Top 5 unemployed managers at the moment

Walter Mazza
Walter Mazzarri

Football has turned into an unfair game of sorts of late. With the amount of money being thrown around, the managers are under a lot of pressure to deliver instant results, a perception that has resulted in a lot of sackings of late.

The whole notion of quality players should hit the ground running is flawed as football is much more than just an expensive recruit strutting his stuff on the pitch. The case of Paul Pogba last season stands out.

This season, we've already seen the likes of Frank de Boer and Andries Jonker losing their jobs despite only a handful of games. In this article, we take a look at some of the best managers available as free agents.

#5 Walter Mazzarri

From the high of the Champions League nights with Napoli to the rain-drenched low at Watford, Walter Mazzarri has seen it all. Before his move to Inter Milan in the summer of 2013, Mazzarri had built a really good team at Napoli who were Champions League regulars.

His move to Inter was seen as a step down by many as the Nerazzurri had six managers in the preceding three years before getting Mazzarri on board. Unsurprisingly, he failed to deal with the pressure of resurrecting the fallen giants and was sacked after just 58 games in charge, a span of just a year and a half.

He returned to management with Premier League side Watford but neither had the necessary funds to get his type of players nor enough time to embue his philosophy.

Mazzarri isn't the worst manager tactically and if given time, he could build a really good side, as he showed at Napoli. His Napoli side won the Coppa Italia in 2012 and finished second in the league behind Antonio Conte's Juventus in 2013.

#4 Thomas Schaaf

Thomas Schaaf
Thomas Schaaf

German manager Thomas Schaaf might not be a well-known name outside Germany, but ask any Werder Bremen fan and he'll speak highly of the former gaffer. Schaaf is a legendary figure at Weserstadion and won the Bundesliga in 2004 with the Green Whites. He also managed to lift the DFB Pokal thrice with the side.

The club saw consistent Champions League football after their title-winning season, but soon, the departure of key players saw the club lose their aura. Schaaf still stuck around for a while and saw the development of players like Naldo, Mesut Ozil and Marko Marin, but the rise of clubs like Borussia Dortmund, Wolfsburg (for a little while) and everpresent Bayern Munich meant that Bremen were no longer relevant.

In 2013, Schaaf left his post at Bremen but he's still eulogised as a master tactician and someone who gave it all at the club after his near four-decade stay (as a player and a manager).

Schaaf had two spells at Eintracht Frankfurt and Hannover 96, but they didn't last for more than a season. You could argue that the clubs didn't have the necessary resources for Schaaf to implement his ideology. Give him decent players and he could still deliver!

#3 Paulo Sousa

Paulo Sousa
Paulo Sousa

After a successful playing career, Paulo Sousa ventured into management with English side QPR. Swansea, however, was where he left a mark as a manager as the club played an attractive brand of football started, of course, by now Belgium manager Roberto Martinez. Though his stint at the Liberty was brief, he bettered Roberto Martinez's record at the club.

After a failed spell at Leicester City following the good work he did at Swansea CIty, Sousa moved to Hungary and then Israel to manage Videoton and Maccabi Tel Aviv where he had relatively low-key spells off the spotlight. For a young manager, it was perhaps the right move as it allowed him to develop.

A move to FC Basel followed in 2014 and Sousa made it two domestic titles in two seasons as he followed won the Swiss League title with FC Basel and the Israeli title before that. Titles in Israel and Switzerland might not sound appealing, but Sousa's tactical acumen was applauded, especially in the Champions League with Basel, and helped him secure a coaching role at Fiorentina.

His start with the Viola had everyone in Florence raving as the team played a combination of good tactical and free-flowing football. A style very similar to that of Antonio Conte's side, Fiorentina were early contenders for a top-three spot but dropped down the table and finished fifth in the league.

In his second season, his side could only manage an eighth-placed finish despite picking up 60 points.

Although his spell came to a bitter end as the fans wanted him gone, he showed enough tactical ability in the Serie A and is currently without a contract.

#2 Thomas Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel

After a highly successful spell at Mainz 05, Thomas Tuchel was touted to be a long-term replacement for Jurgen Klopp who departed Westfalenstadion for Liverpool (well, after a brief sabbatical).

Klopp and Tuchel have quite a few similarities as the two employ attacking, free-flowing football. Tuchel eventually succeeded Klopp at Mainz and did pretty well and the same was expected when he moved to the Ruhr to take the managerial reigns at BVB. However, the cerebral manager had a bittersweet spell at the club.

After losing quite a few players to rivals Bayern and other top sides in Europe, Tuchel was left with a young and inexperienced side and it showed as they couldn't challenge Bayern till the end for the title in his two years at the club. They did manage to win the DFB Pokal by beating Eintracht Frankfurt but that wasn't enough as he was sacked a couple of days after the win.

Tuchel was an extremely vocal manager and it was reported that he fell out with the board which led to his departure. Nevertheless, he remains one of best free agents out there at the moment.

#1 Luis Enrique

Luis Enrique
Luis Enrique

After a disappointing spell at AS Roma, Luis Enrique returned home to manage Celta Vigo and the Spanish side had a brilliant run under him, managing to finish ninth in the league table with limited resources.

Enrique's side played fluent football and with his Barca DNA, he was named as the next Blaugrana manager. What followed next was a spell of immeasurable success, the first since Pep Guardiola's unmatched sextuple winning season.

Under Enrique, Barcelona won the treble in 2015. They also managed to claim the league title for two successive years and are the Copa Del Rey holders since 2015.

Though his departure from the club was celebrated by a few Barcelona fans, he is perhaps not given enough credit as many claim he had the 'MSN' doing all the work for him on the pitch. Regardless, he is still a manager man top clubs will look at.

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Edited by Amit Mishra