Its always an honor when you get to write about the great players but it’s a bigger honor and greatness when you get to write about the managers who have made those players great.
Sir Alex Ferguson
Manchester United
1986 – Present
Previous Clubs: Aberdeen, Scotland National Team
Age: 69
The great Scot of English football has been credited to transform how managers look at football in England bringing up new and different tactics for every new opponent and making his presence felt when he enters the Locker room and showing who the Boss is what defines Ferguson. Lets see what else completes the introduction of the great Scot, he is one of the greatest manager that world would ever witness and he is considered to be Master of mind games he is like the Professor X of football world.
Like seeing a blood sucking Dracula is just not possible be it in day light or in the darkness of the night same way Ferguson never plays the same team in consecutive matches as I said he has a different game plan for each of his opponent. This also gives him the edge over the opponent as the opponents have no clue what Fergie is hiding in his mind and whats ringing in his players ears. He protects his players as his own children but as a parent he gets angry when his sons don’t obey which has led to the departure of many great players from Old Trafford most famously being the departure of son of Manchester David Beckham. But what he means to his players is visible when till date even after his departure from Manchester United Beckham still never fails to express that Ferguson is like a father to him who actually made this English star.
Ferguson’s 2011-12 season would be his 25th season at the helm of Red Devils so it wouldn’t be wrong to say he is the biggest devil of all. He has transformed how world looks at the Manchester club who were at second from the bottom when he joined in ’86 and now they are the best club in English football with 19 Premier League titles over taking Liverpool last season. Sir Alex has presented the world with few of modern day football’s biggest stars starting from Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Peter Schmeichel, Rio Ferdinand and few other youth team youngster who were later called as “Fergie's Fledglings” which included Neville brothers, Beckham and Nicky Butt and most recently Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez . After their 19th title it was quoted in newspapers and articles that Fergie has at last helped the City of Manchester get over the 1958 Munich crash.
Achievements:
Aberdeen
- · Scottish Premier Division: 3
- · Scottish Cup: 4
- · League Cup: 1
- · UEFA Cup Winners Cup: 1
- · UEFA Supercup: 1
Manchester United
- · Premier League: 19
- · FA Cup: 5
- · League Cup: 4
- · Community Shield: 9
- · UEFA Champions League: 2
- · Intercontinental Cup: 1
- · FIFA Club World Cup: 1
- · UEFA Cup Winners Cup: 1
- · UEFA Supercup: 1
- · Premier League Manager of the decade
- · Premier League Manager of the year: 10
Jose Mourinho
Real Madrid
2010- Present
Previous Clubs: Benfica, FC Porto, Chelsea & Inter Milan
Age: 48 yrs
Real Madrid voted by FIFA as the most successful club in 20th century, thirty one La Liga titles and nine UEFA Champions League titles most by any other club but no one can live on their laurels forever so till last season the state of the world’s most illustrious club spoke three simple facts no silverware since 2007-08 season, hadn’t qualified past the Round of 16 in past 6 seasons and most importantly eleven coaches in past seven seasons. So who does Madrid turn to Jose Mourinho so how is ‘The Special One’ so special? What makes him a manger who is today counted as one of the best manager in the world? What makes him a perfect mould of 21st century tactician? What makes him a person all other clubs hate except his own?
Most of the coaches have exposure of playing against clubs from England, Spain, Italy, Portugal or Ajax. But Mourinho has not only has this exposure but also the exposure of coaching clubs from Spain where at the early part of his life he was the interpreter for Sir Bobby Robson at FC Barcelona, Portugal where he coached Benfica, Leiria and the FC Porto, England where he came into Chelsea FC during the start of reign of Roman Abramovich, Italy he came at power at Internazionale and now finally back to Spain as the Head Coach for the Blancos. And I believe he very well knows how to convert this exposure into his tactics.
Mourinho has a counter tactics kind of a mindset he researches he digs deep to find the loop holes and faults in opposition and sets up his game plan accordingly which counters opposition’s all possible tactics. Mou is known to be a perfectionist as he knows what he wants and when he wants. He is one of those coaches whose achievement precedes him wherever he goes because these are the coaches who understand their achievements are possible only with the progress of his team. Mourinho has coached 6 clubs in over 510 matches and out of which won 348 matches and drawn 102 and lost only 60 which actually summarizes to a win % of 68.24. Mourinho might be arrogant but his knowledge in football, his game plans, and his decisions right now in the world of coaches is very much unbeatable. He is one of the few coaches to have led two different clubs from different continent to UEFA Champions league glory when no one even considered them as a contender.
Achievements:
FC Porto
· Premeira Liga: 2
· Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira: 1
· Taça de Portugal: 1
· UEFA Cup: 1
· UEFA Champions League: 1
Chelsea
· Premier League: 2
· Community Shield: 1
· FA Cup: 1
· League Cup: 2
Internazionale
· Serie A: 2
· Supercoppa Italiana: 1
· Coppa Italia: 1
· UEFA Champions League: 1
Real Madrid
· Copa del Rey: 1
Pep Guardiola
Barcelona
2008- Present
Age: 40 yrs
Pep is like a household name in Barcelona, he joined La Masia at the age of 13 and at the age of 40 he is still the part of La Masia, Barcelona B and Champions League winner Barcelona. He is the man with many faces at Nou Camp started from La Masia played as Defensive Midfielder for Barcelona most of his life and then coached the Barcelona B side and in 2008 came to the helm of FC Barcelona with the senior side. When a coach has seen the good bad and ugly of the club for whom he has played whole of his life he then doesn’t need to find the strengths and weaknesses of the club its already in his heart and soul.
That is the kind of manager he is he treats his team as his fellow team mates cause there are many with whom he has had opportunity to play with at some phase of his career. He doesn’t try too hard to make things possible his plans are always simple his tactics are always straight forward and his head is always calm & composed. On top of that he is the luckiest manager in the world to have players like Xavi, Iniesta, Villa and Messi in the squad.
But one question that keeps an intriguing worm in my head is will he be equally successful in any other club he goes. Most of the first team players he has now he has also worked with them in Barcelona B so he knows what they are best at so all he has to do is find the right missing piece to complete the puzzle. On the other hand you can say he has done what most managers take a long time to do which shows that his presence in Nou Camp in not limited to being a manager but also a person who is involved in all branches of the Catalan Oak tree. But if someone asks me where would he go next I would say he would go to a club where high importance is given to youth system and where he has the freedom to be involved in all spheres of a club.
Achievements:
Barcelona
· La Liga: 3
· Cope del Rey: 1
· Supercope de Espana: 2
· UEFA Champions League: 2
· UEFA Super Cup: 1
· FIFA Club World Cup: 1
Andre Villas-Boas
Chelsea
2011-Present
Age: 33 yrs
Youngest of the lot dreamer by heart, yes Villas-Boas is only 33 years of age and has recently taken charge of Chelsea after the sacking of Carlos Ancelotti. I call him a dreamer because anyone who would see he is career progression would say the same thing, started with a job at the observation department at FC Porto why because he got into a discussion with Sir Bobby Robson. As time progressed Robson was so impressed with this 16 year old lad that under his guidance AVB got a UEFA class C coaching license at the age of 17. With an eye for brilliance he soon became the official scout for Porto and by the age of 21 he was the assistant coach to Mourinho at FC Porto.
As Mourinho is known to be the Special One I call AVB the Chosen One. For the next eight years he learned the ticks and trade of coaching from then budding coach and his mentor Jose Mourinho he followed him to Chelsea also from Porto retaining his position as 2nd to Mou. This might be a very good reason for him now becoming the head coach at Chelsea as the club wanted someone who could start working right away as they knew AVB was already familiar with Blues system or should I say Abramvich’s system. After Mourinho left for Inter after his much productive stint AVB decided to part ways as he wanted to now concentrate on his own career but till then he had no clue what was in store for him in the near future. He spent the 2009-10 as the head coach for Academica in Primeira Liga where he saved the club from relegation and got them to a respectable 11th place. Soon after that season he was signed by FC Porto the powerhouse of Portugal or the place where it all began. Jumping directly on his achievement for his one and only season at Estadio de Dragao he won the league with a margin of 21 points, he broke Mourinho’s record at the club of being unbeaten in all competition by winning 36 games on the trot. More importantly he completed a quadruple while being incharge of his first big European club.
AVB is known for his attractive and attacking style of play. While at Porto he used Hulk and Falcao to their full potential that for the 2010-11 season they managed to score a staggering total of 75 goals in all competition. Brought into a Chelsea side after they suffered a trophy less last season to bring that energy to win matches and hence bring a sense of satisfaction to the supporters club and most importantly to Mr. Owner. Critics consider him too young to cater for the need of Chelsea but I would ask them if a players age is not dependant on how many goals he can score then why should a person who has gained so much knowledge, learned from the best and proved himself to be the best in short time be questioned.
Achievements:
FC Porto
· Primeira liga: 1
· Taça de Portugal: 1
· Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira: 1
· UEFA Europa League: 1
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