Football’s great managerial merry-go-round continued this week, with Enzo Maresca being announced as the new permanent Chelsea manager on Monday.
While clubs will pay over the odds for players each and every transfer window, it seems the price for a top manager may be increasing – with several teams dipping into their coffers when it comes to snapping up the best and most established managerial targets.
It goes without saying that having a top class manager behind a team can go a long way in helping bring success to a football club – and sporting directors, owners and club executives appear to be investing more and more into bringing in the best talent.
Chelsea are perhaps some of the biggest spenders when it comes to appointing new coaches, with co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali having seen four permanent managers pass through Stamford Bridge since they took ownership of the club in May 2022.
In what’s been a fascinating few months watching teams hiring and firing coaches, it appears several sides are making early movements to ensure their coaching teams are set and ready for the beginning of pre-season. With Maresca now arriving alongside Liverpool‘s Arne Slot, Mail Sport delves into the most expensive football managers in world football.
1. Julian Nagelsmann – Bayern Munich – £21.7m
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While Chelsea may have dipped into their pockets to capture some of the world’s best managers, Bayern Munich were so keen to land Julian Nagelsmann in 2021, that they shattered the world record fee for a manager.
It may have come from a position of financial strength though, with Bayern mutually agreeing to terminate Hansi Flick’s contract in order to appoint Nagelsmann.
The pair have seemingly followed similar paths in recent years, with Flick going on to lead Germany at the 2022 FIFA World Cup before subsequently parting ways with the national side in September. Nagelsmann would also leave Bayern to take the vacant position left behind by Flick, and is now set to lead Germany at Euro 2024 this summer.
Bayern’s would pay RB Leipzig £21.7million to appoint Nagelsmann, but the German, who had also previously managed Hoffenheim, would stay at the club for just under two years, overseeing 84 matches.
2. Graham Potter – Chelsea – £21.5m
Chelsea are without a doubt the biggest spenders when it comes to the managerial market. But it seems, given the club’s recent form, that buying the most expensive product in the shop won’t always yield the best results. Boehly will be hoping that Maresca can break that duck next season.
But his previous experiment with Graham Potter didn’t quite work out. After Thomas Tuchel parted ways with the club in 2022, the Blues chose then Brighton manager, Potter as the man to lead them forward.
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And it seems Potter would start to justify the eye-watering £21.5m figure Chelsea would pay for him – going undefeated in his first nine games on the bounce as Blues boss. It would be a 4-1 defeat against Brighton at the Amex Stadium that would upset his side’s excellent run of form. A slump would ensue with Potter lasting another 21 games before he was dismissed in April.
Perhaps his side’s excellent run in the Champions League, guiding Chelsea to the Round of 16, may have been a deciding factor in why Boehly and Eghbali chose to keep him in the hot seat. But a 2-0 defeat by Aston Villa at home would prove the nail in the coffin for the Blues managers – who subsequently appointed Frank Lampard as his interim successor.
And even then, it could be argued that Brighton, who are often hailed as one of the most savvy clubs in the league, had completed a masterstroke in landing such a huge compensation fee from Chelsea for their former manager who had guided Brighton to fourth place before he left the club in 2022-23.
3. Andre Villas-Boas – Chelsea – £13.2m
Mini Mourinho. The Special One Part II. Those were some of the names given to Andre Villas-Boas when he was linked with a move to Stamford Bridge back in 2011. Sadly for the Portuguese football coach, his time at Chelsea did not end perhaps how he would have liked.
Roman Abramovich would prise the 46-year-old away from Porto back in 2011 after he had joined the club the year prior.
Villas-Boas would oversee 40 games as Blues boss and got off to a flying start in the Stamford Bridge hot seat, losing just one of his opening 12 matches – a 3-1 defeat by Manchester United.
27 of those were Premier League games that season, with Chelsea dropping to fifth in the Premier League standings. Their lowly league position was perhaps not good enough for Abramovich – who decided to part ways with the manager – even after he had led his side to the Round of 16 in the Champions League.
The club would pay out £13.2m to acquire Villas-Boas and instead appoint Roberto Di Matteo, who would oversee the Blues’ epic run to the Champions League final – with the Italian overseeing a sensational comeback against Napoli in the Round of 16, before beating Barcelona and Bayern Munich to claim victory.
Villas-Boas, meanwhile, would later go on to join their bitter London rivals Spurs.
4. Vincent Kompany – Bayern Munich – £10.22m
Vincent Kompany’s move to Bayern Munich last week came as a bit of a shock. While it had previously been rumoured that the Bundesliga giants were looking to appoint him as Thomas Tuchel’s successor, the Belgian’s arrival was initially met with some scepticism – considering Burnley’s form this season.
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The Belgian had orchestrated one of the most dominant performances we have seen in the Championship for a long time when he secured promotion to the Premier League in 2023. But this season, Burnley have faltered under the pressure of the Premier League, with Kompany’s side being relegated back to the second tier.
But Bayern see Kompany as the man who can lead them forwards and while they have agreed a £10.22m compensation package to release him from his obligations at Burnley, it appears they will also pay him £2.6m more than Nagelsmann.
‘My mentality is that I haven’t ever worked for a top club in my head,’ said Kompany, who is set to pocket a salary of around ‘£5.97m and £7.67m’ according to reports from Sky Germany.
‘A top club is the environment you create. It’s the mentality you have towards your job in good and bad times, that’s what defines working at the top level.
‘It already feels like home.’
5. Enzo Maresca – Chelsea – £10m
Making up the world’s top-five most expensive managers is former Leicester boss Maresca.
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After a brilliant season having led the Foxes to the Championship title, the former Manchester City coach will now leave the club as part of a £10million deal.
Speculation had arisen that Boehly and Eghbali had a shortlist that included Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna, ex-Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi and Brentford’s Thomas Frank.
Even so, it was Maresca who impressed the most. Perhaps the attractive brand of football his Leicester side have embodied in the past season was one reason why Chelsea were so interested in the Italian.
There is also the coaching experience he has gathered while working under Pep Guardiola as well as his meticulous attention to detail, asking the club to provide him with data on all of the players, coaches and staff within the football club.
Whether he can get Chelsea’s young squad moving just as Pochettino had done in his last five league games as Blues boss remains to be seen.
6. Arne Slot – Liverpool – £9.42m
Jurgen Klopp revealed last week that he had held talks with his Liverpool successor Arne Slot over his new position at Anfield.
It seems the Dutch manager is looking to hit the ground running but there’s no doubt he has big boots to fill, as he follows the charismatic, meticulous man-manager that is Jurgen Klopp.
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Yet, Slot brings his own style to this Liverpool side which could be about to enter a transition period in the next 12 months.
He already has a mounting list of tasks to resolve on his in-tray, with perhaps the most pressing matters on there being the number of top players who could be out of contract in 2025. Those names include the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and even Mohamed Salah.
From a tactical standpoint, he may also need to look at how he can galvanise Liverpool’s forwards in the coming season after the Reds had appeared to struggle in front of goal towards the back end of the 2023-24 campaign.
But his reputation and his work winning two trophies with Feyenoord in the past two seasons shows he has experience of winning at the top level.
A price tag of £9.42m might not seem so bad should he bring more silverware to Anfield next season.
7. Brendan Rodgers – Leicester – £8.8m
Despite coming close to winning the Premier League with Liverpool in 2014, it was the first title Rodgers had won while managing an English club. But things would turn sour for the Northern Irishman.
After finishing eighth in the Premier League, the Foxes’ form would nosedive the following season, with Leicester slumping to a 19th-place finish in the 2022-23 season, before being relegated.
Rodgers was subsequently sacked and replaced by Maresca after having been appointed by the club in 2018.
8. Ruben Amorim – Sporting – £8.4m
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Had Liverpool or West Ham opted to appoint the Sporting Lisbon boss, they could have been forced to pay a hefty fee for the Portuguese manager, considering the £8.4m fee Sporting paid to Braga for him in 2019.
Amorim has risen to become one of the most sought-after managers in world football. The 39-year-old recently announced that he was staying at Sporting Lisbon next season, yet it appears his head was turned by a move to London after he had flown into the capital to hold talks over a deal with West Ham.
Amorim seems to have built a winning squad during his four-year spell at Sporting, having clinched the Liga Portugal title this season.
But after this season’s success, it is likely he’ll want to challenge himself at another top club in Europe and could seek a move away from Portugal.
9. Jose Mourinho – Real Madrid – £6.9m
The new Fenerbahce manager Jose Mourinho has managed clubs all around Europe, but at the peak of his powers he was snapped up by Real Madrid who paid Inter Milan £6.9million in 2010.
Mourinho was crowned the world’s best club coach in 2010 after guiding Inter to back-to-back Scudetto titles, the Italian Cup and a Champions League title that same seeason. He’d go on to win the Spanish Cup with Real in 2011, lift the LaLiga title in 2012 and the Spanish Super Cup in 2013.
But he would not win the Champions League with the Galacticos, having won the trophy twice with Inter and Porto.
10. Jose Mourinho – Chelsea – £5.2m
And Chelsea wrap up the list with another big payout after they snapped up Mourinho back in 2004 from Porto for a reported £5.2million.
Having spent two years working with the Portuguese top-flight side, winning the Champions League just before his move to Chelsea, Mourinho would bring his winning expertise to London and claim the Premier League title with the Blues in the following season before going on to win the Premier League again in 2006.
The Portuguese football coach made headlines this weekend after he was seen taking a selfie with Jude Bellingham’s mum on the pitch at Wembley following Real Madrid’s success in the Champions League final.
He’ll no doubt be eager to hit the ground running with Fenerbache this summer having signed on a two-year deal.