5 famous managers who were sacked after they lost the dressing room

When it comes to being a successful football manager, tactics and man-management must always go hand-in-hand. There are several world class tacticians in football today but only a select few have succeeded in managing the dressing room and keeping every player happy.

There have been times when the manager suddenly becomes a square peg in a round hole and the players stop responding to him. In such cases, the club management has no choice but to let go of the manager as that is a much easier task than getting rid of high-profile players.

We look at five famous managers who lost the dressing room during their tenure at top clubs.

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1) Carlo Ancelotti (Bayern Munich)

Until 2017, Carlo Ancelotti had never been sacked midway through a season. No matter how bad things got during his tenure, he was always able to see out the campaign before moving on - be it at Juventus, Chelsea or Real Madrid.

One of only two coaches to win the UEFA Champions League three times as a manager (the other being Liverpool's Bob Paisley), and having managed a host of top clubs, you would expect a well-traveled manager like him to have things under control when he replaced Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich.

Bayern were supposed to improve on their semi-final finishes in the Champions League - the primary reason why Ancelotti was brought in. However, all they won was the Budnesliga title in a league that had nobody to upstage them - clearly evident form the 15-point lead they had by the end of the season.

Players soon lost trust in the manager; most noticeably Arjen Robben, who did not agree with the number of minutes he was getting on the pitch. A few spoke out in the media but declined to discuss the matter in-depth.

Five players turned against Ancelotti and they included Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller. The club were also not satisfied with the way the team were playing.

It all came to a head following a humiliating 3-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. It was the final straw and he was gone two days later.

"What we saw today was not Bayern Munich." - Chief Executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

Even Bayern president Uli Hoeness admitted the players were not in favour of Ancelotti continuing in his role.

"As coach, you can’t have your most prominent players as enemies,” Hoeness said. “In my life, I’ve learned a saying: the enemy in your own bed is the most dangerous. That’s why we had to act."

2) David Moyes (Manchester United)

Even Ryan Giggs (L) did not agree with the way David Moyes (R) ran things at Old Trafford

Frankly, taking over from a manager such as Sir Alex Ferguson would be a nightmare for any coach. David Moyes may not have been the first-choice but the club didn't have any other option at the time and decided to place their trust in an inexperienced manager to take the reins of the biggest football club in England.

It was an unmitigated disaster. Moyes had neither the presence nor the tactical acumen to lead the Red Devils to glory like his predecessor did. His small-club mentality and overly cautious approach when it came to making tactical decisions may have helped him at Everton but it clearly did not fit into the philosophy of the Old Trafford club.

Fans initially gave 'The Chosen One' a chance to get things right but the tide soon turned after a string of disappointing results. Players who weren't picked in the matchday squad soon placed bets on when he would be fired.

Training sessions saw players quickly losing interest while players slowly became undisciplined - something unheard of during Ferguson's reign. One player (a substitute) even encouraged the fourth official to send him off in a game where Moyes argued with the referee.

10 months after he was signed, Moyes lost his job when United were certain to miss out on the Champions League for the first time in years. Ryan Giggs was appointed interim player-manager until the end of the season as a result.

3) Andre Villas-Boas (Chelsea)

Andre Villas-Boas (L) was replaced by Roberto Di Matteo (R)

It was easy to see why clubs that were looking for a new manager were attracted to Andre Villas-Boas. After all, the Portuguese manager had won a 'treble' with Porto when they won the UEFA Europa League, Primeira Liga and Taca de Portugal in 2010/11.

He obviously reminded Chelsea of a younger version of Jose Mourinho (he'd even been his assistant under Mourinho) and saw him as the man to replace the outgoing Italian boss Carlo Ancelotti. The only problem was that he was too young. And in a dressing room filled with stars, a 33-year-old manager did not exactly inspire confidence.

Although the Blues' pre-season form showed promise (they won all games and conceded just once), big losses to Manchester United (3-1) and Arsenal (5-3) saw pressure mount. By the turn of the year, it seemed like he was only getting support from his Portuguese-speaking teammates while the English core were starting to doubt his abilities.

After falling out of the top four, he cancelled their day off and summoned all players to a meeting which was also attended by club owner Roman Abramovich. That's when the gloves came off and senior players questioned his tactics.

The final straw came when he benched Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Michael Essien for a Champions League knockout game against Napoli. The Blues lost 3-1 and soon he was out the door.

“There were some players who didn't want to work hard for Villas-Boas," Cole said years later. "But as soon as [Roberto] Di Matteo arrived, that all changed.”

We all know what happened next. Roberto Di Matteo took over as interim manager and led the Blues to a historic Champions League title to qualify for next year's campaign as defending champions even though they finished the season outside the top four.

"The Chelsea experience was too much too soon. I wasn’t flexible as a manager at that time. I was communicative, but I wasn’t flexible in my approach. At Chelsea the group was more important, I stuck to my methods too much." - Andre Villas-Boas

4) Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid and Chelsea)

Jose Mourinho's behaviour at Real Madrid eventually saw players lose their trust in him

Few managers have touched a nerve at their respective clubs as much as Jose Mourinho did. The Portuguese manager has always won titles wherever he has managed but his exits from these hallowed institutions have almost always come in a poisonous atmosphere created by nothing but his own doing.

Real Madrid was arguably the biggest job he undertook in his career and he was chosen for one sole reason - defeat an all-conquering Barcelona side managed by Pep Guardiola. He, too, took it with both hands, more so because he was rejected for the Barcelona job himself in 2009.

El Clasico reached a new level of hostility when Mourinho was in Madrid and this spilt over into the Spanish national team who were World Cup and Euro champions. When Iker Casillas tried to calm things down, Mourinho accused the club legend of stabbing him in the back and this did not sit too well with senior members of the squad.

He had also publicly reprimanded the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. By the end of his tenure, he hadn't won the elusive Decima (10th Champions League crown) and looked nowhere close to toppling Barcelona as the number one side, amicably agreeing to an exit in 2013.

Soon after, he took the Chelsea job and it all looked well at Stamford Bridge as he won the league title yet again in his second season. But suddenly things started to unravel yet again. A poor pre-season led to an abysmal start and Chelsea were struggling to get points.

Falling out with club physio Eva Carneiro, who he insulted in front of his own players, shocked everyone at the club and soon the players also stopped responding to him. The Blues slumped and the defending champions were soon in the bottom half of the table, closer to the relegation zone than the top four.

Mourinho's treatment of physio Eva Carneiro did not go down well with the players

He was sacked for a second time in his career in December with the club’s technical director, Michael Emenalo saying: "There obviously seemed to be a palpable discord between manager and players and we feel it was time to act. The owner is forced to make what was a very tough decision for the good of the club."

Stars such as Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and even Cesc Fabregas were branded as rats by the Chelsea supporters who booed the team during the first fixture after his sacking.

5) Claudio Ranieri

Leicester City struggled in their second season under Claudio Ranieri

Poor Claudio. Nobody deserved what happened to the veteran Italian boss. Here was a manager who had never won a top-flight league title in his career. He had recently been sacked (rather harshly) by Greece.

And then he only went on to lift the Premier League title in his first season back in England when Leicester City's odds of winning it were an enormous 5000/1.

In a season where all top clubs failed to wrest the initiative, Ranieri's Foxes went on an amazing run and made history. Nobody expected them to defend the title the next season as other clubs reinforced their sides but nobody predicted his fall from grace midway through the season either.

Leicester's poor form was reflective of the way the players were performing on the pitch. Stars such as Riyad Mahrez suddenly looked disinterested and did not bother listening to Ranieri's instructions. The team's slump saw them close to the relegation zone after which the owners took the painful decision of letting him go.

The 65-year-old often left his assistant manager Craig Shakespeare to handle training sessions and it was he who eventually took over when Ranieri was sacked.

The Foxes' change in form was almost instant and they almost managed o finish in the top half of the table, eventually finishing 12th and avoiding relegation.