Which is the easiest managerial position in football?

[Gandalf]

Newcastle.

Big fat contract, loads of money to spend on players and all of the media keep banging on about the amazing job you are doing whilst ignoring all the huge advantages you got handed.

Relegation battle you say, lets just buy our rivals only fit striker for 5 times what he is worth.

 

[SilentWitness]

Moyes would have been at Everton for life just hovering around 6th-12th forever without any risk to his job I reckon.

Under Bill, yeah, but that wasn’t the question.

 

[One Night Only]

Under Bill, yeah, but that wasn’t the question.

It helps the answer the question though is what I was getting at. You need an owner who knows the clubs level, and a manger who just performs at that level. Don't know which club really fits that bill at the moment. Everyone thinks they should be top 6 candidates just about.

Mind, Steve cooper at forest seems like an easy job, buy everyone, perform shit, get mega contract.

 

[Red Star One]

West Ham. You can be flirting with relegation and keep your job despite signing exciting attacking players. You can start a player in your lineup the day after they were videod kicking their cat across their kitchen, and you can face very little public scrutiny for such a morally dubious decision.

West Ham a decent shout, always got the feeling the ambition is just not there and they were a bit surprised to overachieve last season

 

[kjs17]

Newcastle.

Big fat contract, loads of money to spend on players and all of the media keep banging on about the amazing job you are doing whilst ignoring all the huge advantages you got handed.

Relegation battle you say, lets just buy our rivals only fit striker for 5 times what he is worth.

And yet since the start of the 21/22 season, you and have three other clubs have still outspent us. Oh look at that, Spurs spending just as much on an already expensive squad but still behind us.

 

[FrankFoot]

Bayern would be my choice

You win the league by default and they have the staff there to help the club run itself

They fire managers for not playing good football and doing poor in Europe(the are the most successful team in the UCL, only behind Real Madrid btw).

It must be a club where there is also low expectations in european competitions.

 

[Gandalf]

And yet since the start of the 21/22 season, you and have three other clubs have still outspent us. Oh look at that, Spurs spending just as much on an already expensive squad but still behind us.

You don't understand jokes do you.

 

[RG77]

France.

Don’t even need to be any good, win and get to finals regardless of how you set the team up. The players are that good. And only need to do so every two years.

 

[Wilt]

Southgate/England ….the media picks the team, he just needs to turn up.

 

[paulscholes18]

Argentina, get free penalties just because you have Messi in the team.
PSG, Messi, Neymar and Mbappe also the league title is free
Celtic, only team In the league really.
Bayern Munich, richest team in the league so you just bully the other clubs for their best players.

 

[Abraxas]

I would guess it's international management of some middling side with no big expectation.

Yes, realistically you probably have to qualify for a tournament and put up a brave showing, and yes maybe your cycle will end unless you pull off something above par, but it doesn't seem that stressful. You play a few friendlies a year, "scout" players otherwise known as sit on your arse watching football and writing notes and then turn up to a major tournament once every couple years.

Realistically any club management comes with a week in week out grind that must be hard emotionally no matter what the club or expectation is. You're constantly managing the highs and lows.

 

[Sandikan]

Wycombe wanderers. Gareth Ainsworth has been their manager for the past 10 years and in those 10 years they've been yo-yoing between league 1 and league 2. So a relegation (or promotion) doesn't seem to affect this job.

As a Wycombe fan let me correct you there.

Wycombe yo-yo'd between league 1 and 2 over the 4 seasons of 2008/09 to 2011/12. That was split between 2 managers, Peter Taylor and Gary Waddock.

2012/13 is where Ainsworth took over, and then it was 6 seasons league 2, 2 seasons league 1, 1 season championship, and now we're into a 2nd consecutive season in league 1.
So he's done no yo-yo-ing. We were close to doing it between L1 and champs, but lost last season's play off final.

He's been interviewed for quite a few jobs at championship level, but it's not quite happened yet. Reading and QPR apparently very narrow misses.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Some of the "easy" top jobs come with huge pressure and expectation that don't make them any easier. I'd say some mid-table jobs like Brighton for example at the moment would "easy" when the recruitment team supplies the manager with such quality finds on a regular basis. But also you have no expectation to finish any higher than 10th.

France.

Don’t even need to be any good, win and get to finals regardless of how you set the team up. The players are that good. And only need to do so every two years.

I don’t think the likes of Mbappé would respect a random manager though, it suits figures like Deschamps and Zidane. France has history for in fighting and trouble so keeping everyone together united is a big part of the job.

 

[Acrobat7]

Argentina, get free penalties just because you have Messi in the team.
PSG, Messi, Neymar and Mbappe also the league title is free
Celtic, only team In the league really.
Bayern Munich, richest team in the league so you just bully the other clubs for their best players.

At least two out of those for are tough jobs. Bayern and PSG

 

[Redlyn]

West Ham. You can be flirting with relegation and keep your job despite signing exciting attacking players. You can start a player in your lineup the day after they were videod kicking their cat across their kitchen, and you can face very little public scrutiny for such a morally dubious decision.

And rightly so.

 

[FrankFoot]

France.

Don’t even need to be any good, win and get to finals regardless of how you set the team up. The players are that good. And only need to do so every two years.

This is bs, you still need to do a proper set up. And there is high expectations due to quality of the players.

A team with high expectations to win stuff shouldn't be on a list of "easy" jobs

 

[JSArsenal]

Arsenal.

That's the real answer to this thread. Make top 3 and win a cup every now and then and you're good.

 

[Red Star One]

Arsenal.

That's the real answer to this thread. Make top 3 and win a cup every now and then and you're good.

It's been quite a few years you don't need top3 to keep a job at Arsenal

 

[DixieDean]

Currently, the everton job.

Lampard is the worst performing manager in the clubs HISTORY. And is still in a job.

 

[Gabriel Djemba-Bebe]

And rightly so.

Come on man. If in a couple of days Antony was filmed kicking the shit out of his dog, you'd be fine with Ten Hag starting him against Arsenal?

 

[Pink Moon]

Argentina, get free penalties just because you have Messi in the team.
PSG, Messi, Neymar and Mbappe also the league title is free
Celtic, only team In the league really.
Bayern Munich, richest team in the league so you just bully the other clubs for their best players.

Celtic isn't really that easy because you're expected to win every single domestic game. Draws are seen as a disaster up here because anything you drop against teams not named Rangers can often be the difference in winning the league and finishing second. There's an awful lot of pressure involved.

The easy jobs are the mid table teams in the lower leagues where there's no real pressure. You're not expected to be promoted and you're not expected to be battling relegation. Just don't shit the bed and you're set for a good few years.

I'd imagine the same applies to Bayern and PSG except even being perfect domestically isn't necessarily enough because they have high expectations in Europe where they're competing against teams every bit as good as them.

 

[Himannv]

International management is a nothing job compared to club management. You don’t even have players coming in to train for most of the year. A middling performance is fine for most countries as well plus you get to pick and call up whoever you want from an enormous pool. The only tricky part is getting the players to play in a team when they are used to vastly different club systems at times.

 

[MUFC OK]

Had a think and I’d say Rangers.

edit: hadn’t considered international posts.

 

[Red Stone]

German national team. Löw was shite for years and was never sacked. Paid to pick his nose and scratch his unmentionables for over half a decade after they won the World Cup. Flick is still in the job despite a disastrous performance in Qatar. With the players they have and the expectations of the German public it's remarkable that two managers in a row can fail to get out of the group stage of a World Cup and still keep their job.

 

[Tarrou]

Wales manager is pretty cushy. Nobody expects you to qualify really - especially now Bale is gone.

Can probably get away with a good four or five years of being complete shite before anyone really notices.

 

[MUFC OK]

German national team. Löw was shite for years and was never sacked. Paid to pick his nose and scratch his unmentionables for over half a decade after they won the World Cup. Flick is still in the job despite a disastrous performance in Qatar. With the players they have and the expectations of the German public it's remarkable that two managers in a row can fail to get out of the group stage of a World Cup and still keep their job.

their players aren’t that good anymore. Forwards are pretty poor, with Kai and timo getting plenty of games. Don’t see the quality throughout their squad anymore.

 

[Redlyn]

Come on man. If in a couple of days Antony was filmed kicking the shit out of his dog, you'd be fine with Ten Hag starting him against Arsenal?

Pretty much. I would consider it quite irrelevant to his play time if he's not under arrest or under suspension by the club for something.

 

[fergiewherearethou]

Belgium national team, if Martinez stayed there for as long as he did, it must be quite easy.

 

[11101]

Chelsea? You're going to be sacked in a year or two whatever you do, so sit tight and collect a huge paycheck at the end.

Everton seems to be an easy number now as Lampard is unsackable.

England is an easy one too. Don't need any qualifications to get the job beyond a pulse, get the right people at the FA onside and you are bulletproof for at least 4 years.

 

[Red Star One]

Longest currently serving NT managers: Andorra national team guy is in the job for almost 13 years now. Talk about no pressure. Close second is the Luxembourg lad coaching their team for 11 years but they actually got quite decent over the last decade and surely not in the same conversation as Andorra or San Marino, so perhaps there's substance to this.

 

[M Bison]

The opposite concept but is spurs the worst job of them all?

Never going to compete with the big boys (apart from that season of Poch’s) and get sacked if drop below say, 8th.

Nothing team that just make up the numbers imo!

 

[userman]

Man City. You have the finances, organizational structure & knowledge (including the footballside of it), facilities and players/squad to support every possible ambition.

 

[Bole Top]

can't be arsed to check, but I suspect NZ national team is toying with the rest of Oceania regardless of who their manager is? must be a easy job with Australia gone, playing against the likes of Fiji and Vanuatu in every qualification group.

 

[DJ Jeff]

Newcastle.

Big fat contract, loads of money to spend on players and all of the media keep banging on about the amazing job you are doing whilst ignoring all the huge advantages you got handed.

Relegation battle you say, lets just buy our rivals only fit striker for 5 times what he is worth.

He's got all the players he inherited playing several levels above what they were too. He's done a brilliant job.

 

[Gio]

Celtic isn't really that easy because you're expected to win every single domestic game. Draws are seen as a disaster up here because anything you drop against teams not named Rangers can often be the difference in winning the league and finishing second. There's an awful lot of pressure involved.

The easy jobs are the mid table teams in the lower leagues where there's no real pressure. You're not expected to be promoted and you're not expected to be battling relegation. Just don't shit the bed and you're set for a good few years.

I'd imagine the same applies to Bayern and PSG except even being perfect domestically isn't necessarily enough because they have high expectations in Europe where they're competing against teams every bit as good as them.

I agree. Look at Van Bronckhorst - makes a Europa League final and is turfed out a few months later because fans won't accept slip-ups in the league. Compare with Moyes at West Ham for example, has a good season, gets to the Europa League semi-final, and is now floundering in the relegation zone, but he's fairly safe. And that's despite the PL being as cut-throat as it gets. Generally with mid-table teams in other leagues they can get away with a poor season with a decent cup run, or simply by avoiding relegation.