his attacking style won him plaudits and a remarkable ninth-place finish saw him pick up the award for Best Coach in Serie A despite Jose Mourinho winning the league with Inter.
AC Milan soon signed him and he won them their last Serie A title in 2010/11 – before the domination of Juventus. It was also a time when the old and reliable core of Milan retired and left the club en masse. However, he was criticised for allowing Andrea Pirlo to leave for free as the midfielder signed with Juventus and won four Serie A titles.
When Antonio Conte took over the Italian national team, Juve looked to Allegri as the most capable choice and he has taken Conte’s side a level further by succeeding where Conte had failed – in Europe. Apart from winning consecutive league titles, they have now reached two Champions League finals in three years.
9) Louis van Gaal: £542m
Major clubs managed: Ajax, Barcelona, AZ, Bayern Munich, Manchester United
Manager since: 1991
Trophies won: 20
Record transfer: Angel Di Maria (Real Madrid to Manchester United) – £59.7m
One of the greatest Dutch managers in history, Van Gaal has spent his managerial career managing both clubs and the Dutch national team in two different stints. He led a very successful Ajax side in the ‘90s that won three consecutive Eredivisie titles and a Champions League.
When he moved to Barcelona, he was the manager who gave debuts to youngsters such as Xavi and Andres Iniesta (albeit in two different stints at the club). However, despite winning La Liga titles, he had a difficult time with the media and also fell out with club legends such as Rivaldo.
At Bayern Munich, he won a domestic double in 2009/10 but underwhelmed at a club looking at bigger things in the following season, eventually leading to his sacking. His stint at Manchester United is well documented as he first led them back to the Champions League and also made Anthony Martial the most expensive teenager in history. But he narrowly missed out on the top four the following season and lost his job despite winning the FA Cup.
8) Rafael Benitez: £567m
Major clubs managed: Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Napoli, Real Madrid, Newcastle United
Manager since: 1993
Trophies won: 15
Record transfer: Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid to Napoli) – £34.5m
After winning La Liga twice with Valencia, Rafa Benitez moved to the Premier League and made Liverpool a serious contender for a few seasons, even reaching two Champions League finals – winning that famous one in Istanbul. But mismanagement of the club saw him leave Anfield and move on to Inter Milan where he picked up where Mourinho left off.
Unfortunately for the Spaniard, he was never able to hit the same heights and soon found himself as interim manager of Chelsea where he won the Europa League in spite of once claiming he would never manage the club. Napoli saw a resurgence of sorts under him but when Real Madrid approached him, he moved on as he had managed the club’s youth team back in the day.
It was his biggest mistake as he looked out of depth and survived just half a season before he was sacked. At Newcastle United, he is now looking to revive his career and is halfway there having secured promotion to the Premier League.
7) Roberto Mancini: £580m
Major clubs managed: Fiorentina, Lazio, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Galatasaray
Manager since: 2001
Trophies won: 13
Record transfer: Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid to Manchester City) – £38m
Roberto Mancini made a name for himself as a manager with Inter Milan in Serie A winning three consecutive titles (although one was stripped off Juve and awarded to Inter). His transfer to Manchester City signalled the coming of a new age at the club who were looking to find success with big money signings.
In came the likes of Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Yaya Toure and City eventually won the FA Cup in 2010/11 and the 2011/12 league title under Mancini in the final game of the season. However, a below-par season saw him move to Galatasaray where he did not see eye-to-eye with the board.
A move to Inter followed where he again spent big – especially on Geoffrey Kondogbia, Antonio Candreva and Ivan Perisic. But he would leave in the summer of 2016 and has been a free agent since.
6) Claudio Ranieri: £591m
Major clubs managed: Chelsea, Valencia, Juventus, Roma, Inter Milan, Monaco, Leicester City
Manager since: 1986
Trophies won: 11
Record transfer: James Rodriguez (FC Porto to AS Monaco) – £38.5m
Although Ranieri has been a manager for more than three decades, he did not win his fist major league title until he won the Premier League with Leicester City in 2015/16. Before that, he had primarily won league titles in the lower leagues. But he did win the Copa del Rey with Valencia in 1999.
He had a stint at Chelsea before Roman Abramovich’s arrival and also managed various clubs in Serie A before being appointed the manager of Monaco who were looking to gain promotion to Ligue 1. He then oversaw the transfers of James Rodriguez, Falcao and Joao Moutinho to Monaco before the club’s finances dried out.
However, he will go down in history for accomplishing the greatest feat in English history with Leicester City – winning the league by beating 5000/1 odds after the club barely survived relegation the previous season.
5) Arsene Wenger: £626m
Major clubs managed: AS Monaco, Arsenal
Manager since: 1984
Trophies won: 17
Record transfer: Mesut Ozil (Real Madrid to Arsenal) – £42.4m
After his stint in France came to a bitter end with the league mired in allegations of bribery and corruption, Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein pounced on the opportunity to sign him when things weren’t going well at the club. Although Wenger had moved to Japan, he managed to convince him to return to Europe and the French manager turned the club’s fortunes around.
With the help of Dein, Wenger signed a number of foreign players such as Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires that changed the face of the Premier League. The feather in his cap was the Invincibles season of 2003/04 where the team went an entire season unbeaten.
But a move to the new stadium crippled the club’s finances and Wenger was forced to change his philosophy and promote youth talents with potential world class players in the making at the club. The experiment looked good on paper but player loyalty was a factor he did not consider as other clubs poached his best talents.
However, new sponsorship and commercial deals have allowed him to spend again which saw him smash the club record to sign Ozil in 2013 and Alexis Sanchez a season later. But that has been the extent of his big spending on world class players in the new era.
4) Pep Guardiola: £644m
Major clubs managed: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City
Manager since: 2008
Trophies won: 21
Record transfer: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan to Barcelona) – £57m
When Barcelona looked for a new manager to dethrone Real Madrid, they looked inward and found a capable manager in their Barcelona B side. Pep Guardiola got the nod over Mourinho and in his very first season, he led the club to a treble. They would eventually win the sextuple – the only club to accomplish this feat.
His tiki-taka philosophy also inspired Spain to the World Cup and Euro triumphs with most of his Barcelona core making the Spain starting lineup. The Catalan club won three league titles and two Champions League titles in his tenure.
When he moved to Bayern Munich, they were already treble winners. And he could never get them to win another European title, managing to win only the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal. He eventually moved to Manchester City to take on a new challenge and has found England hard to adjust to despite spending more than any other club in the summer to rebuild the squad.
2016/17 is the first time Guardiola will finish a season outside the top two and without a single trophy.
3) Manuel Pellegrini: £794m
Major clubs managed: River Plate, Villarreal, Real Madrid, Malaga, Manchester City
Manager since: 1988
Trophies won: 10
Record transfer: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United to Real Madrid) – £80m
Manuel Pellegrini has managed clubs in three different continents but his most famous stints have come in La Liga and the Premier League. When he was appointed Real Madrid manager in 2009, he saw Florentino Perez bring in Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Xabi Alonso in a bid to win the title.
Real accumulated 96 points – their best ever in La Liga – but finished behind Barcelona on 99 points. Of course, he was quickly sacked and he bemoaned Real’s transfer policy of buying stars but not in the positions required.
He was then part of Malaga’s financial project to make them a top four club and he did manage to take them into the Champions League. But Financial Fair Play regulations saw the club banned from Europea competitions.
Manchester City took a gamble on him and he produced good football in their 2013/14 title triumph. But as Mancini before him, he was unable to recreate the same magic in the following seasons in spite of making big money signings such as Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling, and he soon gave way to Guardiola.
2) Carlo Ancelotti: £876m
Major clubs managed: Juventus, AC Milan, Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich
Manager since: 1995
Trophies won: 19
Record transfer: Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid) – £86m
No manager has won trophies in Europe’s five major leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and Ligue 1) apart from Ancelotti. Having first won major titles with AC Milan (two Champions League trophies in 2002/03 and 2006/07), he then moved to Chelsea where he won a domestic double in 2009/10, even breaking the then-English transfer record to sign Fernando Torres for £50m.
However, an impatient owner sacked him when they had a trophyless season and PSG signed him up as they looked to form a formidable team in France. He didn’t last long and as soon as he led them to a league title, he chose to answer Real Madrid’s call for help.
Winning La Decima (Real’s 10th UCL crown) was his biggest accomplishment but his inability to work with Perez’s instructions to work with certain players (especially Bale) that did not suit his style saw him get the sack even when there was no particular reason given by the club president.
Bayern Munich took him on when Guardiola departed for City and so far he has won the Bundesliga. It has been a bit underwhelming, though, but his second season will be what people will judge him on.
1) Jose Mourinho: £1.08bn
Major clubs managed: Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United
Manager since: 2000
Trophies won: 24
Record transfer: Paul Pogba (Juventus to Manchester United) – £89m
Perhaps no manager polarises opinions more than Mourinho. Loved by fans of the club he manages and hated by the rest, his pragmatism and outspoken attitude is what makes him a central figure in any league he goes to.
When he first shot to fame after winning the Champions League with Porto in 2004, he moved to Chelsea where Abramovich splashed left, right, and centre to recruit players that eventually saw the Blues win three titles in two separate stints.
With Inter, he did not have much competition in Italy to begin with but had a good outing in Europe in 2009/10 when Inter won the treble. A move to Real Madrid saw him ignite a huge rivalry with Barcelona and Pep Guardiola but he never managed to win the Champions League title.
Manchester United was his dream job following Sir Alex Ferguson’s exit and he finally got his way when he moved to Old Trafford in 2016. Though they will not finish in the top four, he has gambled on winning the Europa League to qualify for the Champions League.
