Ranking the top 10 out-of-work managers right now, ft. Zidane, Potter and Conte | OneFootball

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Every season, the managerial merry-go-round throws up plenty of surprises. People who looked safe in their job one minute are suddenly sacked off the back of a few bad results. Elsewhere, out of desperation, clubs will hire long-forgotten names in hopes of a miracle – just look at Sam Allardyce and Leeds United last term.

No matter what point of the campaign you are in, a fresh new sacking is inevitably on the horizon. With that being the case, there are always a handful of managers waiting in the wings, ready to take on a new role. Even right now, there are a number of big names who are currently out of work. Taking that into account, GIVEMESPORT has decided to rank the best options out there right now.

10 Ruud van Nistelrooy

Still only 47 years of age, the former Manchester United striker appears to have all the qualities to potentially make a great manager. Indeed, after a spell coaching the reserves, he took charge of PSV Eindhoven last season and brought immediate success.

Under Van Nistelrooy, the Eredivisie outfit qualified for the Champions League and also won the Dutch Cup final as well as the Johan Cruijff Shield. He managed that all in the space of just one season and then quit in the summer, citing a lack of management support – although there was talk of issues between the coach and his squad. As a result, he's on the market now and it surely won't take long before a new opportunity arises for the young manager.

9 André Villas-Boas

It feels like an awful long time ago that Villas-Boas turned up at Chelsea, dubbed as the next José Mourinho only to be sacked without even seeing out the season. He then struggled at Spurs as well but rebuilt his reputation somewhat at Zenit Saint Petersburg, winning the league as well as two domestic cups.

He ended up at Shanghai SIPG after that before taking charge of Marseille, helping them finish second in the 2019/20 Ligue 1 season. Since leaving the French club in 2021, Villas-Boas has competed in the World Rally Championship but is still reportedly hoping to return to football, and aims to take on an international job before the 2026 World Cup.

8 Julen Lopetegui

Having coached Porto, Spain, Real Madrid and Sevilla, the 57-year-old certainly has a good pedigree. Winning the UEFA Europa League in 2020 with Los Nervionenses was up there with his best achievements as a manager.

Most recently, though, Lopetegui impressed in England as he steadied the ship at a relegation-threatened Wolves, leading them to a respectable 13th-placed finish in the Premier League. Of course, though, after just nine months in charge, he left the club on the dawn of the new season – amid anger over lack of spending on transfers – and so remains a free man on the market.

7 Marcelo Gallardo

During eight years with River Plate, Gallardo won the Copa Libertadores, the Argentine Primera Division, the Copa Argentina (three times), as well as numerous over trophies. As a result, he was also named the South American Manager of the Year on three separate occasions.

He opted to leave the club in 2022 and has remained on the managerial market ever since. Having never worked in Europe, it would be a gamble for teams on the continent to hire the 47-year-old. But his success in Argentina suggests that would be a risk worth taking.

6 Joachim Löw

The only reason Löw doesn't rank higher on this list is because most of his success has come as an international manager and so it remains unclear just how good he could be in charge of a major European club. Indeed, before taking charge of the German national team in 2006, the most well-known teams he'd coached were VfB Stuttgart and Fenerbahçe.

Of course, though, he led his nation to success at the World Cup in Brazil and was unsurprisingly named as the FIFA World Coach of the Year in 2014. Löw left his role in 2021 and hasn't worked since. Only time will tell if he stays in international management or opts to return to the domestic game.

5 Graham Potter

It's easy to forget that Potter was viewed as one of the most exciting young coaches in England, if not Europe, before he took the Chelsea job. After all, he'd shown remarkable talent to go from the fourth tier of Swedish football with Östersund all the way to Stamford Bridge in the space of 11 years (via Swansea City and then Brighton & Hove Albion).

And while his time with the Blues was pretty damaging, things have been so chaotic in West London of late, that it's hard to know how much Potter should be blamed for his failure there. If he's still on the market when Gareth Southgate leaves England, you'd expect the 48-year-old to be right at the top of the FA's shortlist.

4 Christophe Galtier

The 57-year-old spent eight years with Saint-Étienne winning the Coupe de la Ligue, their first trophy in 32 years. After leaving, Galtier joined Lille and put an end to Paris Saint-Germain's dominance by winning Ligue 1 in the 2020-21 campaign.

He then spent a season with Nice before heading to the French capital where he won the league, as well as the Trophee des Champions but left PSG after just a year. He is currently without a job but faces uncertainty regarding his career amid allegations of racial and religious discrimination, for which he will face trial in December.

3 Hansi Flick

Flick is a relative newcomer to this list having only been sacked at the start of September. However, having lost four of his final five games in charge of Germany (winning only 12 of 25 matches in total), the writing was on the wall for some time.

Much like Potter at Chelsea, Flick's bad time with the national team shouldn't distract completely from what he achieved before then. After all, he guided Bayern Munich to a continental treble in his first season as his side won the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Champions League. A new job will surely pop up for the 58-year-old in the near future.

2 Antonio Conte

Having won domestic titles in Italy with both Inter Milan and Juventus, as well as in England with Chelsea, Conte remains one of the most successful managers on the scene right now. And yet his reputation took a big dent after he returned to the Premier League with Tottenham.

While he helped the club gain a Champions League spot during his first season, things fell apart the following campaign. Indeed, he left Spurs in March having called their players "selfish" as well as criticising the club's culture. Even so, his past achievements mean he'll likely make the shortlist for many big European sides when they are next on the hunt for a new manager.

1 Zinedine Zidane

When looking at all the managerial options available right now, it's hard to look past Zidane as the best coach out there. After all, in two spells at Real Madrid, he won just about everything, at least twice. This included La Liga twice, the Champions League three times, Supercopa de Espana twice, the Super Cup twice and the Club World Cup twice.

Indeed, the Frenchman has the rare talent of being a brilliant player and a brilliant coach but Los Blancos are the only team to have truly taken full advantage of that. Having left the Spanish giants in 2021, Zidane has yet to take a new job and recently even turned down an approach from Marseille. It will be fascinating to see where he ends up next.