Ten Hag next? Unai Emery ranks top for bouncebackability after Big Six brush-off | OneFootball

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Unai Emery, Antonio Conte, Tim Sherwood, Jose Mourinho and Frank Lampard.

Some managers, like Unai Emery, thrive after blowing it with a Big Six club. Others, like Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, get another go; some aren’t seen again.

For how they bounced back, here’s how we’ve ranked the permanent managers who have left Big Six clubs in the last 10 years…

17) Graham Potter (Chelsea) The inspiration behind this ranking amid links with Stoke, Potter is either struggling to find his place post-Chelsea, or the ex-Brighton boss is waiting for a very specific type of opportunity. He’s been linked with Sweden, Lyon, Leeds and Stoke since being caught up in the Chelsea sh*te cycle. Still, he waits, for which he can’t be blamed since he’s probably still receiving a wage from the Blues.

16) Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United) Highlighting the fact that his primary qualification for managing Man Utd was his legacy as a player, Solskjaer has received few offers to return to a manager’s hot seat. At least none that have tempted him back in. He was asked to manage his country’s women’s side recently but admitted “I’m not ready for that yet”. That was two years after he was ushered towards the Old Trafford door.

15) Frank Lampard (Chelsea) Lampard was out of work for a year and a week before Everton made the latest of a series of questionable managerial choices. Similar to Solskjaer, his Chelsea heritage was his greatest qualification for bossing the Blues. Without that, at Everton, he was found out. Still, Chelsea took him back briefly, but Lampard is back waiting for the type of opportunity that’s unlikely to come. When you’re missing out on the Charlotte FC gig to Dean Smith…

14) Tim Sherwood (Tottenham) Sherwood was linked with a number of jobs after leaving Tottenham in May 2014. He turned his nose up at QPR before taking over at Villa after they sacked Paul Lambert following a run of 10 games without a win. Sherwood guided Villa from 18th to…17th. Crucially, though, the Villans stayed up and enjoyed a day out at Wembley, at least until Arsenal put four past them in the FA Cup final. The novelty of Tactics Tim wore off the following season when a nine-game winless run, including six consecutive defeats, got Sherwood the sack. He had a brief stint as Swindon Town director of football, but he hasn’t been seen near a dug-out since 2015.

13) Nuno Espirito Santo (Tottenham) Nuno certainly wasn’t at the top of Spurs’ wish-list when he was appointed in 2021 so he was always susceptible when struggle ensued. He was axed in November 2021 after less than four months in charge before taking the first half of 2022 off. With few other offers on his table, certainly not as lucrative, Nuno was off to Saudi to take over at Al-Ittihad. There he won a Saudi Pro League title but was sacked last month. Now what? Assuming he doesn’t feel like swimming in his Scrooge McDuck pit every day for the rest of his working life.

12) Jose Mourinho (Manchester United) Mourinho took 11 months out after becoming the latest manager to be chewed up and spat out by Manchester United. Then he went to Tottenham and got chewed out there too.

11) Antonio Conte (Tottenham) Conte and Spurs bored the tits off one another before the inevitable parting last season. Ange Postecoglou’s subsequent impact doesn’t reflect well on the Italian, who remains out of work. But Conte still has enough credit in the bank to make his own choices. He wants to return to Italy again, specifically for Roma or Napoli. He’ll follow Jose again, won’t he…

10) Manuel Pellegrini (Manchester City) Pellegrini was shunted aside when City had a sniff of Pep Guardiola. There was no shame in the Chilean’s exit. Indeed, he left with the fifth-highest win percentage in Premier League history. What did he do with that? He got paid for two years in China. Pellegrini popped back to the Prem for a season and a half at West Ham before returning to Spain with Real Betis where he remains, three-and-a-half years into the gig.

9) David Moyes (Manchester United) After failing to adequately replace Sir Alex Ferguson – the impossible job, surely – Moyes felt the need to get away. So after six months off, he took over at Real Sociedad where he last a day short of a year. Another half a year off later, Moyes made another wrong move: he took the Sunderland job. The club was a mess and Moyes was powerless to stop them tumbling to the Championship. Only at West Ham, and even then in his second stint, did he begin to properly rebuild his reputation.

8) Louis van Gaal (Manchester United) Managing Man Utd scarred Van Gaal enough to stay out of management for five years. He came out of retirement in 2021 to boss Netherlands for a third time, going 20 matches unbeaten while also receiving treatment for prostate cancer. What a man.

7) Jose Mourinho (Tottenham) Jose was out of work for barely a fortnight after being axed by Spurs – trophyless for the first time in his career. And he will insist he would have won the League Cup final had he not been given the elbow. Mourinho won the Europa Conference League in his first season in Rome and took them to the Europa League final in his second. Inevitably, three seasons together is enough for Jose and Roma, with a parting at the end of the season seemingly inevitable.

6) Brendan Rodgers (Liverpool) After being sacked by Liverpool in 2015, Rodgers sought refuge in Glasgow, where he could hardly fail. Still, though, an Invincible season as part of two Trebles is pretty impressive. That earned him a return to the Premier League with Leicester where he continued to rebuild his reputation, winning an FA Cup while being linked with Arsenal and Manchester United. Then it went terribly wrong, with Rodgers unable to arrest the Foxes’ slide to the Championship. He darted before relegation was confirmed to return to his happy place at Celtic.

5) Maurizio Sarri (Chelsea) After a turbulent year at Chelsea that ended with a Europa League trophy on his CV, Sarri returned to Italy to boss Juventus. Once again, he lasted a year and won a title – the club’s ninth-straight Scudetto – but Sarri suffered for Juve’s continued Champions League failure. After a year sabbatical, the Italian took over at Lazio where he remains two-and-a-half seasons later.

4) Antonio Conte (Chelsea) Conte’s long drawn-out Chelsea divorce was followed by a year off. After a break, with his stock still high, Conte enhanced his reputation further still by taking over at Inter Milan and finishing second – behind Sarri – then first to win the Nerazzurri’s first Serie A title in 11 years. His reward: being mutually-consented at Inter and the Spurs job.

3) Thomas Tuchel (Chelsea) There were few concerns that Tuchel wouldn’t take at least a sideways move when the Champions League winner was shown the door by Chelsea. His track record before taking over at Stamford Bridge, coupled with his achievement in winning the Champions League then steering the Blues through the Roman Abramovich chaos, made it no surprise that Bayern Munich came calling.

2) Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham) No trophies at Tottenham but plenty of strong work to make him an object of desire for top clubs across Europe once he left Spurs. Poch bided his time, perhaps waiting for Manchester United to stop flirting with him and get it on, but after over a way off, he took up PSG’s offer in January 2021, perhaps content to take the guarantee of trophies despite the grief. He lasted a year and a half in Paris, taking another year off between jumping from frying pan to the Chelsea fire.

1) Unai Emery (Arsenal) Like Moyes, Emery took on one of the toughest gigs: replacing a legend. In Emery’s case, he was stepping in to Arsene Wenger’s shoes and he wasn’t helped by some spurious recruitment. The Spaniard was axed in November 2019 and took the rest of the season before taking over at Villarreal. In two years there he rebuilt his reputation, and almost returned to the Premier League with Newcastle before being tempted back by Aston Villa. He’s doing alright there…