Top 10 available managers: Conte, Howe, Nagelsmann on strong list

· Football365

At least three of these managers might see the mess at Manchester United as an opportunity to get back to work…

Managergeddon has extended beyond the end of the football season, with Liverpool realising Arne Slot was not the man they or we all assumed he was after sauntering to the title in his first Premier League season.

One p\ss-poor title defence later, he’s gone and takes his place in this list behind a couple of Catalans, managers axed after the World Cup and the mutually consented Eddie Howe.

Here are the 10 best currently available managers…

10) Marcelino

We love the chutzpah of taking Villarreal back into the Champions League and walking away. The question is whether – at 60 – he has now had enough.

9) Roberto Martinez

Do you want a manager to take over your Golden Generation of players and then pander to the oldest, most powerful footballer? If so then Roberto Martinez is your man. He would probably prefer to be known as the man who took Belgium to the World Cup semi-finals and then won the Nations League with Portugal.

8) Vitor Pereira

Pereira had his go at managing Nottingham Forest, now it’s Oliver Glasner’s. It’ll be yours soon.

The Portuguese coach leaves the City Ground with his reputation restored after keeping Forest in the top flight with a bit to spare. Doubtless Pereira will get a third crack at the Premier League when someone panics mid-season.

7) Thomas Frank

Frank failed to galvanise Tottenham and, frankly, his record was wretched, the Dane leaving with the worst win ratio of any permanent Spurs boss. But, lads, it’s Tottenham. That has to be factored in when we consider where his sacking leaves his reputation,

After a break, we can well imagine that he will still be a man in demand – albeit not quite ‘the most in-demand in world football’ as one starry-eyed journalist insists – even if his struggle to replicate his Brentford success at Spurs highlights once more the danger of plucking a manager from an analytics-driven club and expecting him to have the same effect.

6) Eddie Howe

Will Eddie Howe take Mad Dog on a world tour with England, or is the now-departed Newcastle manager finally set to boss Manchester United?

You suspect that it will not be long before another Premier League job becomes available to Howe, who has left Newcastle after a poor Premier League season in the midst of some sobering transfer business.

5) Antonio Conte

Conte did at Napoli what Conte does: win and wave goodbye.

The Italian won the Serie A title in his first season in Naples before finishing second and adding the Italian Super Cup to his trophy collection.

What next? There are said to be offers from Saudi and Turkey after Conte was overlooked for the Italian national job.

4) Arne Slot

One of only two men to win the Premier League title with Liverpool, but while he proved magnificently adept at smoothing the edges of someone’s else’s team he was all at sea when it came to building his own.

A season of drift at Liverpool has eventually cost him his job, although the dilly-dallying has seen the Reds miss out on their obvious top target and previous holder of the No. 1 spot here.

3) Julian Nagelsmann

Nagelsmann’s reputation certainly takes a hit in the wake of Germany’s World Cup failure, but the 38-year-old’s standing was grand enough to get a big club when he dips his toe back in.

He initially gave the impression he wanted to get back into club football quickly prior to getting his feet under the table with Die Mannschaft so we expect the ex-Bayern boss will be linked with a Premier League big hitter in no time.

2) Didier Deschamps

The only man on this list to have won a World Cup though managing France during an unprecedented era of success does not seem to have earned him must respect as a tactician.

“It’s for the good of the French team. To be honest, I didn’t make this decision for myself. Because the environment was so unbearable towards me, the French team doesn’t deserve that,” said Deschamps when explaining his decision to step down. Will he manage again or take himself off to become a public speaker like Gareth Southgate. Dear France?

1) Pep Guardiola

What next for Pep? Does he even want to coach again?

Almost certainly not before a break, which the Catalan coach has earned after proving himself to be one of the greatest managers ever in the Premier League during a trophy-laden decade at Manchester City.

The best ever? He’s in the top two…

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