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Successful managers are always in the news, irrespective of whether they are managing a club or not.
For instance, if these managers are out of a job, then there are always going to be speculations about their next destination.
In modern day football, no manager is safe from the wrath of the fans as well as the directors, and as the recent sacking of Julen Lopetegui shows, a subpar performance is a sure way of being shown the door.
At any given moment, there will always be a bunch of top managers without a job, who have either been sacked by the club or have resigned on their own.
This summer we saw major overhauls at clubs like Chelsea and Arsenal, where new faces replaced the incumbent, leaving the latter unemployed.
So, with almost half of the season behind us, lets take a look at the 5 top managers who are without clubs at the moment.
#1 Julen Lopetegui
Julen Lopetegui has had a forgetful year so far, with him being sacked from two top managerial positions in a span of 136 days.
He was sacked by Spain a day before the World Cup kicked off in Russia, reportedly for announcing that he had agreed to become the head coach of Real Madrid.
Though he remained unemployed for a while, the position left vacant by Zinedine Zidane awaited him at the Santiago Bernabeu.
But he wasn't so lucky when the Real Madrid board decided to relieve him of his duties on 29 October after he led the club to one of their worst starts in history.
In all honesty, a season without the talismanic Cristiano Ronaldo was always going to be tough. And replacing Zidane who led the club to an unprecedented Champions League triumph for the third year running was no easy job.
He is a manager of great abilities, and he has led Spanish youth teams to U-19 and U-21 European Championships, thus it can be said that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Fernando Hierro, the man who took his place as the Spain National coach during the World Cup spoke optimistically about him, AS quoted him saying:
“Possibly, like every coach, he needed time, tranquillity. It was not easy to come into a team that has won the last three Champions Leagues. Of course, Julen is a great coach and I do not have any doubt about that."
#2 Antonio Conte
Conte has been without a club since he was sacked by Chelsea this summer.
Antonio Conte spent two seasons in the Premier League with Chelsea, becoming just the fourth manager in the league's history to lift the trophy in his first season in charge, joining Mourinho and Ancelotti as the other Chelsea managers to have achieved this feat.
The relationship between the Italian and the Chelsea hierarchy soured over the two years, with disagreements over transfer policy being the reason behind the annulment of his contract.
Conte claimed the Premier League title and an FA Cup in his two seasons at the club, while also bringing key players like Alonso, Morata, Kante, and Rudiger to Stamford Bridge.
At the moment, he has been constantly linked with some of the biggest clubs, but it seems he has chosen to take a sabbatical from competitive football, with him expecting a payment of £9.5 million in dues from Chelsea, Standard reported.
Standard quoted him saying this about his future plans:
“I don’t feel the need to coach now.”
“My plan is to wait until June. The problem now is that for a coach who is of my level it’s better to wait rather than to jump on a train already in motion. Serie A is a great league and being in Italy is always attractive. I would like to come home, but I won’t rule out a job abroad.”
#3 Leonardo Jardim
Leonardo Jardim was the man behind the Monaco team that ended the monopoly of PSG in Ligue 1, when his young and energetic team were crowned as the French Champions in 2017.
Jardim arrived at Monaco in 2014 as a relatively unpresuming figure who had spent the previous three years with three different teams in Portugal.
The Portuguese oversaw the emergence of some of the top attacking talents in Europe like Mbappe, Anthony Martial, and Bernardo Silva during his time at the club.
His biggest achievements at the club remains the promotion of youth products into main teams, achieving back to back European qualifications despite being forced to sell his best players due to financial crunch, and of course securing the first league title in 17 years for Les Rouges et Blancs.
Recently, The Telegraph had reported that he had turned down the offer to join Premier League club Fulham, before Ranieri took up the job.
#4 Arsene Wenger
One of the most experienced managers in the world today, Arsene Wenger has taken a break from coaching for now, by not immediately heading to another club after his illustrious spell at Arsenal came to an end this summer.
Wenger, who won 3 Premier League titles and 7 FA Cups with Arsenal, including the double in 1998 and 2002 during his tenure, says he has no intention of returning to manage in England again, BBC reported.
Wenger became the only manager in the history of the Premier League to guide a club through the whole season without conceding a single defeat when his famous 'Invincibles' side took home the league title in the 2003-04 season.
He has been linked with some of the biggest sides in Europe since his departure from the Emirates. Though he has dismissed each and every one of these links so far, he recently claimed that he is looking to get back in business by January 2019, Sky Sports reported.
As per Sky Sports News, when asked about his return to football, he said:
"Certainly at the beginning of 2019."
#5 Zinedine Zidane
Seldom do former players achieve major success at managerial level as quickly as Zinedine Zidane has. In just two and a half years as a full time manager of Real Madrid, the former Los Blancos midfield legend had established himself as one of the best managers in the world.
By the time he quit as the Real Madrid manager, he had won 3 consecutive UEFA Champions League titles with the club, becoming the only coach in history to do so.
Also, he helped them to a LaLiga triumph in 2017, and 5 other major trophies.
His decision to walk away from the biggest job in club football shocked everyone, but he admitted back then that the time was just right for the move.
ESPN quoted him saying:
"The time is right,"
"It's not a decision I've taken lightly. I thought about it carefully, and it's the right decision, even though I imagine many may not agree. After three years, Real Madrid needs a change, another way of working, another idea, if we are to continue winning. I feel it's going to be difficult to continue winning. And because I'm a winner, I'm going."
His future destination remains one of the biggest talking points in football across the globe, with fans and pundits alike waiting for his next move.
With multiple reports making the rounds in the media linking him with the likes of Manchester United, Bayern Munich, and Juventus, it remains to be seen where Zizou will take his magic next.
