Batman has Robin. Robert Baratheon had Ned Stark. Captain America has Falcon.
See the pattern?
All these great guys had an equally great sidekick. In football, a manager might be one of the most important persons responsible for a team’s success. But even the most talented manager needs a good assistant. In a world where players and managers steal all the limelight, the work of an assistant manager often goes under the radar.
Nevertheless, there are some manager-assistant manager pairs in football who have become famous due to the success they have achieved together. Some of these assistants are working with their managers since the start of their career and have loyally stood by their boss in tough situations.
We’ll take a look at the five famous Manager-Assistant Manager duos is Football.
#5 Zeljko Buvac and Jurgen Klopp
Dubbed as the ‘The Brain’ of Jurgen Klopp, Zeljko Buvac has been with Klopp since 2001. Born in Bosnia, Buvac had a decent career in football playing for several German clubs. It was at Mainz where Klopp and Buvac met. He was an attacking midfielder while Klopp was a striker turned defender. Both appreciated the intricacies of attacking football and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the duo instantly became friends.
When the German coach called time on his playing career, he was offered the managerial job at Mainz. Klopp accepted the offer and brought his trusted confidant Buvac as assistant manager. They stayed at the carnival club for seven years, clinching promotion to Bundesliga and guiding them to European Football. Mainz were relegated in 2007 and the duo soon left after failing to achieve promotion in the 2008 season.
Dortmund snapped up the duo in 2008 where the pair had the most successful career as managers. Klopp and Buvac together created the high pressing, counter-attacking Gegenpressing style of football at Westfalenstadion. They had immense success during their tenure at the German outfit, winning back to back Bundesliga titles (2011 and 2012) and winning the DFB Pokal in 2012.
Klopp admits that his Balkan counterpart is a “master of every part of the training” and they discuss every aspect of training with each other. Buvac carefully monitors every training session and points out the tactical mistakes if any. Klopp is known to be an animated figure on the touchline but Buvac is a calm person. They both complement each other perfectly.
After starting this season promisingly, Liverpool’s title challenge faded as the season progressed. Klopp and his ‘Brain’ would be looking to strengthen the team this summer to guide the Reds to their first Premier League title.
#4 German Burgos and Diego Simeone
“I’m not Tito, I’ll rip your head off”
El Mono directed this threat towards “The Special One” during a fiercely contested Madrid derby in 2012. If you’re wondering who El Mono is, let me introduce you to German Burgos, assistant manager of Atletico Madrid and a trusted advisor of Diego Simeone.
The former Argentina man was an imposing goalkeeper during his playing days. Burgos and Simeone were teammates at Atletico Madrid and Argentina. After retiring from professional football, Burgos was the lead singer of a rock band named “The Garb”. Simeone wanted his longtime friend to join him as an assistant, but the Argentine wanted to pursue the singing career. After repeated attempts, Simeone finally managed to convince Burgos to join him.
After helping Serie A side Catania avoid relegation and a brief spell at Racing club, the duo arrived in the Spanish capital to manage Atletico Madrid in 2011. Since their arrival, the Rojiblancos have gone from a little-known team in La Liga to be the only side to win La Liga other than Real Madrid and Barcelona in last decade and reach the Champions League final twice.
Simeone and Burgos share similar views on football and instinctively know what the other is thinking. Both Simeone and Burgos are “strong characters”, as once admitted by Burgos himself. His image might be as a man with flashing temper, but Burgos is an extremely hard working and an intelligent coach.
He became the first coach in the world to use the Google Glass during a La Liga game. While Simeone is an animated figure on the touchline, Burgos takes a step back and coolly watches the game, analysing every move of his players. Under the guidance of the Argentine coaching pair, Atleti have become a side known for their extremely well-organised defence.
While this season may not have gone according to his plans, El Mono would surely want his side to challenge for La Liga next season. For a man who has beaten Cancer, led a Rock band, and threatened to rip off Jose Mourinho’s head, winning the Spanish title again does not seem like an impossible task.
#3 Rui Faria and Jose Mourinho
Jose Mourinho-Rui Faria partnership started more than a decade ago. Unlike Mourinho, Faria has not played professional Football at all. Before joining the Portuguese manager, Faria was a Physical Education teacher. The two met during a coaching seminar at Camp Nou where Mourinho himself was working as an assistant to Louis van Gaal. When Mou took his first managerial job at Uniao De Leiria, he hired Faria as a fitness coach and video analyst.
Since then, Faria has followed his ‘Special’ boss to every club he went. While Faria’s primary role has always been a fitness coach, recently he has started contributing in strategical and tactical decisions as well. Mourinho trusts Faria completely, describing him as his “methodology right arm” during an interview to Daily Mail.
The duo has many similar traits, both good and bad. Like his boss, Faria is known to be a keen learner and a meticulous planner. But he’s also known for his fiery temper. During the 2012 season at Real Madrid, the assistant was sent off four times in four months for protesting against referee decisions.
In April 2014 during Mourinho’s second stint at Chelsea, Faria had to be restrained by his boss and other staff members because of his protests against a penalty decision given to Sunderland. He received a six-match touchline ban for the offence.
Manchester United have struggled in the Premier League this season, so the Portuguese duo would be looking to end the season on a high with the Europa League trophy.
#2 Pep Guardiola and Manuel Estiarte
Not many managers in the world have the luxury of having an assistant who has participated in six consecutive Olympic Games. But Pep Guardiola is certainly not like many managers.
The Robin to Pep’s Batman, Manuel Estiarte is a former Spanish water polo player. Estiarte has represented his country a staggering 570 times in his 23-year career. It’ll take a whole different article just to list out his achievements in water Polo. So we’ll just stick to his friendship with Guardiola.
Guardiola and Estiarte grew up in the same neighbourhood of Manresa in Catalonia. Estiarte joined Pep when he was managing the Barcelona B side. He was hired to assist Guardiola in bridging the gap between club directors and the squad; a role in which he performed spectacularly, described by Pep himself. Like Pep, “The Maradona of water polo” is known for his intelligence, the ability to adapt quickly and his desire to win.
Estiarte is the first captain of Pep’s ship at Manchester City. A trusted confidant, Pep relies on his fellow countryman to know everything that is going on at City both on and off the pitch.
“He helped me look at my own sport from a different perspective. Sometimes when I was about to make a decision concerning one of my best players, he would tell me ‘don’t, leave him’. And this made me realise that some players, like in life, needed to be treated differently. That has helped me a lot, greatly,” said Guardiola of Estiarte. This perfectly highlights the importance of Estiarte in Guardiola’s life.
The Spanish duo now has a huge task of steadying the ship at Manchester City. While the media have already labelled their debut season a failure, Estiarte and Guardiola would be eager to prove their critics wrong next season.
#1 Brian Clough and Peter Taylor
Eyebrows were raised when Brian Clough was announced as the new manager of Derby county. No, nobody was questioning the former striker’s abilities. It was the fact that he brought an assistant manager with him. This was in 1967, a period where managers did not have a full backroom staff to perform a variety of duties and managers mostly stayed behind the curtains. So, having an assistant manager in a second division club like Derby was a luxury.
But this decision laid the foundation of one of the most famous partnerships in football.
When Peter Taylor joined Middlesbrough, he was their first-choice goalkeeper for four seasons. There, he made an alliance with the club’s controversial striker; a certain Brian Clough. The pair were so great friends with each other that when other players handed a petition to sack Clough as club captain, Taylor refused to sign.
When Derby appointed Clough as manager, he insisted on having his pal from Boro as an assistant. There was no Clough without Taylor.
What followed next was nothing short of a glorious period for Derby. During the pair’s six-year stay, they were promoted to the first division, won the first division in 1971-72 season and reached the semifinal of the European Cup.
Clough-Taylor left Derby after a rift with club’s board of directors. Reuniting to manage Nottingham Forest, the duo transformed the club’s fortunes. Forest went from being a mid-table club in Second Division to winning their first League title. The epitome of their success came when Forest won two consecutive European Cups. The club went on a 42-game unbeaten run between 26 November 1977 and 9 December 1978, a record only surpassed by Arsenal in their Invincible season.
Although the pair later fell out in 1982, their partnership still remains football’s most iconic manager-assistant manager partnership.
