The 25th installment of Barney Corkhill's Greatest Ever series is here!
In this series, I will look at the greatest talents to grace various sports. Here, I continue to look at football, this time counting down the top 10 managers of all time. This was another tough one, and there are some big names left off!
Enjoy!
10. Sir Matt Busby (SCO)
It takes a great manager to build a great team. It takes an extraordinary manager to build two. Sir Matt Busby built three. He joined Manchester United in 1945 and, 24 years later, left having experienced the highest and lowest feelings in football.
His first great side won an FA Cup and league title, as well as finishing as runners-up in the league four more times. The ageing stars were then replaced by the best young players in the country, a team the media dubbed "The Busby Babes." The players, including Bobby Charlton and Duncan Edwards, showed great potential before most of them were cruelly wiped out in the Munich Air Disaster of 1958.
Ten years later and Busby had built another great team, including Charlton again. He also added the flair and skill of George Best and Denis Law. This team won the '68 European Cup, the trophy Busby had been chasing when the Munich disaster struck.
All in all, Busby won five league titles, five Charity Shields, two FA Cups, and a European Cup.
9. Brian Clough (ENG)
"I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business, but I'm in the top one." Sorry Cloughie, you're going to have to make do with the top ten! Widely regarded as the best manager England never had, Brian Clough did the seemingly impossible by taking provincial side Derby County to the First Division title.
What is even more amazing, however, is that he managed to repeat the feat with Nottingham Forest. Questions remain as to Clough's capabilities without Peter Taylor at his side, highlighted by his doomed stay of just 44 days as Leeds manager, but Clough was undoubtedly the main driving force in their highly successful relationship.
Clough won two First Division titles, four League Cups, and a Charity Shield, as well as the 1979 European Cup. A year later, he retained that trophy, a remarkable feat considering Nottingham Forest were virtually unheard of in Europe before.
8. Arsene Wenger (FRA)
One of the most shrewd and tactically sound managers to grace the game, Arsene Wenger is best known for changing the "boring, boring Arsenal" into the team that play the best football in the country.
This was never more evident than in the 2003/04 season, where he lead an Arsenal side containing the likes of Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, and Dennis Bergkamp to an unbeaten season, the first of it's kind in over a century.
Despite being accused of lacking a "killer touch" at times, Wenger's trophy cabinet isn't exactly empty. He has won two French league titles, a French Cup, a Japanese league title, three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, and four Charity Shields. He was also voted World Manager of the Year in 1998.
7. Helenio Herrera (ARG)
Helenio Herrera is one of the most important, influential, and successful managers in football history. He pioneered the use of psychological motivating skills and ensured that all his players believed they were going to win.
It obviously worked, as Herrera picked up 16 major trophies in his time as a manager. With Atletico Madrid he won two league titles, adding another two to that tally with Barcelona later on. He also won two UEFA Cups with Barcelona and a Spanish Cup.
His most successful spell came with Inter Milan, where he won three league titles and two European Cups. He added an Italian Cup with AS Roma later on.
6. Jock Stein (SCO)
Jock Stein's death following a heart attack on the touchline while managing Scotland sent shock-waves through world football. He was part of a group of four great Scottish managers, consisting of Bill Shankly, Matt Busby, himself, and Alex Ferguson.
His achievements, for a long time, outshone all of them. He took Celtic to ten league titles, including a record nine successive successes. He coupled this with eight Scottish Cups and six Scottish League Cups.
He came to worldwide acclaim in 1967, however, as he lead his "Lisbon Lions" to a historic victory over a strong Inter Milan side to become the first British side to win the European Cup.
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