In the modern-day NFL, success is rare without the presence of a ‘franchise quarterback’. Shrewd ownership, canny coaching, and a talented roster will only get you so far if the bloke that touches the ‘football’ every play is not of the requisite standard.
In the non-American version of football, we can equate the acquisition of a franchise quarterback to the hiring of a project-leading manager. To the detriment of the product, never before have the blokes on the sidelines had such a great influence. Thanks, Pep.
While playing talent remains necessary for success at the highest level, so too is a stable and equally genius presence on the sideline. Hire the right coach, and everything should fall into place.
Football is laden with astute minds, and some still of a playing age are regarded among the brightest in the game. The definition of a ‘young’ manager perhaps doesn’t relate to age but experience, although 90min is opting for the simpler route of defining the world’s ten best young managers as those who are no older than 45 years old at the start of the 2024/25 season.
A name that’s quickly risen to prominence is 31-year-old Hurzeler, who became the second-youngest manager in Premier League history after taking the Brighton job.
In short, Hurzeler is very Brighton. The German’s a hipster’s dream, and he sure can coach. He worked wonders at St. Pauli, overseeing their promotion to the Bundesliga before venturing off to the English south coast.
His teams are flexible, varied and fun. Hurzeler, though, has a mammoth task if he’s to successfully translate his ideals over to the Premier League, but his start has been promising.
The requisite modern ideals for success at the highest level are there, and Hurzeler has shown himself to be an impressive leader of men despite his youth.
Bournemouth believe they’ve got a coach in Iraola capable of fulfilling their lofty ambitions.
The Spaniard worked wonders at Rayo Vallecano, with his meticulous pressing schemes ensuring the humble La Liga outfit overachieved during his tenure.
However, less-patient bosses would’ve cut ties with the unknown commodity after a dire start to his Premier League career. Iraola didn’t secure his first league win until Matchday 10, but the Cherries would then emerge as one of the division’s form teams for the remainder of Iraola’s debut campaign.
The Spaniard continues to place a heavy emphasis on man-oriented pressing and direct passes in behind defences – ideals which helped Bournemouth to a 12th-place finish last season. Many criticised the club’s decision to move on from Gary O’Neil in 2023, but their move for Iraola has been vindicated.
The nephew of former Bayern Munich president Uli has enjoyed a tremendous start to his coaching career.
42-year-old Hoeness had a fairly humble playing career, performing for multiple reserve teams, before he earned his first senior job in management with Bayern Munich’s reserves in 2019. Hoeness was the mastermind behind their 3. Liga title triumph as Bayern II became the first reserve team in the competition’s history to lift the title.
That success put Hoenees on the map, and he’s since transformed the fortunes of a once relegation-threatened Stuttgart in the top tier following a two-year spell with Hoffenheim.
He trusts youth, appreciates balance and is a shrewd tactical thinker. After helping Stuttgart avoid the drop at the end of the 2022/23 season, Hoeness guided Die Schwaben to a second-place Bundesliga finish last term and their first Champions League berth since 2009/10.
Dissertations have been dished out on De Zerbi’s methods for years. The former Sassuolo hotshot coach is one of several exciting young Italian coaches to intrigue the tactico community with his intricate build-up ideals.
There’s plenty of risk involved with De Zerbi’s style, and disaster often ensues on a bad day. His titles have so far only arrived in Ukraine with Shakhtar Donetsk, but De Zerbi’s teams have consistently won the hearts and minds of the neutrals.
His Sassuolo sides were among the most watchable in Serie A, while Brighton earned their maiden European berth with De Zerbi at the helm. His reign on the south coast petered out, but De Zerbi now looks rejuvenated with Marseille.
We’ve all gotten to know Amorim a little bit over the years. The highly regarded coach has attracted interest from Chelsea and Liverpool in recent times, but the young Portuguese coach continues to impress in his homeland with Sporting CP.
A 3-4-2-1 advocate who combines contemporary possession principles with the pragmatism of mid-noughties management, Amorim is no idealist, but that will stand him in good stead throughout his managerial career. His teams are supreme space manipulators and are excellent to watch when progressing the ball upfield. At their best, Sporting play with such majestic telepathy and slickness, but they’re also able to defend stoutly.
A two-time Primeira Liga Manager of the Year, Amorim has helped Sporting to two league titles, with a new challenge in one of Europe’s premier divisions surely inbound.
Once ridiculed for his misunderstood 2-7-2, Motta has quickly proven he’s no managerial gimmick. He’s a proper coach.
The Italian suffered at Genoa and struggled initially at Spezia, where he succeeded Vincenzo Italiano, but he kept the undermanned Ligurians up in 2021/22 against the odds and moved onto middling Serie A outfit Bologna.
It was in the capital of Emilia-Romagna where Motta truly flourished. His innovative tactical mind worked overdrive, and the former midfielder was able to maximise the talent of a squad bereft of stars.
Through player empowerment and systematic clarity, Motta, during his second season at the club, helped Bologna to a fifth-place Serie A finish and their first Champions League berth since the competition’s rebranding in 1992.
Juventus, stuck in the dark ages with Massimiliano Allegri, have since pivoted to Motta to lead a new dawn in Turin.
The ‘impossible job’, they said. Slot has laughed – or, more likely, looked sternly – in the faces of those who ‘felt for’ whoever was tasked with replacing Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.
Now, we’re only at the very start of Slot’s Merseyside reign, but the Dutchman has enjoyed the perfect start to his tenure, especially given the club’s lack of summer business.
There are similarities with Klopp, but distinct differences, too. The calmer, balder Slot enjoys more serene possession play and the discussion of tactical thought, contrasting the infectious energy supplied by Klopp and the heavy-metal football he oversaw at various points of his Liverpool reign.
Who knows how his spell with the Reds will transpire, but Slot, an Eredivisie winner with Feyenoord two seasons ago, has done everything right thus far.
Nagelsmann has long been touted as the ‘next best thing’ in management. The German, whose playing career was cut short by injury, was merely 28 when he became the youngest coach in Bundesliga history back in 2016.
The intense Nagelsmann was once the hipster’s favourite as he guided Hoffenheim to their maiden Champions League berth and helped RB Leipzig into the semi-finals of the competition in 2020.
The German oversees a meticulous brand of football typically based around counter-pressing, vertical possession play, and combinations between the lines. While he didn’t last very long at Bayern Munich, his work with the German national team has re-emphasised just how talented a coach Nageslmann is.
The 37-year-old has got Die Mannschaft playing like an elite-level club side.
Arsenal fans were forced to ‘trust the process’ for quite some time before they started to see genuine process with Arteta at the helm.
The Spaniard entered a dire situation in north London, but he’s since transformed the Gunners into one of Europe’s very best teams. Arteta’s left the club’s ‘banter era’ in the dust, with Arsenal now on a quest to snatch the highest honours available.
His capacity as a tactician can’t be disputed, but his brilliance as a manager transcends the security of the on-pitch system he’s installed. Brave, wholesale changes were required in north London if Arteta was going to get Arsenal to where he wanted them to be, and the Spaniard has been forced to make a number of huge decisions along the way.
Arteta, though, has rarely been wrong and the culture shift he’s been able to oversee has been crucial to Arsenal’s re-emergence towards the top of the Premier League table.
After overseeing a historic 2023/24 campaign at Bayer Leverkusen, it’s hard to argue that Alonso isn’t the best young manager in the game right now.
Alonso did not inherit a team capable of making history. Leverkusen were struggling towards the bottom of the Bundesliga table when he was appointed as manager in October 2022. 18 months later, Alonso’s side were unbeaten league champions and an Ademola Lookman hat-trick away from completing the treble.
His Leverkusen team is ever so tough to play against, and their ability to win games at the last is a testament to the mentality installed in them by the former Spanish midfielder. Alonso’s tactical coherence has rarely come into question, and he’s shown an ability to win games by simply outthinking his opposite number via unpredictable systematic ploys.
Real Madrid may well beckon.
