Guy Roux managed 36 years at AJ Auxerre in a row, Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United almost 27 years, Frank Schmidt has been in office at Heidenheim for 20 years, Valeriy Lobanovskiy coached Dinamo Kiev for 17 years. But there is another way: Some coaches don’t even last six months in office and for some clubs, coming and going every six months has already become common practice. The following article discusses who is notorious for his high coaching veil.
Leeds set new standards when it came to coaching changes
From 2013 to 2017, Leeds United were famous for not hesitating when the team’s performance wasn’t right. Ten trainers have taken a seat in the coaching bench in four years, with Neil Redfearn stepping in on an interim basis three times, which means eight different coaches in four years.
And so between April 2013 and April 2017 Neil Warnock, Neil Redfearn, Brian McDermott, Dave Hockaday, Neal Redfearn again, Darko Milanic, Neal Redfearn again, Uwe Rösler, Steve Evans and Gary Monk were allowed to call themselves Leeds United’s coaches.
At Leeds at that time, the rule was: it’s forbidden to lose or you’ll lose your job. Neil Warnock and Brian McDermott, who both held the reins for just over a year, lasted the longest during the period mentioned.
AEK Athens follows suit with Leeds United
The Greek capital club also couldn’t find anything on the coaching market for a long time and so from June 2018 to June 2022 ten trainers were allowed to try their luck, with Manolo Jimenez also stepping in on an interim basis three times.
Manolo Jimenez, Marinos Ouzounidis, again Manaolo Jimenez, Miguel Cardoso, Nikos Kostenoglou, Massimo Carrera, again Manolo Jimenez, Vladan Milojevic, Argirios Giannakis and Sokratis Afridopoulos could not meet the expectations placed on them and were soon given leave again.
Al Nassr has even greater wear and tear
The top Saudi club around superstar Cristiano Ronaldo guarantees consistency – especially when it comes to the number of coaches they use. On average, a coach stays in office for less than six months before parting ways.
Ten different coaches in four years: Rui Vitoria, Alen Horvat, Mano Menezes, Marcelo Salazar, Pedro Emanuel, Miguel Russo, Rudi Garcia, Dinko Jelicic, Luis Castro and Stefano Pioli – no, this is not the current Al Nassr lineup but about the coaches who took a seat in the Saudi club’s dugout from September 2020 to September 2024.
Nobody stayed long, but Rui Vitoria managed to stay for a remarkable 23 months by Al-Nassr standards. Mano Menezes, Marcelo Salazar and Pedro Emanuel were in office for just under seven months.
Austria Vienna is almost the measure of all things
The Frank Stronach era not only brought many new players to Vienna but also caused people to come and go, especially in the Austria coaching bench.
From April 2000 to April 2004, a whopping eleven coaches were in office at Austria: Herbert Prohaska, Ernst Baumeister, Heinz Hochhauser, Arie Haan, Anton Pfeffer, Walter Hörmann, Didi Constantini, Walter Schachner, Christoph Daum, Joachim Löw and Günther Kronsteiner should lead the violets to the championship title.
In the end, only one person won the championship title during this time: Christoph Daum in 2002/2003. Explosive: Joachim Löw and Walter Schachner did not win a championship title with Austria, but Löw won it before his tenure at Austria with FC Tirol Innsbruck and Walter Schachner won it in his subsequent coaching position with GAK.
Hajduk Split is the measure of all things
From August 2020 to August 2024, a total of 13 trainers worked for the Dalmatians, 12 of them different. Mislav Karoglan got two terms in office.
Igor Tudor, Hari Vukas, Boro Primorac, Ivan Radeljic, Toni Golem, Paolo Tramezzani, Jens Gustaffson, Valdas Dambrauskas, Mislav Karoglan, Ivan Leko, Mislav Karoglan again, Sinisa Segovic and Gennaro Gattuso have so far tried in vain to overthrow Dinamo Zagreb from the throne. Let’s see if Gennaro Gattuso succeeds.
Incidentally, the capital city club from Zagreb has only been champion since the 2005/2006 season with one exception. In the 2016/2017 season NK Rijeka achieved this feat.
