re: How Would You Rank These Club Managers?

The year before Klopp took over Dortmund, they finished 13th in the league. His first year they finished 6th, then 5th, and then won the league in back to back years. He has a great eye for talent, getting Mats Hummels from Bayern, he promoted Gotze to the first team at 17, got Kagawa for less than a million, Sven Bender from 1860 Munich, Barrios from South America, Kevin Grosskreutz from a regional league

His style is also uniquely his. Dortmund's high pressure system is compared to Barcelona's but it's pretty different. They work like madmen trying to get the ball back but they're more concerned with creating chances than holding possession. They've scaled back a bit on how much they run this season when it comes to the Champions League but they definitely have their own brand.


I think it's insulting to Klopp to say that any up and coming manager could replicate what he's done at BVB. They're historically a good team but when he got there, they were nothing more than average. The way they play now, the players they have, the attitude they have is all Klopp. It's comparable to how Barcelona was with Pep (obviously not at the dominating level), with him being so intensive.

Nuri Sahin is a good player who exploded under Klopp, didn't replicate it anywhere. Ilkay Gundogan was seen as a good young midfielder, now he's probably a future starter for the German National Team. Robert Lewandowski was a decent player who could never really find himself in the flow of a game, he goes on to make everyone forget about Lucas Barrios. He got Subotic from a youth player with Mainz to a starter in the 2nd division to a consistent starter on back-to-back championship teams.




The guy is great. I do worry about the talk of Chelsea going after him because I think he and Uncle Roman would be a disaster together.

Well then I would certainly agree

Dzeko, kießling, Adam Szalai from Mainz, plus one or two others seem to be the main names thrown around. Dzeko has a very good bundesliga report and he seems to be available, so that's certainly intriguing. I doubt kießling would go to Dortmund anyway, he's also like 28. Szalai is having a great season, but I'm not sure if he's justified making the big club jump yet. He's pretty young and I'm not sure how old dzeko is, but it doesn't look like they will be buying a long term replacement just yet.

Eta: I guess it always leaves open the option to play Reus up top and then tweak the formation a bit so they can avoid buying a striker. I guess they will try and sell Lewandowski since he's not signing another contract, but he'll have to agree and there are rumors of a back door deal already done with bayern. Guess we'll just have to see how it plays out.

Dzeko is an absolutely fantastic player.

He's criminally underrated by most soccer fans. His role has been dwarfed because he's not as dynamic as Aguero or Tevez, but he's fantastic in link-up play and is amazingly clinical in front of goal. He'd be spectacular at any club who creates quality chances.

1. Mourinho

Last. Benitez

Agreed. Dzeko would be an absolute star with a club like Juventas.

I mean Matri actually scores for them. Those two would light it up.

I don't get to see him play much, but I know his stats and he's definitely got a knack for scoring goals. BVB like to play through Lewandowski sometimes and he's usually the only one up top, so naturally he gets a lot of chances, but Dortmund are pretty dynamic they like to create chances from a lot of different places. I'm not sure how he'd fit in, but I would rather not find out

Eta: his stats in the bundesliga (which wasn't as strong as it is today, but still quality obviously) are kind of amazing haha if he's only 25 then he was quite young at Wolfsburg. He had a great year with Grafite when they actually won the title, so maybe he would fit in well somewhere for them. He's a proven winner, I really don't want him to go there. .

Sorry I'm late to this.

The only name on that list incredibly out of place is Harry Redknapp. So far and away below any of those managers.

It's so tough to compare because all have been in wildly different circumstances. Mourinho has won everywhere he's been in different leagues but has always seemed to wear out his welcome. He's also had the benefit of a big check book backing him. Ferguson has been great for forever. Best CV of any English manager ever. He's also was extremely fortunate to have a core of young stars come through the ManU system at a crucial time in English football where he was able to translate success into mega-profits through marketing. Pep is great too. You consider the blessings of talent he was provided with but you can also consider they've looked less invincible this year. Wenger revolutionized the Premier League and is famous for his bargain signings. The past couple years have called some of his decisions into question, but until that point he had performed quite brilliantly under financial pressure and IMO the 2007-08 squad is one of the great "what-ifs" in recent history (wrt the Eduardo injury).

Really you could go on and on. I'd accept arguments for just about any of them. If I had to pick one though, I'd probably pick Klopp. Love the style with which his team plays the game.