Often underappreciated for their successes, managers are usually the first to go when results are poor, while also having to receive pressure from the press and fans over who should and should not be included in the starting lineups.
Players often tow one of two paths upon retirement from football, either going into punditry or taking their managerial bow, with most preferring the former option, as it gives them the leeway of sitting in armchairs and criticising the work of others without having to experience the pressure themselves.
For those who venture into coaching, they often find out that those instructions from their managers which they saw as a piece of cake are actually harder than they previously thought (just ask Gary Neville or Thierry Henry) and struggle to come to grips with the realities of being a top level football manager.
It is a well-established fact that great players do not necessarily become great managers and even though there are a few examples of legendary players who went on to achieve great successes as coaches such as Johan Cruyff, Carlo Ancelotti, Pep Guardiola, Zinedine Zidane, among others, there are also numerous other examples of those who failed spectacularly on the bench.
History is littered with men who made an impact from the dugout without having done much on the field and these men are the subject of this piece.
In this slideshow, we present seven legendary coaches who did not have great playing careers.
Honourable mentions - Andre Villas-Boas, Julian Nagelsmann, Thomas Tuchel.
#7 Bill Struth
The man to whom Rangers owe much of its success. The late Struth arrived at Rangers in 1914 as assistant manager but took up the main role in 1920 when the club’s first ever manager William Wilton tragically died in a boating accident.
With Struth at the helm, ‘Gers’ won 14 of the next 19 Scottish league titles before the second world war, including five in a row between 1927 and 1931. He also helped the club break its 25-year hoodoo in search of a Cup triumph when he lifted the Scottish Cup in 1928, thereby having the distinction of being the first man in Scottish history to lift the double (going one further by doing a domestic treble in 1949).
Struth passed on in 1956 aged 81 having won a total of 30 major honours in his managerial career (a total of 73 unofficial) making him one of the most decorated managers in footballing history.
Remarkably, Struth did not have even the slightest bit of a professional footballing career, having been a stonemason for most of his adult life, in addition to being a professional runner.
#6 Rafa Benitez
Benitez is currently the coach of Newcastle United but has managed some of the biggest clubs in Europe including Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool, Inter, and Valencia.
The 58-year-old made a name for himself as Valencia coach when he led Los Che to two LaLiga triumphs in 2002 and 2004 (the former of which was their first league triumph in 31 years) in addition to the UEFA Cup in 2004 and is still highly revered till this day at the Mestalla.
Benitez’ greatest moment as a manager, however, came in Istanbul in 2005 when he led Liverpool to the UEFA Champions League triumph over overwhelming favourites and star-studded AC Milan on penalties having been 3-0 down at half-time.
He also had further successes with Chelsea in the Europa League as well as in the Coppa Italia with Napoli.
Till date, the Spaniard is the only man in history to have won the Europa League, Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup as a manager.
Benitez played as a defender during his playing days, having an unspectacular playing career that saw him suffer a serious injury early on while a part of the Real Madrid youth setup.
The injury all but ended his hopes of becoming a top-level professional footballer, going on to represent Spanish lower division sides before a recurring set of injuries saw him retire prematurely aged 26 and venture into coaching where he has enjoyed much more success.
#5 Jurgen Klopp
The man overseeing the recent transformation at Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp is responsible for getting The Reds into sync, moving them on from laughing stock of the Premier League into genuine title contenders.
He made a name for himself when he guided Mainz 05 to Bundesliga promotion for the first time in their history in 2004, before going on to achieve global renown for his work with Borussia Dortmund.
The 51-year-old inherited a Dortmund squad which had underperformed the season before, but under his stewardship, he forged them into one of the most entertaining sides in all of Europe, winning back-to-back Bundesliga titles, while also setting a number of records along the way including as the youngest side to win the Bundesliga title.
As a player, Klopp did not have much success, playing in the amateur ranks of Germany for many years, before signing for Mainz 05 whom he represented for 11 seasons in the lower divisions until his retirement in 2001.
#4 Carlos Alberto Parreira
Unlike most other men on this list who at least had something to do with football as players (albeit without much success), Carlos Alberto Parreira started in football as a fitness coach for multiple teams in the Brazil league as well as the 1970 World Cup-winning squad.
Parreira himself admitted that after almost three decades of being a fitness coach, he was as tactically astute as anyone else, going on to manage numerous national sides, with his crowning moment coming in 1994 when he guided his home nation to triumph in the World Cup in the USA after a 24-year wait.
Carlos Alberto holds the record as the manager who has managed in the most World Cup tournaments (six) and was last the manager of the Bafana Bafana of South Africa at the World Cup they hosted in 2010.
#3 Arsene Wenger
A true revolutionary of the English game, Arsene Wenger is the greatest manager in Arsenal’s history and one of the greatest of all time, having led the London club for 21 years in a period of never before seen success, while his insistence on monitoring players’ diets, introduction of scouting changes and training regimens helped improve the global standard of the game.
Till date, he remains the only manager in history to have finished a Premier League campaign undefeated, having guided his invincibles side to the 2004 EPL title without losing a single match, while he is also the manager with the most FA Cup wins in history.
As a player, Wenger did not do too much of note, playing as a midfielder for amateur sides such as Mutzig and Mulhouse as well as Strasbourg to not much success, only making 80 appearances throughout his career.
#2 Arrigo Sacchi
The last manager to lead a club to consecutive UCL triumphs before Zinedine Zidane went one better, Arrigo Sacchi was the mastermind behind what many consider the greatest club team in the history of football (although Barca of 2008 - 2012 might have something to say about that), as his Milan side dominated European football, conquering all that came before them.
Having impressed while managing Parma, Milan president Silvio Berlusconi hired Sacchi to manage Milan after his unfancied Parma side knocked out the Rossoneri in the Coppa Italia and the new coach faced credibility questions right from the get-go, with the press wondering how a man who had next to no success as a player could possibly thrive as a coach.
In response, the legendary manager gave a response which has since been immortalised, saying that “I never realised that to be a jockey you had to be a horse first.’'
He proved his credentials by going on to forge arguably the greatest club team of all time, successfully managing a side which boasted the talents of Carlo Ancelotti, Mauro Tassotti, Paolo Maldini, Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit but to name a few.
He is also responsible for a number of changes and tactical evolution in football. such as moving Italian football away from man marking and the libero system, introducing instead the zonal system of marking which is still in use till today.
#1 Jose Mourinho
The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’. Jose Mourinho was undoubtedly the premier coach in the world in the noughties, first guiding Porto to an unexpected UCL triumph in 2004 before moving on to Chelsea where he helped set the template for all the club’s massive achievements in the last 15 years.
Mourinho has been a serial winner at every club he has been at, from Porto to Chelsea, Inter with whom he won the treble in 2010 as well as Real Madrid and Manchester United.
Even though the 55-year-old might have suffered a bit of a decline in recent years, it takes nothing away from all the successes he has had, having won 25 major honours throughout his managerial career and has the unique distinction of being one of five men to have won the UCL with two different teams, in addition to being the fifth man to have won league titles in four different countries.
Like most other great managers, Mourinho had an unspectacular playing career, turning out for a couple of unfancied Portuguese clubs and made just 94 appearances in his eight-year playing spell.
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