5 EFL Championship Managers to watch out for

4. Jaap Stam (Reading)

Reading v Fulham - Sky Bet Championship

This man needs little introduction. Former Manchester United and Lazio defender, Stam played for a variety of clubs across Netherlands and Italy. He developed a reputation for being one of the best defenders of his era, winning 67 International caps for the Netherlands.

Stam began his coaching career in an assistant coaching role at Zwolle, his first professional team before serving as a defensive coach and assistant head coach of Ajax and the second tier Jong Ajax from where he developed his possession-based coaching philosophy.

He signed a two-year contract with Reading in June 2016 and led the Royals to the play-off finals only missing out on promotion in a penalty shootout to Huddersfield Town. This was even more impressive considering most pundits did not see Reading really challenging for promotion and expected an upper mid-table result as the most likely scenario for them.

Stam was eventually rewarded with a two-year extension to his contract, keeping him at Reading till 2019. Considering his reputation, Stam has the promise to be something special as a manager as well.