Pep Guardiola omitted from Uefa list of ten best managers ever, which includes Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough
European football's governing body compile list of most influential bosses — but there are several surprise absentees
Sponsored by
PEP GUARDIOLA and Carlo Ancelotti are the major omissions as Uefa produced its list of the ten managers who “had the greatest impact on European football”.
While eyebrows would also have been raised at the absence of Bob Paisley, with Brian Clough the only Englishman among them.
Sir Alex Ferguson was unsurprisingly on the list — and Jose Mourinho is the only current Premier League manager to make the final cut.
Keep up to date with ALL the Champions League news and gossip
Guardiola’s absence is particularly surprising given the specific wording of criteria for the managers included in .
In his first-ever post, at Barcelona, he implemented Tika-Taka football, which was a tactic which has since revolutionised the game.
The high pressing has been adapted by fellow high-level bosses.
Ancelotti, one of only two men to win the Champions League on three occasions, was another high-profile omission.
The Italian has won Serie A, the Premier League, Ligue 1 and is on course to add a Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich.
Paisley is the other man to win Europe’s top competition on three occasions.
He established Liverpool as the undisputed kings of Europe in the mid-to-late-1970s.
Each member of the controversial list was given a nickname, which explains their achievements.
Clough was called ‘football’s ultimate iconoclast’ for his back-to-to-back European Cup victories with Nottingham Forest — while he also led Derby to the semi-finals.
Johan Cruyff is ‘the man who reinvented Barcelona’.
It may sound remarkable now, but the Catalans had NEVER been crowned champions of Europe until the enigmatic Dutchamn achieved the feat in 1992.
His exciting side was later nicknamed the Barcelona ‘Dream Team’.
Related Articles
Vicente del Bosque, whose inclusion was never in doubt, is ‘Madrid and Spain’s soft power’.
The Spaniard won the Champions League twice with Real Madrid, as well as the World Cup and Euro 2012 with Spain.
Ferguson is ‘United’s master tactician’.
The Scot won 13 Premier League titles, the Champions League twice, and famously claimed a Treble in 1999.
Inter Milan’s first European Cup-winning manager, Helenio Herrera, was called ‘the king of Catenaccio’.
The steely Argentine perfected the famous Italian style as Il Grande Inter won the trophy in 1964 and 1965.
Udo Lattek was labelled ‘Bayern’s 1970s kingpin’ after leading the club to a first European Cup victory in 1974.
Five years on, he won the Uefa Cup with Borussia Monchengladbach, before completing a personal treble by leading Barcelona to Uefa Cup Winners’ Cup success in 1982.
Valeriy Lobanovskyi is ‘the soccer scientist’.
He the most decorated coach in the former Soviet Union and independent Ukraine, who won 13 domestic titles, two Cup Winners’ Cups and led his country to the Euro 88 final.
Rinus Michels was duly dubbed ‘the architect of ‘total football’.
He invented in the game-changing style and led Ajax to the first of their three successive European Cup victories.
Also won trophies with Barcelona and claimed Holland’s only major title.
Mourinho was — unsurprisingly — the ‘Special One’.
Keep up-to-date with all the latest transfer news and gossip ahead of the January window with SunSport's daily LIVE blog
He led Porto and Inter to Champions League success and has also won trophies in Spain and England.
And the final man on the list is Arrigo Sacchi.
The ‘master of the Italian renaissance’ won back-to-back European Cups with AC Milan and took Italy to the 1994 World Cup final.