Where does the retiring Sir Alex Ferguson make it on all time list?
After the announcement by Sir Alex Ferguson that he would be calling time on his 27-year reign at Manchester United at the end of the season, fanatix takes a look back at the most successful managers in English football.
5. Brian Clough
Clubs – Hartlepool, Derby County, Brighton, Leeds Utd, Nottingham Forest.
Honours – Two First Division Titles, two European Cups, four League Cups, one Charity Shield.
The man known affectionately as ‘Old Big Head’ was never shy to give his opinion on matters to do with football – or anything else.
The apparently impossible task of turning Derby from Division Two minnows into Division One champions alongside assistant Peter Taylor eventually earned him the job at Leeds.
Yet a tumultuous reign at the Yorkshire club lasted just 44 days and a manager with less self confidence may have been crushed by their failure.
Clough simply moved to Forest and won back-to-back European Cups – only the second time in history an English club has achieved the feat.
4. Bill Shankly
Clubs – Liverpool.
Honours – Three First Division titles, one Second Division Championship, two FA Cups, one UEFA Cup.
Revered in Liverpool and a true managerial visionary, Shankly took the Merseyside club from relative obscurity to footballing dominance.
A real working-class hero in a city he adopted as his own, the boss lived and breathed football and was utterly committed to making the Reds a force in the sport.
Shankly built the foundations that saw Liverpool dominate European football for over two decades.
3. Sir Matt Busby
Clubs – Manchester United
Honours – Five League Titles, five Charity Shields, two FA Cups, one European Cup.
Busby was commited at Old Trafford for the long-term, aiming to build teams and legacies and wanting to take on the Goliath in Europe that was Real Madrid.
The Scot was well on his way to doing that when the Munich Air Disaster in 1958 tragically killed most of his squad.
Yet Busby battled on regardless and built another team that featured the legendary trio of George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law – members of the first English team to win the European Cup in 1968.
2. Bob Paisley
Clubs – Liverpool
Honours – Six League championships, three European Cups, three League Cups.
Paisley built on the success at Anfield of Bill Shankley and pushed Liverpool even further as a team that conquered both England and Europe as a whole.
The Reds man led his beloved club to 12 major trophies in just nine years as manager, which included beating Brian Clough to being the first boss to win successive European Cups with an English club.
Throughout the 1970s and early 80s nobody could touch Liverpool and Paisley was the great mind behind that success.
1. Sir Alex Ferguson
Clubs – East Stirling, St Mirren, Aberdeen, Manchester United.
Honours – 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, 10 Charity Shields, a Cup Winners’ Cup, two Champions League titles.
It’s little surprise that Ferguson tops this list with an incredible 39 trophies in his 27-year managerial career at Old Trafford.
The United boss was hired in 1986 on the back of success in Scotland against the odds with Aberdeen and since then he has changed the face of English football.
Fergie said he was out to knock Liverpool off their perch – a lofty statement considering they were 11 titles better off than the Red Devils at the time – but in 2011 the Scot achieved just that.
Sir Alex will retire at the end of the current season as the greatest manager to ever grace the game in England and arguably even the world.